The executive chairman of Regent Hotels & Resorts and Formosa International Hotels talks about the painful challenges that drove his success, the people who inspired and influenced him along the way, and why mentorship matters
Meet the Tribe is an eight-part series introducing some of the industry leaders across Asia who helped us select the Gen.T List 2019—a panel of experts we call The Tatler Tribe. First up is Steven Pan, a member of The Tribe in Taiwan, representing the Food & Beverage category.
As early as the 1970s Steven Pan’s father, SR Pan, identified the need for a luxury hotel in Taipei, but what would launch as the Grand Formosa Regent Taipei in 1990—today the Regent Taipei—was realised only after Pan Senior had sold the majority share in his Formosa International Hotels to a new partner, You-Hao Chen.
Ironically, it was this new partner who would be the one to lure a young Steven back to Taiwan from an investment banking career in the US to the business that would, unbeknown to both then, eventually return to the Pan family.
“I initially told him I wasn’t interested because I was a banker. But he said I would be responsible for developing the company, building more hotels and taking the company public,” says Steven. This appealed and Pan Junior returned to Taiwan in 1991, successfully taking Formosa International Hotels public in 1998. However, tensions had broken out between Chen and Steven in the meantime, and in 2000, Steven led a management buyout of the controlling stake in the company, bringing it back into the Pan family fold. Greater challenges were nevertheless still to come.
Embrace challenges. Facing a challenge is like having an immunisation shot—once you’ve done it, you are immune for life