Li Ka-shing

Sir Ka-shing Li (Chinese: 李嘉誠; born 29 July 1928) is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He previously served as chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings, before retiring from those roles in May 2018. Following his retirement, he assumed the position of senior advisor to both companies. He is an investor, developer, and operator of the largest health and beauty retailer in Asia and Europe. In the March 2024 Forbes list of The Richest People In The World, Li Ka-shing was ranked 38th with a net worth of $37.3 billion.

Li has invested in a range of industries, including transportation, real estate, financial services, retail, and energy and utilities. His conglomerate, Cheung Kong Holdings has operated businesses across multiple sectors of the Hong Kong economy and has at times accounted for a notable share of the total market capitalisation of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Forbes Magazine and the Forbes family honoured Li Ka-shing with the first ever Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award on 5 September 2006 in Singapore. In spite of his wealth, Li has cultivated a reputation for leading a frugal no-frills lifestyle, and is known to wear simple black dress shoes and an inexpensive Seiko wristwatch. He lived in the same house for decades, in what has now become one of the most expensive districts in Hong Kong, Deep Water Bay in Hong Kong Island. Li is also a philanthropist, donating billions of dollars to charity and various other philanthropic causes, and owning the second largest private foundation in the world after Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2019, Forbes put Li in the list of most generous philanthropists outside of the US.