The 43-year-old started off with an Administrative Management diploma from Shenzhen University in 1989 and got a PhD from the Open International University for Complementary Medicines and Medicina Alternativa Institute in 2000 and another honorary PhD from the Institute of Far Eastern Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences, in 2005. A visiting scholar at the John F. Kennedy Government School at Harvard University in 2002-2003, he is now a part-time professor at the China University of Petroleum and at the Business School of Nanjing University.

He has an impressive social involvement as well, serving as a national committee member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He is honorary consul of the Republic of Madagascar in Hong Kong and involved in four trade councils, including as vice-president of the China-Africa Business Council.

We had no luck finding out anything about his real job experience but he may already have too much on his plate, as the stock exchange announcement shows.

'In honour of Dr Hui's outstanding contributions to humanity, social development and poverty alleviation works in the PRC, the PRC government awarded Dr Hui as [one of] China's Top Ten Poverty Alleviation Contributors and the International Minor Planet Nomenclature Committee permanently named the minor planet No5390 as Hui Chi-Ming Planet.'

Sunpec was the best-performing stock yesterday, rising 36.67 per cent thanks to the Madagascar deal and the shining minor planet.

Fortune ranking deemed unfair

Still with the oil business, PetroChina vice-chairman Jiang Jiemin was not too excited to learn that Fortune magazine ranked his company 63rd among the 64 whose corporate social responsibility it assessed last year.

But he noted Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, a substantial investor of PetroChina, ranked only one place higher than the oil giant. 'He [Mr Buffett] donated 85 per cent of his wealth to charity - not a fair survey,' Mr Jiang said.

Payback comes after 13 years

How much return would you expect from a 13-year investment in Chinese private equity?

For Onfem Holdings, a tiny red chip making curtain walls and aluminium windows, developing properties and managing portfolio investments, its stake in China Merchants China Direct Investments took 13 years to mature.

Onfem invested in China's first listed private equity fund back in 1994, at the peak of the 1990s H-share rally, for about HK$5.25 per share. CMCDI went into a deep dive and bottomed at slightly above HK$1 in the internet days before rallying on the A-share bullishness for most of last year and cashing out for a 400 per cent return.

Onfem sold its 5 per cent stake in CMCDI for HK$158.4 million or HK$22 per share, 30 per cent above its closing price of HK$16.90 yesterday.

It was a blessing in disguise.

Service on cards for sky-high fee

You don't pay a sky-high fee to become an exclusive black card member for nothing.

Yesterday, American Express told us one of its Centurion card members called the personal concierge service desk for help in buying a Tibetan mastiff that he spotted on a European website.

The bank managed to find a six-month-old puppy in Austria for US$3,000 and shipped it to Hong Kong within three weeks.

The Centurion card charges HK$19,800 per year and a one-time joining fee of HK$23,800. Luckily, it's by invitation only.