Richard Li

Richard Li, whose name is Li Tzar Kai, was born in November 1966 and is the second son of Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing. The UK Companies House register of directors records his nationality as Canadian.⁠[1][2][2][3]

He began his career as an investment banker in Canada and, after about four years, returned to Hong Kong to join the family business.⁠[3][3]

Soon after his return, he conceived and in 1991 launched the satellite programming venture Star TV, covering 38 countries in Asia and the Middle East. The venture was developed out of Hutchison Whampoa and was jointly owned by Hutchison Whampoa and the Li family; at the time Hong Kong had only two traditional broadcasters, Malaysia three and Singapore one.⁠[3][4][4][4]

Star TV was described as Asia’s first satellite-delivered cable television service, offering viewers used to Western fare films in Mandarin and music videos by Indian, Chinese and Korean performers; within three years its five channels reached 50 million households in 38 countries. In the early start-up years, the twenty-something Li was known for an imperious and abrasive management style.⁠[3][3][3][3]

Star TV had yet to turn a meaningful profit but attracted the interest of Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation had seen its attempt in February that year to take a minority stake in Hong Kong broadcaster Television Broadcasts (TVB) blocked by regulators. Star TV had been considering a private placement; Goldman Sachs advised bringing in a strategic investor and was appointed by the Li family as exclusive adviser. In July 1993, News Corporation agreed to buy a 63.5% interest in Star TV for US$525 million, at the time the largest merger in the Asian media industry; several weeks later, Hutchison Whampoa and the Li family sold News Corporation American depositary shares worth about US$300 million that they had received in the deal.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

Using the proceeds from the sale of Star TV, he founded the Asia-based private investment group Pacific Century Group (PCG), which invests in financial services, technology, media and telecommunications, and property, and he has since served as its chairman and chief executive; about US$400 million in profits from the News Corporation deal went into the group.⁠[5][6][7][3]

He is also chairman and an executive director of the Singapore-based Pacific Century Regional Developments.⁠[1]

On March 12, 1998, he announced a digital media company that planned to deliver internet access and information services to television sets and personal computers across Asia via satellite and cable networks; Intel owned 40% of the venture and provided financing and technology. He argued that what separated the parts of Asia that fared well in the financial crisis from those that did not was the availability of information. Analysts at the time were skeptical that he could repeat the success of Star TV.⁠[3][3][3][3]

At the time he was still a deputy chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, and Pacific Century also owned a life insurance company and property investments in Tokyo and Beijing.⁠[3][3]

On March 3, 1999, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary announced in his budget speech the HK$13 billion Cyberport project, which the government proposed to develop in partnership with Pacific Century Group at Telegraph Bay in Pok Fu Lam, with two-thirds of the site for the Cyberport and the rest for residential development. Through PCG’s efforts, Hewlett-Packard, Huawei, IBM, Oracle, Softbank, Sybase, Yahoo! and Pacific Convergence Corporation, a joint venture between PCG and Intel, signed letters of intent to become anchor tenants.⁠[8][8][8][8][8]

The project was accused of favoring PCG because it was not put out to public tender; on March 16 the government rejected the allegations, saying direct negotiations with PCG were an acceptable arrangement, citing reasons including that technology companies do not normally undertake large property developments and that a tender would cause delay. On April 29, the Executive Council agreed that the government should proceed with detailed discussions with PCG on the basis of the letter of intent.⁠[9][9][9][9][10]

In 1999, Pacific Century Group acquired control of Hong Kong-listed Tricom Holdings and renamed it Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW), later PCCW Limited. In August that year, Li became an executive director and chairman of the company, as well as chairman of its executive committee.⁠[11][1][1]

In February 2000, PCCW announced an offer for Cable & Wireless HKT, formerly The Hong Kong Telephone Company; the merger was completed on August 17 that year, forming a group with businesses in telecommunications, media, IT solutions and property.⁠[11][5]

In 2001, Li admitted that he was not a graduate of Stanford University; for the previous fourteen years his résumé had stated that he held a bachelor of science degree in computer engineering from the university, and a 1998 news report had likewise stated that he “graduated from Stanford in 1987.”⁠[12][3]

On October 15, 2001, he became a director of the Bank of East Asia, stepping down on May 5, 2017.⁠[2][2]

In September 2003, PCCW launched now TV; Pacific Century Group describes it as the world’s first major IPTV service, offering nearly 200 channels and the largest pay-TV operator in Hong Kong.⁠[11][5][5]

In November 2008, PCCW received a privatization proposal from its two major shareholders. Shareholders approved the delisting at a meeting on February 4, 2009, but the Securities and Futures Commission alleged that the vote had been rigged, contending that Francis Yuen, who had previously run Li’s insurance business, distributed shares to insurance agents who then attended the meeting and voted in favor in order to meet the requirement that a majority of shareholders present approve the proposal; it was the first time the SFC had exercised its power to intervene in such proceedings.⁠[11][13][13][13][13]

In April 2009, after the Court of First Instance of the High Court had sanctioned the privatization, the Court of Appeal sided with the SFC on appeal and rejected the roughly US$2.2 billion privatization proposal.⁠[11][13]

On January 20, 2009, the Hong Kong SAR government appointed Li, then chairman of PCCW, as one of Hong Kong, China’s representatives to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council, for a term to the end of 2010; in November 2014, the government announced new representatives to replace him on his departure.⁠[14][14][15]

In 2010, through Pacific Century Group, he acquired the asset management business of American International Group (AIG) and renamed it PineBridge Investments, which is majority owned and controlled by him.⁠[6][6]

In November 2011, PCCW spun off HKT for a separate listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, retaining a majority interest. Li is executive chairman and an executive director of HKT Limited and of HKT Management Limited, the trustee-manager of the HKT Trust, and chairman of HKT’s executive committee.⁠[11][1]

The same month, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia.⁠[1]

In 2013, he acquired ING Group’s life insurance companies in Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand, as well as its general insurance, employee benefits, Mandatory Provident Fund and financial planning businesses in Hong Kong, and launched the FWD brand with them. On August 14 that year, Pacific Century Group’s insurance businesses formally adopted the FWD name, and ING Hong Kong was renamed FWD Hong Kong.⁠[6][6][16][16]

In October 2013, through PCGI Holdings, he reached an agreement with a Swiss Re company, which agreed to invest up to US$425 million in FWD; after the investment he indirectly held 87.66% of FWD. The same month, FWD appointed Ronald Arculli as chairman of its board, and Li said this was an exciting growth period for Asia’s insurance industry and that FWD aimed to become one of the leading insurance companies in the pan-Asia region.⁠[6][6][17][17][17]

In December 2013, HKT agreed to acquire the entire share capital of CSL New World Mobility from Telstra and New World Development; the deal was completed in May 2014, making HKT the largest mobile service operator in Hong Kong.⁠[11][11]

FWD then entered several markets through new businesses and acquisitions: in June 2015 it acquired 50.1% of PT Finansial Wiramitra Danadyaksa in Indonesia; in 2016 it acquired Shenton Insurance in Singapore and Great Eastern (Life) in Vietnam; in April 2017 it entered Japan by acquiring AIG Fuji Life; in March 2019 it acquired 49% of HSBC Amanah Takaful in Malaysia; in September 2019 it acquired SCB Life, the life insurer of Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, for 92.7 billion baht (about US$3 billion); and in June 2020 it acquired MetLife’s Hong Kong businesses.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6][5][6]

In 2020, Pacific Century Group launched the international insurtech business bolttech, covering device protection, an insurtech exchange and digital insurance; it reached a valuation above US$1 billion after a US$180 million Series A in 2021, and in 2025 closed a Series C round reflecting a valuation of US$2.1 billion.⁠[5][5][5]

In November of that year, he became an executive director of FWD Group.⁠[6]

On May 11, 2021, Block.one announced the launch of the digital asset platform Bullish GlobalBullishBullish (NYSE: BLSH) is an institutionally focused global digital asset platform whose formation was announced by Block.one on May 11, 2021; its main businesses are Bullish Exchange (a digital asset spot and derivatives exchange) and CoinDesk’s indices, data, media and events businesses. It listed on the NYSE in August 2025 and obtained a New York State Department of Financial Services BitLicense in September; in May 2026 it announced a $4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti (pending completion), and in August it launched trading of tokenized BLSH shares on its exchange regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. The company is a foreign private issuer with its principal executive offices in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.Open the full entry, whose initial capital included US$100 million in cash, 164,000 bitcoin and 20 million EOS injected by Block.one, plus a separately completed US$300 million strategic investment round. Li was among the investors leading that round and, together with Peter ThielPeter ThielPeter Thiel is an American entrepreneur and investor, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and the first outside investor in Facebook. He is a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund and founded the Thiel Fellowship, which funds young people to leave college and build new things; his public skepticism of higher education, his support for Trump in 2016, and his funding of litigation against Gawker Media have drawn controversy.Open the full entry, Alan HowardAlan HowardAlan Howard is a British macro hedge fund manager who in 2002 co-founded Brevan Howard with fellow traders from Credit Suisse First Boston and built it into one of Europe’s largest hedge fund managers. After stepping down as chief executive in 2019, he focused on his own trading, and in 2021 he took part in Bullish’s strategic funding round and became a senior advisor to the company.Open the full entry and Christian AngermayerChristian AngermayerChristian Angermayer is a German entrepreneur and investor and the founder of Apeiron Investment Group, a private investment firm and family office. He co-founded the RNA interference company Ribopharma in 2000 and, in 2018, co-founded atai Life Sciences, a biotechnology company developing mental health treatments including psychedelic compounds (AtaiBeckley after its 2025 combination with Beckley Psytech), where he is chairman of the board; he is also co-founder and chairman of the board of Enhanced, a sports competition and wellness company.Open the full entry, became a senior adviser to Bullish.⁠[18][18][18][19]

On September 24, 2021, FWD announced that it had filed a Form F-1 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed listing of American depositary shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FWD.” The registration statement identified Li as FWD’s controlling shareholder. The New York listing was abandoned after regulatory scrutiny, and later attempts to list in Hong Kong stalled amid a weak market.⁠[20][20][6][21][21]

On July 7, 2025, FWD Group listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code 1828, raising HK$3.5 billion (about US$442 million) in its initial public offering, and Li attended the listing ceremony. As of the listing, he held about 66.5% of FWD through various corporate entities.⁠[21][5][21][21]

As of October 2026, Li is chairman and chief executive of Pacific Century Group, chairman and an executive director of PCCW, an executive director of FWD Group, executive chairman of HKT and an executive director of Pacific Century Premium Developments; he is a member of the International Councillors’ Group of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).⁠[1][1][1]

He holds a pilot’s license and a rescue scuba diver license.⁠[22]

Pacific Century Group: Official website: https://www.pcg-group.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[22]

PCCW: Official website: https://www.pccw.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

FWD Group: Official website: https://www.fwd.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[23]