Anthony Nightingale has been having a busy year. In February, Mr Nightingale, who sits on the board at Jardine Matheson, the original Hong Kong hong, climbed the 6,958-metre Mount Aconcagua in Argentina. In April, he was elected chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the city's oldest business group.
The ability to conquer mountains is probably an important qualification for the newest leader of Hong Kong's business community. As he steps into the top chamber post, Mr Nightingale is fully aware of the two mountains the city's economy needs to tackle - atypical pneumonia and the mounting deficit.
'The major problem facing Hong Kong is this Sars epidemic. But before that, and still something we need to remember, is we've got the fiscal position of Hong Kong, the large deficit,' said Mr Nightingale. 'If you were to ask me what I see as the major problems facing Hong Kong ... those would be the two issues on which the chamber is focused,' he said.
As chairman of the chamber, Mr Nightingale heads the business group with the loudest voice in Hong Kong. The chamber, founded in 1861, represents about 4,000 businesses ranging from foreign multinationals to small and medium enterprises and even sole proprietorships. Mr Nightingale succeeds Christopher Cheng, chairman of the Wing Tai Corporation. Other corporate names represented on the chamber's general committee include HSBC, Swire Pacific, accounting firm Ernst & Young and investment bank Morgan Stanley, as well as politicians and other tycoons.
As such, the chamber's leadership, made up of the general committee and the chairman's committee, usually reads like a who's who of Hong Kong business. The chamber has also traditionally had a seat on the Legislative Council.
Mr Nightingale's election represents a return by Jardine Matheson to the forefront of the business and political scene in Hong Kong. The history and fortunes of Jardine have tracked that of the former colony but it has had a stormier relationship with the city's new political masters going back more than a century and a half, when the company was involved in importing opium.