Yoshida Yoshitaka
Sir Michael David Kadoorie is a Hong Kong entrepreneur of Iraqi Jewish descent, Chairman of the CLP Group and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, and grandson of Elly Kadoorie, founder of China Light and Power Company.[1]
Background
Michael Kadoorie was born in 1941 into a Jewish family. He is the son of business tycoon Lawrence Kadoorie (1899–1993) and Muriel Gubbay. He attended Kowloon Junior School in Hong Kong and later the Conservatoire de Paris in France. He studied at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland.
His family's business roots in the Far East date back to his grandfather, a descendant of Iraqi Jews from Baghdad who first settled in Shanghai in 1880. After a period in British India (Bombay), his grandfather amassed a fortune in Shanghai. Following the events of 1949, the family's businesses, previously focused on finance, real estate, and utilities in Hong Kong, were consolidated. Soon after, his father and uncle relocated their headquarters to Hong Kong, expanding the family enterprise into a diversified group led by the flagship CLP Holdings Limited.
Kadoorie is the Chairman of CLP Holdings Limited, a company founded by his family in 1890, in which they still hold a 35% stake. As the sole operator (licensed through the Scheme of Control) in Kowloon and the New Territories, the utility company supplies electricity to 75% of Hong Kong and holds power generation assets in Mainland China, Southeast Asia, Australia, and India.
He is also the Chairman of the family’s second major listed company, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, owner and operator of The Peninsula Hotels. Kadoorie controls and serves on the boards of Metrojet Ltd and Heliservices (HK) Ltd, and founded CLP Research Institute, a CLP Holdings subsidiary focused on renewable energy development.
Personal Life
Michael Kadoorie married Betty Tamayo in London on 23 August 1984[2], and they have two daughters and one son. His daughter, Natalie Louise, was born on 3 February 1986.
Honours
Kadoorie was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star (GBS) in 2003.[3]
See also
- Kadoorie family
References
- Hong Kong Jews
- Hong Kong businesspeople
- Hong Kong philanthropists
- Hong Kong billionaires
- Kadoorie family
- Honorary doctors of the University of Hong Kong
- CLP Group
- Hong Kong aviation figures
- CK Hutchison Holdings
- Alumni of King George V School, Hong Kong
- Alumni of Institut Le Rosey
- Hong Kong people of Indian descent