Eddy Tang was a medical school dropout. But his entrepreneurial spirit led him to create a healthcare and wellness empire that has since become the largest non-hospital medical service provider in Hong Kong, with a market cap of more than HK$15.5 billion.

While working in sales and marketing to help support his family, Tang decided to start his own company in 2005 with a focus on medical aesthetics. He realised that few beauty and wellness chains in Hong Kong had invested seriously in the quality of their services, and quickly began to expand his group with advanced medical technology and products. EC Healthcare has since expanded with 83 clinics and facilities in Hong Kong and mainland China, with a broad array of medical and beauty services offered under 32 brands and 26 specialities. EC Healthcare’s brands include its popular Dr Reborn (aesthetic medical services), Spine Central (chiropractic services), re:Health (health management centre), UMH Dental Care (dental services), ReVive (oncology treatment) and Hair Forest (professional hair care centres). The company also offers primary care services jointly established with Tencent Doctorwork, as well as diagnostic, pediatric, obstetrics and gynaecology specialists among its staff of more than 1,800 personnel.

Tang’s success, he has said, owes to bringing more sophisticated operations and marketing to medical services that had traditionally been offered by doctors. “I saw a lot of potential in bringing the service element of the beauty industry to medical care,” he said in 2021 in the South China Morning Post.

(Photo: Affa Chan)