Month: October 2015

THE HERMIT POLITICIAN

Politics and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have a thing going on and it’s magical! Each time she enters the limelight, an average Indian can’t help but wonder: will she [join politics] or won’t she? And the way she has handled the Congress party campaigns in the past, there is no doubt that she shows an immense capacity for the power game. Though she has been denying the speculations about her joining politics, people do not seem to be convinced. And why will they be? After all, she is a Nehru–Gandhi scion and a member of India’s first family. The lady’s lineage speaks volumes about the chances of her being a political success. Gandhi–Vadra’s father, grandmother, and great-grandfather – actually almost every single person in her family – have been at the forefront of the Indian politics.

A good orator and a charismatic leader, she has often been compared to her grandmother, Indira Gandhi, an enormously influential Prime Minister, to whom she bears a striking resemblance. And this talent of her was discovered in the Indian General Elections 2004, where she played the role of a main campaign manager for her mother, Sonia Gandhi and outshined everybody.

Despite the hoopla Gandhi–Vadra has been generating, she prefers a quiet life and refuses all kinds of public engagements. She believes in living her life on her own terms and conditions!

THE BRICK AND MORTAR GENIUS

Fondly called as “the woman who built Beijing”, Zhang Xin’s two decades in the real estate business has brought her huge respect and fortune. The CEO and Co-founder of SOHO China, the largest commercial real estate developer in Beijing has long been hailed as one of the highly regarded self-made billionaires.

Picking up from a poor childhood and living in the outskirts of Beijing to forming the face of the city, she has definitely come a long way. Zhang Xin formed SOHO China with her husband, and she took that company from the grassroots level to huge projects directly influencing the economy of the country.
A simple elegant woman who likes to spend weekends carrying out her parental duties looking after her boys refuses to live like a billionaire. The cutting-edge skyscraper buildings depict a great sense of style as Zhang Xin personally pays special attention to the designs.

Her buildings are an expression of China’s emergence into the modern world, as china is now becoming the country that has produced more self-made billionaires than any other country in the world. She uses her Wall Street know-how to raise money abroad, and hires the world’s top architects.

Her buildings are said to be fluid and futuristic, and she is proud to have helped Beijing create an attractive skyline.

THE GAMING LORDESS

The deftness with which Pansy Ho handles responsibilities and various projects is admirable. She is the co-chair of MGM China and Managing Director of property-and-transport outfit Shun Tak. Ho has successfully got herself included in the list of Hong Kong’s richest women when the casino outfit went public in Hong Kong a few years ago. MGM’s property, the MGM Macau casino, is a five-star integrated casino and luxury hotel resort located on prime waterfront property.

The daughter of Macau casino magnate, Stanley Ho, she succeeded in becoming the Chairman of Jetstar too after Qantas Group and China Eastern Airlines sold their one-third stake in the budget airline to her family’s conglomerate, Shun Tak Holdings. Ho studied marketing and business at Santa Clara University in California and also had a brief stint as an actor in TV in Hong Kong before opening her own PR firm. The lady has a winning streak and has paved her way to success through persistence and hard work.

It is no surprise that one of the 17 children of gaming marvel, Stanely Ho, is amassing wealth at such a commendable pace. After all, she learnt the art of multitasking and managing projects right in her school, the Catholic Secondary School, Hong Kong, where she was encouraged to participate in ECAs. In the process, she developed a competitive streak and was driven by the desire to win, which she exhibits in her business decisions now.

THE ARDENT DREAMER

Solina Chau knows how to dream big and manifest it. She has left a success trail for every woman to follow. This Cofounder of Horizon Ventures aspired for stars even as a child. Born in 1961, Chau attended Diocesan Girls’ school where she had an impressive record as a student. Later, she went to study in Sydney and moved to London in search of work. It was here that in 1980s her dream to be a business woman was realised when she struck up a friendship with Debbie Chang, a cousin of the former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, becoming her flatmate and a business partner.

In 1993, Chau created quite a stir in Hong Kong business circles by winning a project on behalf of one of Tung’s firms to build the Oriental Square in downtown Beijing. After that, there was no looking back. Today, she sits over a heap of successful endeavours. She continues to invest in tech ventures, including companies that address innovations in the global environment and food, tackle infectious diseases and tap artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

Some of her notable ventures are Hampton Creek, Impossible Foods, BlueDot, and AI software provider Sentinel Technology. She is also the director of the Li Ka Shing Foundation, which stands at $9 billion fortune.

TENNIS TRAILBLAZER

Last autumn, in September 2014, she stunned the world with her unexpected retirement at the age of 32 from the world of Tennis. The two-time grand slam winner was the first-ever Chinese player to be ranked amongst the top 30 players in the world. Bringing laurels to the country, Li has become a household name as she introduced tennis to the masses in China.

Her father died when she was 14, but her mother supported her, and in 1999 at the age of 16 she became a professional tennis player. As she won tournaments one after the other, she became the most successful and popular Asian tennis player ever. In China, following her success, tennis just exploded! Today, there are about 15 million tennis players in China.

Li Na became the first Asian to win a Grand Slam singles tennis major after winning the French Open in 2011; she later won Australian Open in 2014 too. She is famous for her smiley, funny and witty demeanour on court.
Li Na’s worth is estimated at around $40 million after her win, is known as something of a rebel in China. She was selected by government coaches at the age of nine and training in the state program for years, she first left the national tennis team in 2002 to hone her technique on her own. Her decision for marriage took the entire country for a shock as Chinese state athletes are banned from even dating. She’s even turned down (link in Chinese) being on China’s grand Spring Festival television special in favour of going home to ring in the Lunar New Year with her mother.

She stated in the open letter posted online that most people in the tennis world know that my career has been marked by my troubled right knee, After four knee surgeries and hundreds of shots injected into my knee weekly to alleviate swelling and pain, my body is begging me to stop the pounding.
She is not only an icon, but also represents freedom of thought in China.