[SINGAPORE] Kuok Hui Kwong’s appointment as the new chief executive officer at Shangri-La Asia on Aug 1 was only the latest in a string of women taking over the reins in family-controlled Asian hospitality groups.
The daughter of Malaysia’s richest man, Robert Kuok, Kuok Hui Kwong is the sixth of his eight children, and has been Shangri-La’s executive director and chairwoman since 2016 and 2017, respectively.
The Business Times highlights some of the women who have risen to the apex of command in hotel chains across Asia.
Kuok Hui Kwong – Shangri-La Asia
The Harvard-educated scion was ranked Asia’s 40th most powerful woman in Fortune magazine list last year, and was CEO of South China Morning Post before joining Shangri-La. Her brother Kuok Khoon Hua, also a Harvard alumnus, is a director of the Kuok Group, and chairman of Kerry Holdings.
The Shangri-La Group, founded in 1971, operates over 100 hotels under its four brands – Shangri-La, Kerry, Hotel Jen and Traders. It owned 81 of those properties as at the end of financial year 2024.
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Wee Wei Ling – Pan Pacific Hotels Group
The executive director for assets, lifestyle and community partnerships of Pan Pacific Hotels Group, Wee Wei Ling, has been in the hospitality business for 36 years. Now 73, she oversees the asset management of the group’s hotel properties and also manages its sustainability strategy.
She hails from UOB’s Wee family and is one of two daughters of the late billionaire banker Wee Cho Yaw. She co-founded Extra.Ordinary People, a charity that helps special-needs individuals gain skills to improve their employability.
The Nanyang University political science graduate was entrusted to run the Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant, a lifestyle brand under the hotel group, in 1996; the restaurant now has outlets in Singapore, Japan and Myanmar.
The Pan Pacific group has three brands – Pan Pacific, Parkroyal Collection and Parkroyal – and a presence in more than 30 cities in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, North America and Europe.
Nikki Ng – Sino Group
Nikki Ng hails from a long line of legendary property magnates in the Far East family. She is the eldest daughter of Singaporean businessman Robert Ng, the son of the late real estate billionaire Ng Teng Fong. Her uncle is Far East Organization Senior Advisor Phillip Ng.
She has been part of the Hong Kong-headquartered Sino Group since 2002, and currently serves as its non-executive director and director of philanthropy.
The group comprises Sino Land Company, Tsim Sha Tsui Properties and Sino Hotels (Holdings). Its core business is property development for sales and investment, though it is also a major player in hotel investment and management.
Yale-educated Nikki Ng has driven charitable initiatives at Sino, like the non-profit Hong Kong Innovation Foundation and its integrated green community project Farm Together. She was also the group’s general manager from 2002 until 2023, before her current role.
Sonia Cheng – Rosewood Group
Trained in applied mathematics at Harvard, Rosewood CEO Sonia Cheng is at the helm of a group with three hotels in the World’s 50 Best Hotels list. The group’s Rosewood Hong Kong is in third place.
Like the other women heading hotel groups on this list, she is from a storied and wealthy family. Her grandfather was Hong Kong billionaire Cheng Yu-tung, who escaped the war in mainland China in 1938 to found the real estate and investment conglomerate New World Development. He later also took over the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery store from his father-in-law.
Her father, Henry Cheng, is now the chairman of New World Development and the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery store, of which she is vice-president.
Sonia Cheng started her career in banking and finance before joining the family business as CEO at the age of 28, driving the expansion of Rosewood. This includes the first hotel to open under her leadership, the Rosewood London in 2013. She has since added the wellness concept Asaya, the kids’ club programme Rosewood Explorers Club, and the private members’ club Carlyle & Co, to the group’s portfolio.
Lee Boo-jin – Hotel Shilla
The president and CEO of South Korea’s Hotel Shilla is Lee Boo-jin, daughter of Samsung Group patriarch Lee Kun-hee. She used to chair Samsung Construction and Trading.
She is also the younger sister of Samsung Electronics executive chairman Lee Jae-yong, and elder sister of Samsung Welfare Foundation chairman Lee Seo-hyun.
Hotel Shilla runs 19 luxury hotels in South Korea and one in Vietnam; Lee Boo-jin has been at the helm since 2011. It also owns duty-free stores at Seoul’s Incheon and Singapore’s Changi airports.
She studied locally at Yonsei University, and was ranked the ninth-richest person in Korea in 2025 by Forbes.
Ho Ren Yung – Banyan Group
The deputy CEO of the Banyan Group, Ho Ren Yung, has been part of her family’s business since 2009.
The daughter of the group’s co-founders Ho Kwon Ping and Claire Chiang, she studied at the London School of Economics and oversaw the company’s brand relaunch with 18 hotel openings in 2024. She took on the deputy CEO role a year ago.
Her parents established the luxury resort group in 1994, and the group now has 10 global brands. It manages and develops resorts, hotels and spas in Asia, Europe, North America and Africa. Most recently, it opened the Mandai Rainforest Resort in the Mandai Wildlife Reserve.
Ho Ren Yung is also known as the co-founder of co-working space Kennel, and is also the founding member of AVPN Asia Gender Network and Creative Mornings in Singapore.
Naphaporn Bodiratnangkura – Nai Lert Group
The CEO of Nai Lert Group and Nai Lert Park Development, Naphaporn Bodiratnangkura is a fourth-generation leader of the hospitality company.
Nai Lert was named after her great-grandfather, who started the firm in 1894 as an imported goods business. It later expanded into hotels and transport, and is now also in real estate, education and culture.
At 11, the Bangkok-born Bodiratnangkura was sent to an all-girls boarding school in the United Kingdom. She went on to study hotel management at the University of Surrey and then following that, at New York’s Parsons School of Design.
When called back to Thailand by her grandmother, she thought her return would be short-lived. Having now made her way to the top job, she is now plugging gaps within Thailand’s hospitality sector through her family business.
Dawn Teo – Amara Hotels and Resorts
Dawn Teo, the chief operating officer of Amara Holdings, is also part of a well-known family business.
Her great-grandfather, Teo Teck Huat, founded the company in the 1930s as the Teo Teck Huat Group. It was initially in construction, including development of the iconic Cathay Cinema in Handy Road in the 1930s, but later expanded beyond its core business areas and changed its name.
The Amara Singapore hotel, which opened in 1986, was developed and built by Dawn Teo’s grandfather, Teo Joo Lai.
Dawn Teo graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and worked in investment banking and wealth management for 15 years before joining the family business.
Outside the family business, she is the co-founder and director of Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film, a non-profit visual arts centre that supports filmmakers and photographers.
Charintip Tiyaphorn – Pimalai Resort & Spa
The owner-representative of Pimalai Resort & Spa in Thailand, Charintip Tiyaphorn also started her career away from the family business. She initially worked in auditing, and followed that up with a master’s degree in marketing and management.
After her graduation, she was coaxed to join her father’s hotel, where she led the accounting and finance department. She later took over the sales and marketing department. Today, she is the owner-representative at the resort.
Located on the island of Koh Lanta, Pimalai Resort was opened in 2001 by her father, Anurat Tiyaphorn, a former lawyer. Today, it boasts a reputation of being one of the most luxurious resorts on the island. It is also one of only 78 hotels to feature on the Small Luxury Hotels of the World’s Considerate Collection for its sustainability efforts.
Carolyn Choo – Worldwide Hotels Group
The CEO and managing director of Worldwide Hotels Group, Carolyn Choo received an urgent call from billionaire hotelier Choo Chong Ngen, her father, in 2002 to join the family business.
At the time, she had been a management trainee at a local bank for over three years. Fast-forward to today, she has been in the top job for eight years.
Worldwide Hotels Group manages brands, including the well-known Hotel 81 chain. It also owns the hotels, Novotel Singapore on Kitchener and the Mercure Icon in Singapore, alongside 11 other hotels in the Asia-Pacific.
The group has grown significantly since she joined it, from having just three degree-holders and 12 Hotel 81 properties to being a key player in affordable hospitality today.
