Kimbee Chan Hoi-wan

Among Hong Kong’s richest people, Kimbee Chan has been CEO of property giant Chinese Estates since 2021, when she replaced her elder sister Chan Sze-wan at the head of the company, and an executive director since 2017. The company owns Hong Kong shopping malls including The One, Windsor House and Silvercord, as well as other properties in Beijing and London.

Formerly an entertainment reporter for a local newspaper, she first met Chinese Estates billionaire Joseph Lau when she tried to snap a photo of him. She joined Chinese Estates in 2002, working in the management of its cosmetics company Kwong Sang Houng. She and Lau married in 2016, and he transferred 50 per cent of the company’s shares to her the following year, citing his own ill health and concerns about succession – that stake subsequently became 75 per cent. The couple have three children, born in 2008, 2012 and 2018. The family’s home, in Jardine’s Lookout, is one of the city’s most expensive properties.

She also plays an active role in the family’s extensive philanthropic activities. In 2016, she became a director of the Joseph Lau Luen-hung Charitable Foundation; while in 2019, she became the chair of the Lau Yip Suk-wan Memorial Charitable Foundation, which has subsequently changed its name to the Joseph and Kimbee Lau Charitable Foundation.

Chan is a conservation envoy of the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation and a director of the Hang Seng University Foundation. She is also the founder of crochet brand and retailer Happy Yarn, located in Laforet mall in Causeway Bay, which sells decorative items that include her own crochet work.