James Tak Wu, GBS, (; 1922 – 29 October 2020) 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 ...

businessman who co-founded

Maxim's Catering Maxim's Caterers Limited () is a Hong Kong based food, beverage and restaurant chain. It is jointly owned by Dairy Farm International Holdings Limited and Hong Kong Caterers Ltd. Founded in 1956, the company operates over 1,000 outlets in Hong ...

(now a major subsidiary of Dairy Farm International Holdings) and co-founded a chain of restaurants, nightclubs, fast-food outlets, cake and coffee shops, institutional catering units and theaters throughout Hong Kong. As of 2015, Wu remained Honorary Chairman of Maxim's Group under Jardine Matheson's ownership.

Background

With ancestry from

Taishan __NOTOC__ Taishan may refer to: *Mount Tai or Taishan (), Shandong, China *Taishan District, Tai'an (), named after the Mount Tai, a district in Tai'an, Shandong, China *Taishan, Guangdong (), a county-level city of Jiangmen, Guangdong, China **Gre ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, he was born in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and educated in

, Wu graduated from Lingnan University in Guangzhou in 1947. With brother S.T. Wu, Wu established

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and t ...

, Hong Kong, in 1956 and, by 1967, had a thriving business. Wu was a member of the Hong Kong Tourism Board in 2002.

Family

He is the father of

Annie Wu Suk-ching Annie Wu Suk-ching, SBS, JP (; born 13 September 1948) is a Hong Kong businesswoman of Taishan, Guangdong origin. She is the eldest daughter of Dr James Tak Wu, founder of Maxim's Catering, and is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chines ...

Honours

Wu is Honorary Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Chairman of the Development & Planning Council, whose focus is on nurturing professional management talent for Southern China. *He holds Honorary Doctorates from the Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou and Springfield College in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...

. *In 2009, he was awarded the

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 ...

by the Hong Kong SAR Government. *He was named "Honorary Citizen of Guangzhou" by the municipal government of his native Guangzhou in 2003.

Death

On 19 November 2020, the Maxim's Group published a post on its website, announcing Wu had died on 29 October 2020 at

Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, or HKSH, is a private hospital established in 1922 in Happy Valley, Hong Kong. The hospital has more than 500 beds and various room types and facilities. It also has a 24 hours outpatient consultation service. ...

, aged 98.

Legacy

*The Dr and Mrs James Tak Wu Award for Outstanding Service (

Lingnan University Lingnan University (LN/LU), formerly called Lingnan College, is a public liberal arts university in Hong Kong. It aims to provide students with an education in the liberal arts tradition and has joined the Global Liberal Arts Alliance since ...

; established 1998)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, James Tak 1922 births 2020 deaths Hong Kong chief executives Hong Kong restaurateurs Lingnan University (Guangzhou) alumni Nightclub owners Recipients of the Silver Bauhinia Star American emigrants to Hong Kong