Hubbry Logo
search
logo
2222766

Richard Li

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
Richard Li

Richard Li Tzar-kai is a Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist. The founder and chairman of the private investment group Pacific Century Group (PCG), Li started his career in the 1990s with the founding of STAR TV, a pan-Asian television network. After founding PCG in 1993, he went on to establish PCCW and HKT Trust.

In 2010, PCG acquired the asset management business of AIG Investments and renamed it to PineBridge Investments. In 2013, PCG founded FWD Group. Richard Li currently serves as chairman of PCG, PCCW Ltd. and HKT Limited. He is also on the boards of companies including Pinebridge Investments. Forbes listed his net worth in 2020 at $4.5 billion, ranking him 20th on its list of the richest businesspeople in Hong Kong.

Li was born in 1966 at his parents' residence in 79 Deep Water Bay Road, Deep Water Bay, Hong Kong, Richard Li Tzar-kai is the youngest son of businessman Li Ka-shing. Li and his older brother Victor spent their childhoods in Hong Kong, where Li attended St. Paul's Co-educational College. He left Hong Kong at age thirteen to be educated at Menlo School in Atherton, California. In high school, he worked at McDonald's and as a caddy at the local golf course. He studied computer engineering at Stanford University until 1987. Citing personal reasons, he withdrew from university after three years.

For the first three years of his career, Li managed funds at an investment bank in Toronto, Canada, acquiring Canadian citizenship in the 1980s. In 1990 he began working in the fund-management department at Hutchison Whampoa in Hong Kong. At Hutchison Whampoa, he was an executive director from 1992 until 1993 and deputy chairman from 1993 until 2000.

In 1990, Li began building his own company, STAR TV, a pan-Asian satellite-television network that streamed American television. According to Wired magazine, the service "triggered a vast cultural shift, injecting a massive dose of Western popular entertainment into... more than 50 countries [by 2005]." STAR TV proved lucrative, and in 1993 and 1995 Li sold the network to Rupert Murdoch for a total of USD$950.5 million.

Using the funds raised from the sale of STAR TV, in 1993 Li founded Pacific Century Group (PCG), an Asia-based investment group with Li serving as CEO and chairman. Li subsequently oversaw PCG's investments in real estate, financial services, technology, and media & telecommunications.[non-primary source needed]

He was an executive director at Hongkong Electric Holdings from 1993 until 2000, and chairman of Singapore-based Pacific Century Regional Developments Limited starting in 1994, a role he still held in 2020.

In 1996, Li Zekai established Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW). Serving as the company's chairman starting in 1999, he remained chairman when the company changed its name to PCCW Ltd. in 2002.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.