George Ho Cho-chi, GBS, OBE, JP (3 November 1919 – 4 June 2014) was a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

media mogul A media proprietor, media mogul or media tycoon refers to a entrepreneur who controls, through personal ownership or via a dominant position in any media-related company or enterprise, media consumed by many individuals. Those with significant co ...

. The fifth son of the influential businessman

Robert Hotung Sir Robert Ho Tung Bosman, (22 December 1862 – 26 April 1956), also known as Sir Robert Ho Tung, was a businessman and philanthropist in British Hong Kong. Known as "the grand old man of Hong Kong" (), he was knighted in 1915 (Knight Bachel ...

, George Ho was the founder of the

Commercial Radio Hong Kong Commercial Radio Hong Kong (CRHK, , aka Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company Limited is one of the two commercial radio broadcasting companies in Hong Kong along with Metro Radio Hong Kong. CRHK provides an array of entertainment, includ ...

and

Commercial Television Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. It was the United States′ first model of radio (an ...

Family and career

George Ho was the illegitimate son of

, then the most influential Eurasian compradore in Hong Kong, and Kate Archer. George was bequeathed a substantial amount of money directly and indirectly. His grandfather through Robert Hotung was a Jewish Dutch man Charles Henry Maurice Bosman. George Ho studied at

King's College, Hong Kong King's College (), often informally referred to simply as King's or K.C., is a single-sex boys' government-operated secondary school located at 63A Bonham Road, Mid-levels, Hong Kong. It currently serves as a secondary education institution ...

and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Instead of joining the family flagship company, George Ho founded his own business,

by obtaining a radio broadcasting licence through the connections and HK$50,000 inheritance from his father. George Ho gradually became an influential tycoon in the colony. He branched out into television, founding

in 1975. But the station closed three years later. He had also been director of

Jardine Matheson Holdings Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (also known as Jardines) is a Hong Kong-based Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange and ...

, Hongkong Land and

Bank of East Asia The Bank of East Asia Limited, often abbreviated to BEA, is a Hong Kong banking and financial services company, headquartered in Central, Hong Kong. It is currently the largest independent local Hong Kong bank, and one of two remaining family ...

. In 2001, George Ho was awarded a

Gold Bauhinia Star The Gold Bauhinia Star (, GBS) is the highest Bauhinia Star rank in the honours system of Hong Kong, created in 1997 to replace the British honours system of the Order of the British Empire after the transfer of sovereignty to People's Republic of ...

for his contribution to society. His son, George Joseph Ho, succeeded him as chairman of Commercial Radio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ho, George 1919 births 2014 deaths Alumni of King's College, Hong Kong Hong Kong businesspeople Officers of the Order of the British Empire Knights Bachelor Recipients of the Gold Bauhinia Star Hong Kong people of Dutch-Jewish descent University of California, Berkeley alumni Ho family

Family and career

See also

References