These hotel heiresses, their growth path can also be traced: graduated from top prestigious schools, broke into the financial circle to brush up experience, entered the family business experience, and became a female president after full wings. They are wise, beautiful, and competitive, and they all live their own domineering lives......
Text丨Financial gossip female author: Shu Ye
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Recently, Forbes' "Most Influential Women Entrepreneurs in Asia Pacific" was released, and 20 outstanding women were on the list, including 46-year-old Zhu Mei, who is the daughter of the female president of Singapore Universal Hotel and the daughter of "hotel tycoon" Zhu Zhangyuan. Chu Zhangyuan is one of the top ten richest people in Singapore.
Zhu Mei has been a top student since she was a child, a famous school, first entered the financial circle after graduation, and was ordered to return to the family business at the age of 25. In fact, Zhu Mei also has three brothers, but she has become an heiress with her strength.
And there are really many hotel heiresses like Zhu Mei, such as Guo Huiguang of Shangri-La Group and Zheng Zhiwen, CEO of Rosewood Hotel Group. In the eyes of outsiders, they are glittering female presidents and the daughters of the richest who are highly loved.
But do you know? The reason why they can PK their brothers and stand out in the family is not that they can only fight their father's stupid white sweetness, but they really have two brushes.
1.
/ The daughter of a rich family was ordered at the age of 25,
From a bank girl to a "hotel princess" /
Who says that the rich prefer their sons? This Bai Fumei is the much-loved heiress.
As the only daughter of the super-rich Zhu Zhangyuan, Zhu Mei is the second oldest in the family. Don't look at her three brothers, and two of them also follow her father to do hotel business, the eldest brother works in the human resources department, and the younger brother is the company's sales director, but her father still prefers this palm pearl.
Now, Zhu Mei has taken over her father's scepter and has become the president of Worldwide Hotel Group, leading the family business all the way forward.
Zhu Zhangyuan has already let go, and now the big and small things of the group, especially the overseas development, are all handed over to his daughter. In Zhu Zhangyuan's opinion, if her daughter can do it, let her do it herself, and if she can't do it, her father will help, after all, he has been in the hotel industry for more than 20 years, and everything in it is clear.
However, Zhu Mei is not an embroidered pillow, she is a top student of Nanyang Technological University, got a bachelor's degree in business administration, and went to Singapore Management University to study for a master's degree in accounting.
The father and daughter have long reached a consensus: Zhu Mei will eventually come back to take over the family business.
However, after graduating from Jumei University, he did not directly parachute into the family business, but chose to work in a bank, starting from the most basic mortgage business, like ordinary people. After that, with her own efforts and ingenuity, she was promoted all the way to a higher salary and became a prosperous person in the financial circle.
In those three years, Zhu Mei worked and played with her peers, and lived a very fulfilling and happy life.
Originally, Zhu Mei planned to work in the bank for at least 10 years and accumulate enough experience before returning to the family business. However, the plan could not keep up with the changes, and when the Asian financial crisis came in 1997, the market became deserted, and my father's company was in trouble, and financing became very difficult.
In 2002, Zhu Zhangyuan felt that the time was ripe, so he said to Zhu Mei: "Girl, it's time to come back and help my father!"
As a result, 25-year-old Zhu Mei quit her job at the bank and officially joined the family business as a financial director, opening the road to the advancement of the "Queen of Hotels".
At that time, Zhu Zhangyuan's hotel group had 12 hotels, all of which were under the budget Hotel 81 brand. In Zhu Mei's words: The management team at that time was very lean. Except for her father, there was only her and a cousin.
In order to familiarize her with the business as soon as possible, Zhu Zhangyuan arranged for her to start from the grassroots level and understand all aspects of hotel operations. At first, Zhu Mei was still a little uncomfortable, and when she encountered problems, she asked her father for advice. Dad never criticized her, but patiently shared experiences and advice.
With her financial knowledge and management experience accumulated in the bank, Zhu Mei has brought new vitality to the company and won the respect of the group's employees.
In 2018, Jummy was promoted to Managing Director of Worldwide Hotels Group due to her outstanding performance in expanding her business into the mid-market and Asia Pacific region.
At the company's 25th anniversary annual meeting, Zhu Zhangyuan integrated its hotel business and officially named the group "Global Hotel Group". Later, Zhu Mei also became the president of the group, responsible for the group's affairs.
Zhu Zhangyuan also retreated behind the scenes to grasp the general direction and formulate long-term grand goals and development strategies for the group. Once, Zhu Zhangyuan also joked:
"Don't do it when you're 100 years old! (Looking at my daughter) didn't kick me off, I just kept doing it. Where are you going to retire? There's nowhere to go. I came to my office and looked for some questions to think about. ”
Zhu Mei listened and responded with a smile: "No, no, it's all up to him." "The father-daughter affection is beyond words.
In 2023, with the support of her father, Zhu Mei made another bold move, smashing a high price of $525 million to buy the Parkroyal Hotel from Pan Pacific Hotels Group. This is reportedly one of the largest single-asset hotel deals in Singapore.
Today, Universal Hotels Group has more than 40 hotels in Singapore and more than 10 locations in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand. As a result, Zhu Zhangyuan became one of the top ten richest people in Singapore.
2.
/ Traveling with his wife to discover big business opportunities,
He counterattacked and became a "hotel tycoon" in Singapore /
Chu is a Singaporean Chinese and a legend in the local hotel industry. You would never have imagined that this business tycoon didn't even graduate from elementary school and couldn't read a few big words.
According to the data, Zhu Zhangyuan dropped out of school in the third grade, and in his own words, he didn't like to study since he was a child, he loved to play, and he was the kind of student who had the most headache for teachers. But he was born with a smart brain and a keen sense of smell for doing business.
When he was 10 years old, he started selling ice cream to earn pocket money. At the age of 14, he began to sell fish and textiles again. At the age of 21, he bought himself his first property, a proper winner in life.
Over the next 10 years, Zhu Zhangyuan accumulated more shops near Katong, City Plaza, Sultan Plaza, Lucky Plaza and other places, raising his first pot of gold.
Later, Zhu Zhangyuan turned into a billionaire by running a cheap hotel, and all this started from a trip with his wife.
It is said that back then, Zhu Zhangyuan took his wife to Japan for a trip and lived in an economic hotel. Although the small hotel is cheap, it is quite comfortable to live in, which makes Zhu Zhangyuan have a flash of inspiration:
Why don't there be such budget hotels in Singapore?
So as soon as the trip ended, Zhu Zhangyuan began to prepare for the hotel non-stop. Two years later, the first Hotel 81 opened in Lorong 16, Geylang. Why is it called "Hotel 81"?
Because 81 is his house number and his lucky number, he wants travelers to stay like home.
At that time, budget hotels were still a novelty in Singapore, and Zhu Zhangyuan was the first person to eat crabs. As a result, Hotel 81 became an instant hit and quickly spread all over the island, opening one branch after another, and eventually opening 28 hotels, making it one of the largest hotel chains in Singapore.
Zhu Zhangyuan's vision is not limited to budget hotels, he has successively launched a number of brands such as Hotel Boss, Hotel Mi, V Hotel, etc., from economy to mid-range hotels, with room rates ranging from $100 to $150 per night, to meet the needs of different groups of people.
Since 2017, Zhu Zhangyuan has set his sights overseas and began to invest in hotels around the world. He has only one principle:
Must be able to obtain 100% ownership and freehold title so that we will buy, no ambiguity!
Because he wants to be a friend of time. Over the years, countless investors have wanted to buy his hotels, but he has rejected them all. In the words of his daughter Jumei:
"My dad was very determined, even after the Asian financial crisis and the global financial crisis, he never sold a hotel. In his opinion, as long as you hold a hotel for 25 years, it will be worth double!"
In this way, in just 20 years, Zhu Zhangyuan has built a hotel empire all over the world. Today, the group has more than 40 hotels in Singapore.
What is even more admirable is that although Zhu Zhangyuan is over 70 years old, he still arrives at the office on time at 9 o'clock every day, keeps learning, keeps improving, and always maintains the passion for entrepreneurship.
"Learn from the workers and learn from the customers. When I see something wrong, I always think of new ideas to change it. ”
3.
/ The daughter of the second room defeated the brother of the long house,
She went from a Harvard student to a hotel queen /
In fact, it is not uncommon for "hotel princesses" like Zhu Mei to be seen, and their cultivation manuals are often top prestigious schools + financial circles + family businesses. You see Guo Henian's daughter Guo Huiguang, who is the heroine of the novel:
She was born in a wealthy family, but she passed all the way, compared to her brother in the long house, and became the chairman of Shangri-La Group at the age of 46, in charge of the 100 billion family business.
At present, the Guo family has four major hotel brands: Shangri-La, Kerry, Hotel Jen, and Trade, all of which are all under Guo Huiguang's final say.
Guo Huiguang's father, Guo Henian, is the famous Asian sugar king, grain and oil king. He controls 80% of Malaysia's sugar market and 20% of the world's sugar market. Arowana edible oil and Kerry Properties are all his family's industries.
In 1977, when Guo Huiguang was born, her father Guo Henian was 55 years old and had been the richest man in Malaysia for many years. Lao Guo gave birth to five children with the original partner, and later fell in love with the flight attendant He Baolian, married her into the door as the wife of the second room, and gave birth to three children, Guo Huiguang is the eldest daughter of the second room.
Guo Huiguang once said that her name was taken by her father, and when translated into English, it means "Smart And Bright", which means "pearl in the palm of your hand", which shows Guo Henian's love for her.
On the one hand, he threw money at his daughter and bought a mansion worth 1.8 billion yuan in Deep Water Bay; on the other hand, in order to exercise his daughter's ability, his pocket money was strictly controlled, and his daughter was allowed to study in a Chinese school and learn Mandarin well.
After graduating from high school, Guo Huiguang was admitted to Harvard University with excellent grades, majoring in East Asian literature studies.
After graduating, Kwok worked as a financial analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the United States, and then worked for the South China Morning Post for five years before joining the family business.
Although she entered the company later than her eldest brother and second brother, Guo Huiguang is familiar with the way of management, and her previous experience in the financial circle gave her a big score, so she quickly won her father's approval. In just one year, her stake in parent company Kerry Group has risen from 3.22% to 11.87%.
Since January 2017, Guo Huiguang has officially taken over the Shangri-La (Asia) Group from his eldest brother Guo Kongcheng (the eldest son of the eldest house), replacing his two elder brothers as the helm of the family's core business.
Similarly, Cheng Zhiwen, who was born in one of the four major families in Hong Kong, is also well-known in the hotel industry. She is the female head of Rosewood Hotels, a top luxury hotel brand, and a proper "hotel princess".
It's no accident that she grew up in a hotel. Her family has been in the hotel industry for many years, and she has lived near the New World Hotel in Hong Kong since she was a child. Her father, Cheng Kar-Shun, was the general manager of the New World Hotel in Hong Kong.
And her grandfather is the "jewelry tycoon" Cheng Yutong, one of the four richest people in Hong Kong, the founder of New World Development and Chow Tai Fook, with assets of hundreds of billions. Before dying of illness in 2016, Zheng Yutong handed over the business to his eldest son Cheng Kar-chun, who is Zheng Zhiwen's father.
Although Zheng Zhiwen is a "rich third generation", she is not a delicate lady. She was very independent from an early age, and at the age of 14, she left Hong Kong, China alone to study in the United States, and later entered Harvard University to study applied mathematics.
After graduation, like Zhu Mei and Guo Huiguang, Zheng Zhiwen also entered the financial circle. She has accumulated experience in the VC/PE industry, moving to New York and Hong Kong, China, and has worked at Warburg Pincus and Morgan Stanley.
It wasn't until 2008 that Cheng joined the family's New World Group to take charge of its hotel business. At that time, the whole of Hong Kong was waiting to see her joke, and what happened? She slapped everyone in the face with her strength!
In 2011, Zheng Zhiwen smashed $800 million with a wave of her hand, and took the famous Rosewood Hotel into her pocket, and she also became the CEO of Rosewood Hotel Group, a very domineering female president. Under her leadership, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts became one of the world's fastest-growing luxury hotel brands.
You name it, The Carlyle in New York, Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, Rosewood Beijing, Rosewood Guangzhou, and Rosewood Hong Kong.
When Cheng Zhiwen's "Rosewood Hong Kong" opened, it also invited a number of Hong Kong celebrities such as Pansy Ho, Hui Jinheng, Li Jiaxin and Gambi to earn enough topic traffic for the hotel.
After all, after the gambling king's daughter He Chaoqiong divorced Xu Jinheng, Xu Jinheng married Li Jiaxin again, and Li Jiaxin and Liu Luanxiong were entangled for many years before Gambi took the throne....... The relationship is intricate, comparable to an eight-o'clock bloody drama.
In 2016, Zheng Zhiwen was selected as one of the "50 Most Influential Women in Asian Business" by Forbes, and she was in the limelight for a while, and some people even regarded her as "the next Pansy Ho".
Today, Cheng oversees five Rosewood brands, ranging from luxury hotels and leisure resorts to private clubs and wellness centers. Examples include Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, a private clubhouse, Carlyle & Co, and Asaya, an integrated wellness concept.
What's even more powerful is that in the first two years, she also returned to her old business, played venture capital, and invested in a brand "Unipal Companion Pet" that specializes in cat home appliances, and has more say in the family.
Today, Cheng Zhiwen wears many hats, and is also the CEO of Rosewood Hotel Group, the chairman of New World Hotel Group, and a member of the board of directors of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group.
These hotel heiresses, their growth path can also be traced: graduated from top prestigious schools, broke into the financial circle to brush up experience, entered the family business experience, and became a female president after full wings.
They are wise, beautiful, and competitive, and they all live their own domineering lives......
Resources:
"She's also coming to be a VC", investment community
"Zhu Zhangyuan of Global Hotel Group is illiterate but owns 45 hotels", Lianhe Zaobao