Jim Thompson
Two weeks ago, on Jim Thompson’s birthday, he performed 72 pushups on the floor of his office. Why? One for each year, of course. One of the city’s wealthiest businessmen, Thompson is the chairman of Crown International, a logistics company that handles moving as well as storage of documents, wine and fine art. (It’s sexier than it sounds.) He talks to Hana R. Alberts about travel, philanthropy and four decades of calling Hong Kong home.
I was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, which is a very ethnic town. It was actually developed by a lot of immigrants who came over from Europe.
[My father’s Navy] assignment allowed him to take the family, so my mom and my sister and I went to Guam. As a Bayonne boy, if I’d have stayed in that city, I probably would have gotten a high school diploma and gone to work [in the US].
We [Thompson and a friend] traveled the world for nine months. I got to see Vietnam before the Vietnam War, and Berlin before they built the wall. That was what made me decide that I wanted to go overseas after I graduated.
We only took ships, because it was cheaper and we had the time. When we got to Europe, we realized we didn’t have any money. It was a real hand-to-mouth type of thing. I ate a lot of bread. It was a good education.
I was an aeronautical engineering major, but I never used it a day in my life.
[After graduation,] I didn’t care about money. I just wanted to be in Japan…I learned my Japanese at what they called stand bars, where you actually sit at the bar but there’re always hostesses there that just talk to you. Females in Japan talk differently than males. I probably have a sort of female accent.