For this mother and daughter pair, creativity and business acumen run in the family
Casting our gaze back to a Year of the Rat gone by, we find a young Marjorie Yang gracing the pages of a 1996 issue of Tatler. Yang was being hailed as a rising star in Hong Kong’s business circles as chairman of the Esquel Group, and her shirtmaker PYE was just beginning to create excitement in China.
Described as driven, resilient and happy-go-lucky by Tatler, Yang made juggling motherhood and the pressures of catapulting her company to new heights seem so easy. At the time, Yang’s daughter Dee Poon was 13 years old and still in school. Fast forward 23 years, and PYE feels as relevant as ever—and Poon is now at the helm as managing director.
Although she and her mother take individual approaches to their work, Poon possesses the same curiosity and tenacity Yang has in achieving her goals. Joining the family business 10 years ago to work exclusively on PYE, Poon says the job has been multifaceted.
“I think in a family business one often ends up wearing multiple hats even unofficially. I appreciate the opportunity to see different things and to be a part of the larger company.” She says the best piece of advice she received from Yang, who she affectionately calls Margie, is to play the long game and stay focused on goals. “It’s not a race but a marathon. The most important thing is to get rest and get back into the game—to stay in the game.”
After years of working to bring ethical practices to the forefront of fashion, through greener manufacturing techniques and fair pay for workers, Poon, like her mother before her, is once again looking at the bigger picture for PYE’s next chapter: “I have been thinking a lot about sustainability with a big ‘S’... I believe that sustainability is not merely about our planet but about our communities, and that we have a role to play as employers and as a company to create the right environment for our people so that everyone can have a sense of security and so that they can thrive.”
See also: Tatler Hot List: 25 Entrepreneurs Who Are Shaping Our Future
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