CARRYING ON
How do you wish to be remembered, and what do you want to leave behind? These honourees from Asia’s Most Influential are making their mark in old industries and legacy businesses by forging new paths toward the future
SINGAPORE
Eu Yang Sang has tradition woven into its DNA. Founded in 1879, the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) enterprise was established by Eu
HONG KONG
Dr Cary Chan is somewhat puzzled by the question of legacy: about what it is that he wants to leave behind. The executive director of the Hong Kong Green Building Council (HKGBC), Chan finds himself near the front lines of the fight against climate change—which is to say that he thinks of tomorrow in terms of what needs to be done today. He was the convenor for the HKGBC’S first Climate Change Framework for Built Environment, which is a blueprint for architects and developers to help the industry achieve carbon neutrality. Appointed to his current post at the HKGBC in 2016, he has seen a fundamental shift in the collective mindset when
Kwong Pai in 1879 in Perak, Malaysia. Today the 144-year-old company is thriving, led by Richard Eu, the founder’s greatgrandson. Joining the company in 1989, the younger Eu has turned the TCM retailer into a multi-outlet giant offering healthcare products and services internationally. Today, customers can buy Eu Yang Sang’s products online, on its social media channels and via messaging services. Eu also carries on his family’s legacy in philanthropy, and serves on the board of various organisations including Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities and Thye Hua Kwan Ang Mo Kio Hospital.
it comes to sustainable architecture, from a focus on energy saving to the drive towards carbon neutrality. He likens carbon neutrality to saving for the future: “If you want to have a million to spend, you have to start cutting back on expenses today. You cannot wait until you’re 90.”
TAIWAN
Andre Koo was born into a prominent line of industrialists who originally built their fortune on salt, sugar, camphor and land, later expanding into banking, manufacturing, electronics, petrochemicals and many other industries; his banker father, Jeffrey
PHILIPPINES
In 2019, Lucio Tan III was a Stanford University honours graduate with a promising career in software engineering in Silicon Valley. He had always meant to return home to join the family business—which just happened to be one of the Philippines’ largest and most diversified corporations. That return had to be rushed by several years, however, when Tan’s father suddenly passed away that year. After just four years, the 30-year-old Tan, the first son of the first son of billionaire businessman Lucio Tan, has taken the reins as president of the LT Group,
Koo Sr, introduced credit cards to Taiwan. By the time Andre Koo took leadership of Chailease Holdings in 1997, it was only one company of the Koo family’s many interests, and held about 40 per cent of the Taiwan leasing market. But Koo thought the company could do better; over the next few years, he implemented changes that led to exponentially boosted profits and Chailease’s transformation into one of the fastest-growing leasing companies in Asia. Now the honourary chairman of Chailease Holdings, Koo leads a business empire— operating separately from the Koo family’s holdings—that comprises more than 45 companies in Taiwan, mainland China and Southeast Asia. which has interests in alcohol, property, tobacco, banking and other major businesses. He is also president of PAL Holdings, the largest shareholder of Philippine Airlines. The younger Tan has faced this storybook turn of events with grace—and skill.