A rising star in the corporate world

Richard Li is chairman and chief executive of the Hong Kong and Singapore-based Pacific Century Group, which he launched in 1993.

In 1990, Mr Li founded Star TV, Asia's first pan-Asian satellite television network operating in more than 50 countries across the continent. He subsequently directed its launch, operation and growth.

Mr Li is a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies International Councillors Group in Washington and a regular participant and member of the World Economic Forum.

It took numerous telephone calls, an off-the-record coffee with a senior executive followed by an off-the-record lunch to see if we 'got along' before I was finally able to sit face-to-face with Richard Li Tzar-kai. Even then, one of the conditions of the interview was that Mr Li would be able to see all the direct quotations used in this article prior to publication. It was touch-and-go as to whether I was sufficiently keen to meet Mr Li to make these conditions acceptable. Was I really that interested? When all is said and done, a 30-year-old businessman with a medium-sized company - Pacific Century - whose only listed arm is in Singapore and which has interests spanning insurance, high-technology and property, does not exactly cut it when it comes to the list of the most interesting people in Hong Kong to interview. But what swung it? Ironically, what decided the issue was the very thing that led to these excessive precautions in the first place. His father. Mr Li's father, if you don't know, is Li Ka-shing. And if you don't know who Li Ka-shing is, leave town.

I can fully accept the reasoning of those who argue that Richard Li should be looked at as distinct from his father. He is a businessman in the early stages of building his own company. In addition, ask yourself how you would regard someone making constant comparisons between you and your father? Everyone has their cross to bear and Richard Li's is his surname.

It would have been ridiculous to have entered Pacific Century's offices expecting to meet K S Li the Second, but it was equally ridiculous to try to ignore who he was. The message coming out of Pacific Century ever since it was launched was that Mr Li will not talk about his father.