Ronald Li Fook-shiu (; 10 February 1929 – 27 December 2014) was the founder and former chairman of the

Stock Exchange of Hong Kong The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. As of the end of 2020, it has 2,538 listed companies with a combined market capitalization of HK$47 trillion. It is repo ...

and died of cancer. Li was arrested twice by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in December 1987 and in 1991 for bribery and was expelled to

Stanley Prison Stanley Prison (c. January 1937, previously known as Hong Kong Prison at Stanley) is one of the six maximum security facilities in Hong Kong. History Built in 1937, Stanley Prison is currently the oldest institution still in service (the old ...

Biography

Li was born into the Li family in Hong Kong in 1929. He was the youngest son of Li Koon-chun. His brother

Simon Li Fook-sean Simon Li Fook-sean (; 19 April 1922 – 26 February 2013) was a Hong Kong senior judge and politician. Education and judiciary career Li was educated at the King's College between 1937 and 1941 and then the University of Hong Kong. He also sp ...

was a senior judge and acting

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong The chief justice of Hong Kong was, until 1997, the chief judge (, later 首席大法官) of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong and the most senior judge in the court system. Supreme Court of Hong Kong The Supreme Court of Hon ...

. His nephews include former Legislative Councillor David Li Kwok-po, the

Bank of East Asia The Bank of East Asia Limited, often abbreviated to BEA, is a Hong Kong banking and financial services company, headquartered in Central, Hong Kong. It is currently the largest independent local Hong Kong bank, and one of two remaining famil ...

chairman and Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, deputy chairman at the bank, former Secretary for Education and former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university a ...

, latterly, Chairman of the Council of the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public university, public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest Higher education in Hong Kong, tertia ...

. Li was enrolled to the

in 1946 and soon was sent to the

Wittenberg University Wittenberg University is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio. It has 1,326 full-time students representing 33 states and 9 foreign countries. Wittenberg University is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. ...

in the United States. He graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

with a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accou ...

degree and became a chartered accountant in 1951. He founded the with his brother Li Fook-hing in 1969 to break the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's monopoly in the buying and selling of stocks. He was hence called the "Godfather of the Stock Market." In 1986, Li helped merge the Far East Stock Exchange with three other exchanges into the

, precursor of today's

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX; , also 香港交易所 or 港交所 ) operates a range of equity, commodity, fixed income and currency markets through its wholly owned subsidiaries The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (SEHK ...

, and became its first chairman. During the

Black Monday Black Monday refers to specific Mondays when undesirable or turbulent events have occurred. It has been used to designate massacres, military battles, and stock market crashes. Historic events *1209, Dublin – when a group of 500 recently arriv ...

market crash, he closed the stock market for four days. The

Hang Seng Index The Hang Seng Index (HSI) is a freefloat-adjusted market- capitalization-weighted stock-market index in Hong Kong. It is used to record and monitor daily changes of the largest companies of the Hong Kong stock market and is the main indicator ...

fell by 33% after the market reopened which drew criticism against Li's decision. He was only elected Vice-Chairman of the Stock Exchange in the end of the year. Li was later arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in December 1987 and in 1991 convicted of taking bribes in return for approving listings during his office as the Chairman of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in 1987. He was sent to

, and served 30 months of a four-year sentence. He was reported to be worth HK$10 billion before he was jailed, and even during his prison term his vast stock portfolio was said to be earning almost HK$5 million per day, while Li toiled for HK$9 in the prison library. After his release in 1993, he said he would devote himself into a life of "golf, films and travel." He spent most of his time in Thailand after prison until he found out he had cancer in 2012 and moved back to Hong Kong. Li died of cancer at the Queen Mary Hospital at the age of 85 on 27 December 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Ronald 1929 births 2014 deaths Wittenberg University alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni Hong Kong criminals Hong Kong accountants Hong Kong billionaires Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee members Hong Kong financial businesspeople Li family of Hong Kong

Biography

See also

References