WILLIAM LOUEY LAI-KUEN may have inherited his position at one of Hong Kong's best-known companies, but that salubrious start has proved to be merely the beginning.
A director of Kowloon Motor Bus, which his grandfather founded in 1925, he was a tender 18 when his father died, raising expectations he would take the company reins.
Imbued with a creative streak, the young Mr Louey originally planned to study art and was accepted at St Martin's College in London.
'But my parents were against the idea. As the only child in the family, they said if I wanted to become a designer I could buy a factory or open a brand or something. [They wanted me] to learn to look after a business first,' he says. 'There are a lot of artistic people who end up working for others for the rest of their lives.'
Succumbing to pressure, Mr Louey completed an accounting and financial management degree at Buckingham University in Britain, before working as an auditor for two years at Peat Marwick in London.
'I did the same thing every day and night - checking people's invoices, matching their numbers,' he says. 'It was horrid, so boring.'