There are also a lot of people on social media who say the most utterly ridiculous stuff – that’s not responsible. Executive Chairman, Banyan Tree Holdings. Mr Ho Kwon Ping. I am an accidental hotelier. We wanted to tap the North American market because very few of them come to Asia. For example, right now, I am having more challenges with the pandemic than I had when we just started Banyan Tree. I believe in learning lessons, but I don’t believe in regret. Look at all the dramas being put on by arts groups. They do it, though in pretty bad taste – but they do it and they’re not arrested. Mr Ho Kwon Ping is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings and Laguna Resorts and Hotels, and Executive Chairman of Thai Wah Public Company. He had a course on physics but he was a big exponent of eugenics and the sterilisation of black people because they were inferior, etc. When you get to my age now, and I ask myself ‘Why do I study?’, I probably now go deeper than the issue of careers etc., because my career’s already gotten going. It’s much easier to be hungry for something physical and then achieve it; it’s much more difficult to be hungry for something more amorphous, more social, hungry for a more purposeful life. Authors: Emily Calkins, Monica Matsumoto, Ahmad Nasir, James O'Brien, Amy Saxton, Simone Wallimann, Lawrence Yen, with Mr. Ho Kwon Ping. They are both very vibrant, friendly, full of life and extremely hospitable. You cannot keep riding the wave if you know that there is no future in it. In NUS, I was asking why not about NUS itself because I was a mature student so I didn’t really study very hard because I was repeating my course as they wouldn’t accept my credits from Stanford. It is not always the greatest surfer who successfully rides the waves. But you have to be accountable for what you say. Mr. Ho Kwon Ping, the Founder and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings and Laguna Resorts and Hotels, and Executive Chairman of Thai Wah Public Company, is to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from HICAP. Creative Director Lord’s Tailor Sdn Bhd. The concept of service is very ingrained in them. Mr Ho: The climate today is no longer how it was like during my time. You also have to look at innovation. These are things that I created and therefore I hope to leave a legacy behind through these. Executive Chairman Banyan Tree Holdings. Business 13 Jul 20. According to him, simply replacing the word “shareholder” with “stakeholder” in companies’ mission statements would be a catalyst for significant change. at Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore. The only thing that I planned to do was that I wanted to create a brand but at that time, I didn’t have a clue what that brand would be all about. This supports the point that whenever you have a varied career, and you end up doing something – you may have been a chef and then you end up a banker – in some odd way, though you will never realise until maybe later on in life when you look back, but your experience as a chef probably, in some way, influenced you and made you different as a banker. We in Singapore have our own specific context, as do many other countries, where you cannot say those things. He is the executive chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, a Singapore-based leisure business group, which owns both listed and private companies engaged in the development, ownership and operation of hotels, resorts, spas, residential homes, retail galleries and other lifestyle activities in the region. That was a time of life and death. Will it ever change its course to becoming funkier or “flashier” to win over consumers who prefer more funky or “showy” hospitality brands? There is space in Singapore for you to do it. Banyan Tree Group’s hotels are not showy or flashy hotels. Ho Kwon Ping is the founder of Banyan Tree, a worldwide chain of luxury resorts based in Asia. I think the general spirit of inquiry should not be reduced with age; if anything at all, it should become more penetrating and more acute, because you’ve got a whole wealth of experience with age, so that when you ask why, you’re actually asking the really penetrating ‘why’s. Image courtesy of Mandai Park Holdings. For 10 years, I was running the business and it was a whole bunch of different businesses. We wanted to go into the Caribbean, so we are now into Bahamas. Regret technically means you feel bad about something you’ve done even though you can do nothing about it. And I said let’s start a spa but back then, nobody had any idea what a spa was. If you want to go out there and do something serious, and it happens to be something the government is not necessarily approving of – though they aren’t going to put in you jail because you aren’t endangering anybody – then go and do it. The industries that are immune to COVID-19. He is also the founding and current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Singapore Management University and Chairman of The Singapore Summit. Mr Ho Kwon Ping graduated from the University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics in 1978 and began his career as a broadcast and financial journalist. Opening Remarks by Mr Ho Kwon Ping, Conference Chairman of Singapore Summit, at the Singapore Summit, on 16 September 2017, at 8.30a.m. What would you like to see in the next generation? We had trading companies, manufacturing, contract manufacturing, and we were all over the place. So I got in there – a stupid student at 19 years old – got thrown out. Mr Ho has also been conferred honorary doctorates by Johnson & Wales University and from Hong Kong Poly University. You’re disoriented. Mr Richard Eu Mr Richard Eu. It’s not hardly their fault. Employee Welfare. But you also have to have the decisiveness to make the call that if this wave isn’t going to work, you jump out into the sea and then you try again. If you lose it all then, we lose it all. Chairman Eu Yan Sang International. Lijiang reflected many aspects of the Chinese culture and the beauty of its natural landscape. You have to move on in life. Main photo: Former SMU Chancellor Mr Yong Pung (2nd from left) standing next to his official portrait which will be hung in the SMU Boardroom, together with (left to right) SMU Chairman Mr Ho Kwon Ping, SMU Chancellor Mr J Y Pillay and SMU President Prof Arnoud De Meyer. You really have to tap on the local Brazilian market, the Chilean market, which are very continental markets that we don’t have many inroads in. That if I did this I would lose a lot of money and almost go bankrupt. I came across a humongous piece of land and there were no drones back then, so we had no idea what the land looked like. I don’t think COVID-19 has changed the fundamental topography of the seabed. It’s a legacy I’m beginning gradually to pass on. And they are just getting more famous building their own brand, and they would just “squeeze” you more and more. You don’t get a Lee Kuan Yew or Lim Chin Siong any more. It’s done already. Illustration of Mandai Eco Resort. They did not want to confess. Mr. Ho will be presented with the award at the 30th annual HICAP scheduled for 23-25 October 2019 at the Kerry Hotel Hong Kong. One should just be practical. I clearly wasn’t going to be that, so I was pretty quickly honest with myself and saying, ‘You just get out and start life over again’. My whole point to young people is: find a purpose. Your mind then is your worst enemy, and you find you want to reign in your mind: you pretend to type letters with the typewriter to try and remember things, you try to create a story and remember – but you can’t tame your mind. You can never really plan your business completely. This helps them gain a better understanding of the different career pathways available today. Mr Ho: My family’s my purpose. Some might fall off but there would be guys who would be able to ride on the waves. The Culture Embassy Pte Ltd. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2020. Senior Advisor : Mr. Ho Kwon Ping. We work with these two beautiful properties on two coasts. Educated in Tunghai University, Taiwan; Stanford University, California and the University of Singapore, he was the Economics Editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong before joining the Thai Wah family business and then venturing out on his own to start the hospitality brand, Banyan Tree. Did I waste my life?” I don’t want to accuse them, because it’s completely unfair to them as young people who’ve grown up in affluent Singapore. What makes you really strong is not your physique; it’s your mind. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. We innovated quite a bit, but innovation doesn’t drop from the sky. Again, it was a confluence of luck and opportunity. This is a huge project. He is also the founding and current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Singapore Management University and Chairman of The Singapore Summit. If you want to use that analogy, post-COVID-19, there are a lot of new waves that are going to be heading your way. So, I found that in the rest of my career – be it with Banyan Tree or SMU or my other family businesses – in areas where you don’t have domain expertise, and I have no domain expertise in education nor in hospitality, I could get by because I knew how to get to the heart of an issue by asking questions. Sometimes, they are ridiculed – perhaps by a Minister. Instead, for us, it is a super prime location, and we are excited to be a part of it. After a while, I realise that the more you produce, the harder you run because the more you produce, you become more dependent on the guy who is buying from you. This is a resort that we are doing with Mandai Park Holdings. I became very clear in my own mind that I wasn’t going to go and spend 25 years in jail, which you can and there have been people who have: Chia Thye Poh and Poh Soo Kai. What was the inspiration behind the founding of Banyan Tree? Banyan Tree Group has always been championing sustainability and wellness, which are doing wonders for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) image. By submitting this form, I agree to these, Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings: Mr Ho Kwon Ping. Sectors thriving in the era of COVID-19. Try to put yourself in a box with no stimuli – nothing, no sound, nothing to see, no day, no night, no sensation of anything – see if your mind goes crazy. For his services to his home country Singapore, Mr Ho has been decorated with the Meritorious Service Medal and the Distinguished Service Order by the Singapore government. There may other things I can do too: I’m going to be getting two more grandchildren, so maybe I’ll be a purposeful grandfather. Ho Kwon Ping (Chinese: 何光平; born 24 August 1952) is a Singaporean businessman. For someone now running a large multinational company, Ho Kwon Ping's early career is … ", "With the support of the National Youth Council, Advisory provides youth with the opportunity to connect with working professionals from a wide range of sectors. We actually wanted to enter into the United States market. Noting that former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew has essentially created a hegemonic Singapore national identity for us, SR Nathan Fellow Mr Ho Kwon Ping said that Mr Lee’s recent passing serves as a poignant reminder about how it is now time to forge our own identity based on a collective of diverse identities and histories. They have their own standings which are absolutely world-class, and they evoke a very strong sense of place. If you ask what defines me, I won’t say journalism defines me because that was a starting career, I would probably say it’s education, with Singapore Management University (SMU), and business, with Banyan Tree. Back then, there was nothing much in Phuket. Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings: Mr Ho Kwon Ping. Dusit Thani did a great job managing it and then, we started doing more hotels. Explore celebrity trends and tips on fashion, style, beauty, diets, health, relationships and more. 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