SABRINA HO'S Major PLANS
The eldest daughter of Stanley Ho and Angela Leong tells us how she balances enterprise, philanthropy and culture for the tender age of 26.
Sabrina Ho is sipping a warm chocolate at Mercedes Me, which sits with the base of the creating her mother owns. Teetering in substantial heels, wearing the most recent ensemble from Céline, she seems to be very little like the profile photo sent to us by Bellissima Italia, the Italian festival held in Hong Kong and Macau, which she co-chairs. The booklet despatched to us by the organisers information the future occasions and festivities, and divulges a portrait and passage by Sabrina Ho. In that graphic, she appears gravely sombre in a very company suit along with her hair pulled back again. Incredibly ladylike and appropriate.
Even before we meet up with, I understand from the young woman many thanks to her famed relatives. Her father is casino mogul Stanley Ho, and her mother Angela Leong is among the associates of your Legislative Council and the director of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, who also heads several firms. Sabrina, the couple’s eldest daughter, has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Hong Kong and is currently a project manager for two impending hotels that are to be built in Macau - the Palazzo Versace and the first property under Karl Lagerfeld Hotels & Resorts. Inside the meantime, she also manages two boutique hotels in Hong Kong and Macau, and she’s partnered with a Hong Kong listed company, Poly Auction (Hong Kong). The auction house specialises in high-end jewellery and paintings, and revenues hover around the HK$200 million mark. She established Poly Auction Macau in 2015, holding the position of director and CEO, and earlier this year she established Chiu Yeng Society Limited. Phew. And we haven’t even covered the roster of awards and charities and several boards of which she’s a part. Did we mention she’s just 26?
Within minutes of our meeting, she puts us all at ease, almost nothing similar to the picture portrayed while in the pamphlet - or by the paparazzi. Her elfin smile and valley-girl intonations are a constant reminder throughout the chat of how painfully young she still is, especially for someone whose CV is already a few pages long. But she won’t let inexperience stand in her way: “I don’t do just 1 thing, I am involved with multiple projects, titles, roles and responsibilities. I always want to do something that hasn’t been done just before.”
Let’s start along with her first chat with Prestige.
Your long curriculum vitae states so extremely many titles. How do you see yourself?
I established Chiu Yeng Tradition in 2016. I am the managing director, and Chiu Yeng Culture is one of the main sponsors of your charity premiere of Inferno with Tom Hanks, a major event on Bellissima Italia’s calendar this year. But that’s not all I do - I see myself as a multi-tasker. I’m part of the group in Macau where I offer my suggestions and recommendations on how to develop tradition and small business. So in future, if people want to develop a project or get government funding, or if you are an entrepreneur and you want money from the government, our group decides which direction we should go in. We think about what kind of policies we have to encourage younger entrepreneurs. We don’t want it to be a one-way thing, we want to see the long term - are there consumers for this project, will they be able to sustain it, keep the enterprise going? Those are the issues we discuss.
What are you working on currently?
For the past few months I’ve been working a lot in Macau, so I’m constantly jetting to and fro, since my office is in Central and I mostly live here. In Hong Kong, I’ve been working on real-estate projects. We have a lot of hotels coming up, especially a large one particular in the centre of Lan Kwai Fong - that’s a huge project. The Karl Lagerfeld Hotel and Palazzo Versace in Macau are in development. Everyone is all too familiar with my father’s company, but my mother’s side - we are into developing real estate and that’s what my future is aimed at.
Where is home for you?
I go back and forth from Hong Kong and Macau weekly. All my household is linked to Macau; we have that Portuguese gene in us. I grew up in Hong Kong and went to boarding school in London, but home is Hong Kong and Macau.
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