Teresa Ko Yuk-yin is China chairman of top law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and a leader in helping global companies become public, including AIA, China Mobile, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China - the world's largest initial public offering (IPO) at the time of its listing last year.
On the regulatory side, she is chairman of the listing committee of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing - the first woman to assume the role - and the deputy chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission's takeovers and mergers panel.
With such an impressive list, it is surprising to discover Ko's first aspirations were in fashion design.
'I was always interested in fashion and I originally thought I'd become a fashion designer,' Ko says. 'I don't think my father shared my interest and I don't think he thought of it as a serious enough profession. I knew he wouldn't object to my being a lawyer so I set my sights on becoming a lawyer.'
Nevertheless, after 23 years with Freshfields, Ko sees similarities between fashion design and law. 'I think the law is, at the end of the day, a craft. It takes years of practice, but it's not just a craft without creativity. Over my long career I have been involved in many, many transactions where you have to combine technical know-how with innovation and originality,' Ko says.
'With the benefit of hindsight, although one doesn't produce a garment at the end of it, one produces a pile of documentation - but in the process there is a whole lot of thinking that has to go in.'