Six degrees of separation from Hong Kong Television Network’s Ricky Wong

Ricky Wong Wai-kay, chairman and founder of Hong Kong Television Network, will be speaking at today’s TEDxKowloon conference at PMQ, in Central. The entrepreneur started his first business as a teen, when he launched a “crammer” school in Hong Kong after seeing how popular they were in Taiwan. In 1992, when international direct dialling was still a luxury in the SAR, he broke market leader Hong Kong Telecom’s monopoly by offering a cheap long-distance call service. Also speaking at today’s conference will be Sam Gellman, general manager of the Hong Kong arm of Uber …

A “multinational online transportation network company”, Uber is essentially a car-hailing app that connects passengers directly with drivers. Since it was launched in San Francisco, in 2011, the service has expanded to nearly 60 countries and 300 cities, often facing a backlash from taxi drivers and governments. Last year, seven Uber drivers were arrested in Hong Kong for operating without a hire car permit. It’s been hard going in mainland China, too, where Uber faces fierce competition from rival Didi Chuxing, the president of which is Jean Liu Qing …

The daughter of Lenovo founder Liu Chuanzhi, Liu is a former Goldman Sachs executive who joined the investment firm in 2002 after making it through 18 rounds of interviews, the last of which required her to give a rendition of Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On. Liu claims to have worked up to 140 hours a week, telling the China Daily, “I looked like I was 42 years old when I was only 24.” Nevertheless, she rose through the ranks to become one of the company’s youngest managing directors. In 2014, she joined Didi, which now boasts an 80 per cent share of the mainland ride-hailing market. Last year, Fortune featured Liu in its 40 Under 40 list, alongside Ronda Rousey …