Leading ladies: The women heading the biggest family-led hotels in Asia
[SINGAPORE] Kuok Hui Kwong’s appointment as the new chief at Shangri-La Asia is only the latest in a string of women taking over the reins across family-controlled Asian hospitality groups.
The daughter of Malaysia’s richest man, Robert Kuok, Hui Kwong was appointed chief executive of the prestigious hotel group on Aug 1. She is the sixth of his eight children and has been Shangri-La’s executive director and chairwoman since 2016 and 2017, respectively.
BT highlights some of the women who have risen to the apex of command at hotel chains across Asia.
Kuok Hui Kwong – Shangri-La Asia
The new CEO of Shangri-La Asia, Kuok Hui Kwong was promoted to the corner office on Aug 1.
She is the daughter of business tycoon and centenarian Robert Kuok, the founder of Shangri-La and the richest man in Malaysia. The chairwoman of the group since 2017 and its executive director since 2016, she was also the former chief executive of the South China Morning Post.
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Harvard-educated Kuok was ranked the 40th most powerful woman in Asia in a Fortune magazine list last year. Her brother Kuok Khoon Hua, also a Harvard alumni, is a director the Kuok Group, and chairman of Kerry Holdings.
The Shangri-La Group, founded in 1971, operates over 100 hotels under its four brands; Shangri-La, Kerry, Hotel Jen and Traders. It owned 81 of those properties as at the end of the 2024 financial year.
Wee Wei Ling – Pan Pacific Hotels Group
The executive director (Asset, Lifestyle & Community Partnerships) of Pan Pacific Hotels Group, Wee Wei Ling, has been in the hospitality business for 36 years. Wee, 73, oversees the asset management of the group’s hotel properties to managing its sustainability strategy.
A scion of UOB’s Wee family and daughter of the late billionaire banker Wee Cho Yaw, she co-founded Extra.Ordinary People, a charity that helps special needs individuals gain skills to improve their employability.
Wee, a Nanyang University political science graduate, was entrusted to run the Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant, a lifestyle brand under the hotel group, in 1996. The restaurant now has outlets in Singapore, Japan and Myanmar, while the Pan Pacific group has three brands – Pan Pacific, Parkroyal Collection, and Parkroyal – straddling over 30 cities in Asia Pacific, Africa, North America and Europe.
Nikki Ng – Sino Group
Nikki Ng hails from a long line of legendary property magnates in the Far East family. She is the eldest daughter of Singaporean businessman Robert Ng, who is the son of the late real estate billionaire Ng Teng Fong. Her uncle is Far East Organization CEO Philip Ng.
Ng has been part of the Hong Kong-headquartered Sino Group since 2002, and currently serves as its non-executive director and director of philanthropy.
The group comprises Sino Land Company, Tsim Sha Tsui Properties and Sino Hotels (Holdings). Its core business is property development for sales and investment, though it is also a major player in hotel investment and management.
Yale-educated Ng has driven charitable initiatives at Sino, like the non-profit Hong Kong Innovation Foundation and its integrated green community project Farm Together. She previously also served as the group’s general manager from 2002 until 2023, before moving onto her current role.
Sonia Cheng – Rosewood Group
Trained in applied mathematics at Harvard, Rosewood CEO Sonia Cheng is at the helm of a group with three hotels in the World’s 50 Best Hotels list, with Rosewood Hong Kong in third place.
Like the other women heading hotel groups on this list, Cheng is from a storied and wealthy family. Her grandfather was Hong Kong billionaire Cheng Yu-tung, who escaped the war in mainland China in 1938 to found the real estate and investment conglomerate New World Development. He later also took over the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery store from his father-in-law.
Her father, Henry Cheng, is now the chairman of New World Development and the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery store, with Sonia Cheng the vice-president of the latter.
Cheng started her career in banking and finance before joining the family business as CEO at the age of 28, driving the expansion of Rosewood. This includes the first hotel to open under her leadership, the Rosewood London in 2013. She has since added the wellness concept Asaya, kids’ club programme Rosewood Explorers Club and private members’ club Carlyle & Co to the group’s portfolio.
Lee Boo-Jin – Hotel Shilla
The president and CEO of South Korea’s Hotel Shilla, Lee Boo-Jin, is the younger sister of Samsung Electronics executive chairman Lee Jae-yong and elder sister of Samsung Welfare Foundation chairman Lee Seo-hyun.
Their father is Samsung Group patriarch Lee Kun-hee, with Boo-Jin previously having been the chairman of Samsung Construction and Trading Corporation.
Hotel Shilla operates 19 luxury hotels in South Korea and one in Vietnam, with Lee Boo-jin at the helm since 2011. It also owns duty-free stores at Seoul’s Incheon and Singapore’s Changi airports.
Lee is also considered a style icon in South Korea and had her name changed from Lee Yoo-jin at the age of three. She studied locally at Yonsei University, unlike her siblings, and was ranked the ninth-richest person in Korea in 2025 by Forbes.
Ho Ren Yung – Banyan Group
The deputy CEO of the Banyan Group, Ho Ren Yung has been part of her family’s business since 2009.
The daughter of the group’s co-founders Ho Kwon Ping and Claire Chiang, Ho Ren Yung studied at the London School of Economics and oversaw the company’s brand relaunch with 18 hotel openings in 2024. She took on the deputy CEO role a year ago.
Her parents established the luxury resort group in 1994, which now has 10 global brands. It manages and develops resorts, hotels and spas across the world in Asia, Europe, North America and Africa. Most recently, it opened the Mandai Rainforest Resort in the Mandai Wildlife Reserve.
Ho has also co-founded co-working space Kennel and was also the founding member of AVPN Asia Gender Network and Creative Mornings in Singapore.
Naphaporn Bodiratnangkura – Nai Lert Group
The CEO of Nai Lert Group and Nai Lert Park Development, Naphaporn Bodiratnangkura is a fourth generation leader of the hospitality company.
The eponymous Nai Lert was named after her great-grandfather, who started the firm in 1894 as an imported goods business. It later expanded into hotels and transport and is now involved in real estate, education and culture beyond its core hospitality focus.
At 11, the Bangkok-born Bodiratnangkura was sent to an all-girls boarding school in the United Kingdom. She went on to study hotel management at the University of Surrey before moving to New York to study at the Parsons School of Design.
When called back to Thailand by her grandmother, she thought her return would be short-lived. Having made her way up to the top job, Bodiratnangkura is now plugging gaps within Thailand’s hospitality sector through her family business.
Dawn Teo – Amara Hotels and Resorts
The senior vice-president of Amara Hotels and Resorts and the director of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development for Amara Holdings, Dawn Teo is also part of a well-known family business.
Her great-grandfather, Teo Teck Huat, founded the company in the 1930s as the Teo Teck Huat Group. It was initially involved in construction, including development of the iconic Cathay Cinema at Handy Road in the 1930s, before expanding its core business areas and changing its name.
The Amara Singapore hotel was developed and built by Dawn Teo’s grandfather, Teo Joo Lai, and opened in 1986. Dawn graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and worked in investment banking and wealth management for 15 years before joining the family business.
Outside of the family business, Teo is also the co-founder and director of Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film, a non-profit visual arts centre that supports filmmakers and photographers.
Charintip Tiyaphorn – Pimalai Resort & Spa
The owner representative of Pimalai Resort & Spa in Thailand, Charintip Tiyaphorn also started her career away from the family business. She initially worked in auditing, before completing a master’s in marketing and management.
After her graduation, she was coaxed to her father’s hotel to lead the accounting and finance department, before also taking over the sales and marketing department. Today, she is the owner representative at the resort.
Located on Koh Lanta, Pimalai Resort was opened in 2001 by Tiyaphorn’s father, Anurat Tiyaphorn, a former lawyer. Today, it boasts a reputation of being one of the most luxurious resorts on the island. It is also one of only 78 hotels to feature on the Small Luxury Hotels of the World’s (SLH) Considerate Collection for its sustainability efforts.
Carolyn Choo – Worldwide Hotels Group
The CEO and managing director of Worldwide Hotels Group, Carolyn Choo received an urgent call from billionaire hotelier Choo Chong Ngen, her father, in 2002 to join the family business.
At the time, she had been a management trainee at a local bank for over three years. Today, she has been in the top job for eight years.
Worldwide Hotels Group manages brands, including the well-known Hotel 81 chain. It also owns the Novotel Singapore on Kitchener hotel and the Mercure Icon hotel in Singapore, alongside 11 other hotels in the Asia-Pacific region.
The group has grown significantly since Choo joined, from having just three degree holders and 12 Hotel 81 properties to a key player in affordable hospitality today.
