Wei Xin Ma is a businesswoman who won’t be tied down to one industry, but instead forges into new territories. The daughter of Yuanta Group founder Rudy Ma, she worked for Yuanta Securities for 15 years before taking over as chairperson at HannsTouch, a company founded by her father-in-law. She helped the then-ailing company, a supplier of touch sensors, turn its profitability around and invested the profits in real estate, with an eye on diversifying into the hotel industry.

A total of NT$7 billion was spent building the Hanns House, and it was originally set to launch in 2020 when the pandemic struck. Ma made the somewhat controversial decision to heed the government call for quarantine facilities, and opened her brand new, luxury serviced residences to returning Taiwanese students who might otherwise have nowhere to quarantine. Ma herself lived in the hotel, taking care of the students like her own children, making sure they were well fed and entertained.