Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming september 2016 22 Asian Gaming POWER 50 2 0 1 6 Wilfred Wong EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PRESIDENT AND CEO Sands China Power 1,699 Last – Score year Claims to fame Sands China’s first Chinese President Experience in construction and property development Well-connected politically Sands China President and COO Wilfred Wong has been everything the company could have hoped for in the run-up to the opening on Cotai this month of the US$2.7 billion Parisian Macao. A seasoned, politically connected construction and property executive, he was appointed last September and when he formally took over on 1 November – succeeding Las Vegas Sands President Rob Goldstein, who was filling in after Ed Tracy retired – it marked the first time LVS had given the keys to its biggest money-maker to someone from outside the industry. Perhaps more significantly, it was also the first time the job of managing its Chinese subsidiary had gone to someone Chinese. But LVS and Mr Wong were far from strangers. Hong Kong- based Hsin Chong Construction Group, whose board of directors he chairs, has had a hand in the construction of every LVS casino in Macau, according to Hsin Chong, and its Hsin Chong Engineering (Macau) unit has been an important contractor on the Parisian. Mr Wong has held positions in top management at Sands rival Lui Che Woo’s K. Wah International Holdings; in Henderson China Holdings, a privately owned, Hong Kong-based company engaged in property development and management in the PRC; in Shui On Group, whose holdings include property development, construction and construction materials in Hong Kong and on the mainland; and in Synergis Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Hsin Chong specializing in property management and maintenance. He also chairs the Pacific Basin Economic Council, an influential alignment of corporations advising governments in the region on ways to improve their business environments and reduce trade barriers. As LVS Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson noted in a statement at the time of his appointment, “Wilfred has a unique combination of private and public-sector experience we think will be invaluable to the company at this point in our history.” LVS and Sands China have suffered a few dings to their public image over the years. LVS has faced US government investigations (the Las Vegas operation was heavily fined at one point for significant lapses in its AML compliance) and has endured more than one high-profile lawsuit casting a shadow on its dealings in China. As it seeks a smooth path to the renewal of its Macau gaming concession in 2022 and government support for future developments it’s not going to hurt to have a mover and shaker of Mr Wong’s caliber advancing the cause with the powers that be locally and in Beijing. It’s a role to which the Harvard graduate brings a career in public service that is as distinguished as it is long. He served as Hong Kong’s Deputy Secretary for the Civil Service and Deputy Director General of Industry. He was intimately involved in the restructuring of the territory as a Special Administrative Region of the PRC as a member of The Basic Law Consultative Committee, a member of the Preliminary Working Committee for the Hong Kong SAR Preparatory Committee and a member of the Preparatory Committee. When the SAR was founded in 1997 he was one of its deputies to the National People’s Congress and held the seat for 15 years. 10