The Arab Chamber of Commerce & Industry

The Arab Chamber of Commerce & Industry praises the achievements of the last of Hong Kong's great Taipans

executive, one of the world's foremost tycoons and philanthropists. In early 2007, he is the fourth wealthiest person in Hong Kong and Greater China Region, after Li Ka Shing, Lee Shau Kee and the Kwok brothers, with the wealth of his family estimated to be 5.3 billion US dollars according to Forbes' annual list of billionaires.

The son of business tycoon Lord Kadoorie (Lawrence Kadoorie) (1899-1993) and his wife, Muriel Gubbay, Michael Kadoorie was educated at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland. His family’s roots in business in the Far East go back to his grandfather, a descendant of Iraq, originally from Baghdad, who first settled in Shanghai in 1880. After a spell in Bombay, India, his grandfather made a fortune in Shanghai, mostly lost in 1949, and later, in Hong Kong through finance, real estate and utilities. Headquartered in Hong Kong soon after 1949, Michael Kadoorie's father and uncle successfully expanded the family businesses into a diversified group, led by the company flagship CLP Holdings Ltd.

Michael Kadoorie is the Chairman of CLP Holdings Ltd. which his family founded in 1890 and in which they still hold a 35% stake. The utility company provides electricity to 75% of Hong Kong as sole operator (licensed through a Scheme of Control) in Kowloon and the New Territories, and has equity interests in power plants in China, Southeast Asia, Australia and India. He is also the Chairman of the family's second largest listed group, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, owners and operators of the world-renowned Peninsula Hotel Group. Michael Kadoorie also controls and is a director of Metrojet Limited, Heliservices (Hong Kong) Limited and has initiated CLP Research Institute (a subsidiary of CLP Holdings which looks into renewable energy development). He holds a number of directorships in other non-Kadoorie companies. He was a member of the Council of the University of Hong Kong and, in 2000, the Kadoorie Biological Sciences Building opened at the university. In 2004, the University of Hong Kong awarded him an honorary LLD.

A renowned philanthropist and a trustee of the Kadoorie Charitable Foundation, Michael Kadoorie was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor by the government of France and a Commander of the Order of Léopold II of Belgium. He was awarded a knighthood, as a Knight Bachelor, in the Queen's Birthday Honors List on 11th June 2005.

A photography buff, Kadoorie is also a helicopter pilot and a fan of classic cars. He is the owner of a number of rare automobiles including a Type 57 Bugatti, a 1932 Phantom II Thrupp & Maberly, a 1934 Hispano-Suiza J12 Van Vooren Cabriolet, a 1969 P400 S Miura Lamborghini and a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. In 1998, he spent two months recovering from serious injuries at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England after having an accident in his vintage Ferrari when the spokes in two of the rebuilt wheels tore through the tires.