Ho Kwon Ping is the co-founder and executive chairman of Banyan Group.
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When Ho Kwon Ping was a child, he never thought he would become a businessman, much less a hotel magnate.
“I didn’t always want to be an entrepreneur,” he told CNBC Make It. “But the few times I started working for other people, it didn’t really work out…I’m quite an individualist. I became an entrepreneur because there was no other way. is.”
Today, the 72-year-old is the founder and executive chairman of Banyan Group, a hospitality company with a portfolio of 12 global brands, more than 80 hotels and resorts, and spas, galleries and residences spread across more than 20 countries.
Sunset view from Banyan Tree’s Mandai Rainforest Resort.
Provided by Bunyan Group.
The company, which is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, generated revenue of approximately S$328 million (approximately $242 million) in 2023. Banyan Group’s market capitalization is S$300 million, according to LSEG data.
formative period
Ho said something about himself that may surprise some people. It was that he had been imprisoned when he was young.
He said that his childhood was mainly defined by a strong enthusiasm for social activities.
While studying for his bachelor’s degree at Stanford University in the early 1970s, he was an outspoken student activist against the Vietnam War (also known as the “American War” in Vietnam).
He participated in other protests on campus, particularly those against American inventor and physicist William Shockley, and was ultimately suspended from the university.
“I was kicked out for participating in a Black Student Union protest against a man named William Shockley, who won a Nobel Prize for the development of semiconductors but also had strange views on eugenics. He wrote several books such as “Black people should be sterilized,” Ho said.
As a result, Ho was tried by the university’s judicial committee, found guilty of suppressing academic freedom, and suspended from the university. He then decided to leave Stanford University and returned to Singapore to complete his national service and resume his studies at the university.
“I had to start from scratch, and I was really bored, so I started writing as a freelance journalist for a now-defunct magazine called the Far Eastern Economic Review,” he said. . “I started writing about Singapore politics, but the government didn’t like it. So I was jailed under the Internal Security Act for being pro-communist.”
It was 1977, and he was placed in solitary confinement during a two-month sentence, a period he describes as “scary, lonely, depressed and introspective.”
Ho Kwon Ping and his wife Claire Chan, 1992.
Provided by Bunyan Group.
After his release, Ho returned to the magazine as a journalist and moved to Hong Kong with his wife Claire Chan. The newlyweds moved to a small fishing village on Lamma Island called Yong Shwe Wan, which means “Banyan Tree Bay.”
“I couldn’t afford to live on Hong Kong Island or Kowloon because the salary wasn’t very good…so I had no choice but to live on Lamma Island,” Ho said. “We weren’t rich, but…we had a very idyllic three years there.”
Ho was born in Hong Kong and spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Thailand before moving to Singapore. His father, Ho Rifa, was a businessman who co-founded the Thai Wah Public Company and headed the Wah Chan Group, a conglomerate with operations across Asia.
“My parents were quite wealthy, but I was always a bit rebellious and wanted to be independent,” he said.
accidental businessman
In 1981, Ho’s father suffered a stroke. As the eldest son, Mr. Ho was given the responsibility of taking over the family business.
“That business was the true epitome of overseas Chinese business, which meant being a jack of all trades but a master of none,” Ho said. “We had about 10 to 12 different businesses, from construction to contract manufacturing of televisions. We even had things like Adidas shoes.”
After experiencing some major failures and lessons learned in running the family business, Ho had an epiphany. I wanted to focus on building my own brand rather than running a “miscellaneous business.”
“That’s when I decided contract manufacturing wasn’t a long-term solution. You have to own the customer, and the only way you can do that is by owning the brand or owning the technology. “I’m not a technical person, so I decided to do that: own the brand,” he said.
“When the light bulb goes out”
One day in 1984, the stars aligned when Ho stumbled upon a vast coastal property on Bang Tao Bay in Phuket, Thailand. According to the company’s official statement, he decided to purchase more than 550 acres of land, but the land turned out to be an abandoned tin mine.
After years of restoration, Ho worked with his wife and brother, an architect, to design and develop several hotels and resorts on the property. Asia’s first integrated resort, Laguna Phuket, opened in 1987, according to a statement.
“The first hotel was designed by us and managed by a Thai company. The second hotel was managed by Sheraton, followed by the third and fourth,” Ho said. Ta. “And the last piece of land didn’t have a beach, so no one wanted to manage it.”
“Then a light bulb went off and I said, ‘Well, no one wants to manage it, so why not start our own brand?'”
Aerial view of banyan trees in Phuket, Thailand.
Provided by Bunyan Group.
To compensate for the lack of beaches, Ho decided to build private villas, each with its own pool.
“This was 30 years ago, so the concept of an ‘all pool villa’ hotel didn’t exist. We were also the pioneers of the ‘tropical spa,'” he said.
In 1994, the group’s flagship luxury resort, Banyan Tree Phuket, opened, including the first Banyan Tree Spa. The name was inspired by the blissful days Ho spent with his wife at Banyan Tree Bay in Hong Kong.
“Innovation didn’t fall out of the sky…it was a response to a need,” he said.
According to a statement from the company, Banyan Tree Holdings Limited was listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange in 2006, and Banyan Group was launched in 2024 as the umbrella brand for the multi-brand portfolio.
“People ask me if I’m sold, and I say, ‘No, I’ve grown up. I can’t do what I was doing forever. I can’t go to prison forever. And you’re not effective,” Ho said. “But I think what we wanted to do in terms of social change is really happening through Banyan Tree.”
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