Colourful TVB boss who took an unusual path to broadcasting fame

Inside a sprawling nine-hectare compound in Tseung Kwan O, sits TVB general manager Stephen Chan Chi-wan, a man constantly beset by everything from advancement-seeking employees to aspiring starlets eyeing a showbiz breakthrough.

To outsiders, Chan is best known as the host of the TVB Lifestyle Channel show Be My Guest.

Chan's path to fame was unusual. He studied linguistics and theatre at the University of Hong Kong and after graduating in 1981 joined the government as an administrative officer.

He spent four years in London lobbying for the right of abode for Hong Kong people. Back in Hong Kong by 1991, Chan then served as an assistant commissioner of the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority.

He was also working part-time as a disc jockey at RTHK under the name Wai Ka-ching.

In 1992, Chan left the government for a two-year stint at Commercial Radio before joining TVB as a programme controller.

In April 2002, he was promoted to assistant general manager, and two years later became general manager of broadcasting. His rise in TVB was inversely proportionate to his weight. When he first joined the broadcaster, he weighed more than 90kg but is now fashionably slim after becoming a vegetarian.