Adrian Ho, Executive Director of China Water & Energy Limited, on investing in clean energy in Xinjiang, and building a 185,000-strong following for his Facebook group, Save HK…

What was your childhood and upbringing like?
I grew up in the ’80s in Hong Kong, and my childhood, to this day, is one of the best periods of my life. I grew up in a very traditional family with strong family values. I have two siblings that I’m still close with to this day, and our parents were wonderful providers who ensured we never needed to worry about anything except school, which was truly a blessing.

Tell us about your parents and the impact they had on you.
My father is a businessman and my mother was a full-time homemaker, so she stayed home to take care of three kids. Everything they did was in the best interest of the family, and it still is to this day. I was raised in a very strict, traditional Chinese family and my parents had very high expectations for my siblings and myself, and that in turn made us expect more of ourselves as well. I am so grateful and I feel so lucky for their support.

What path did your education take?
Growing up, I was enrolled in a local school in Hong Kong. During that time, there was an immigration wave of people migrating to Canada, including many of my relatives, but my parents chose to stay and put us through the education system here. I went to La Salle Primary School, then to La Salle College.
At 13, I moved to become a boarding student at the Repton School in Darbyshire, UK for five years. After graduating, I wanted to see something new and make a change after five years in the UK, so I enrolled in a university in the US. I was admitted to the Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania, and I got my bachelor’s degree in finance there in 2000. Back then, I didn’t want to pursue a career in finance, but it was one of the most popular majors,  and one that my parents encouraged.

How did you start your professional career?
After graduating, I returned to Hong Kong. I had been away from home for nine years, and despite the outbreak of the Asian Financial Crisis, I wanted to return to the city and my family. I started working for a local investment bank for three years, before moving onto a Taiwanese boutique investment firm with a much more Western work culture. In all, I was a banker for seven years.

Why did you give up banking?

It actually came about because my friend and I were having a conversation about a hot topic at the time, and because it was not related to finance, I had absolutely no idea. I realised that my world was completely immersed in the finance and banking sphere, and anything beyond that was foreign to me. I wanted to expand my horizons from that, so I quit banking and started my own business.

“I wanted to expand my horizons, so I quit banking and started my own business”

Tell us about your company, China Water & Energy Limited, and your wind energy projects in Xinjiang.
We started off importing high-quality foreign disinfectant products into Hong Kong. After two years, though, we were overrun by bigger businesses with better funding, so we knew we had to evolve into something else. Coincidentally, we were introduced into the energy sector. I’ve always been interested in the environmental business, conservation and protection, and I wanted to get into that. We were introduced to wind energy when we consulted on a wind energy project for some folks who had worked for GE Energy Finance, and we realised we should pursue this in China in an investor capacity. At the time, wind energy was already a mature industry there, so we wanted to find a less developed location with untapped potential. That’s why we chose Xinjiang and today we invest in wind farms there.

How has Covid-19 impacted your daily routine?
To be honest, even before the pandemic, the bulk of my work was done remotely over the phone or through emails, so the only real difference is the lack of travel. My schedule used to vary from flying weekly to once a month into China, and that has definitely been put on pause now. 

What led you to start Save HK? When did you found it?
Our Facebook group Save HK actually just celebrated its first-year anniversary. It actually came about as a beautiful coincidence. My friend and I were talking about the situation in Hong Kong, how troublesome and chaotic it had become. He was the one who suggested opening a social media group to let close friends and family talk about the current situation and Hong Kong’s future safely without being judged or attacked, particularly because at that time, it wasn’t popular to voice certain opinion.
That very night, we started the group with five or six close friends. To tell you the truth, we never envisioned it would grow to become what it is today, it was just supposed to be for us. Then word started to get out that there is a closed Facebook group for people to voice their opinions and suddenly, it became very popular amongst rational Hong Kong people. The rest is history, and today we have 185,000 members.

Can you tell us what Save HK’s philosophy is all about?
Basically we are a closed Facebook group that encourages our members to voice their opinions and share their vision for Hong Kong’s future. In particular we want to maintain a safe space for people to be able to talk about the recent troubles without judgment and how we can help Hong Kong become better. We also want to leverage our presence into offline activities that can help Hongkongers, such as charity work to help people in need. In terms of future plans, we hope to expand our charitable activities to help even more people in Hong Kong, while also trying to unite more rational people to help each other during these hard times.

What is the secret to Save HK’s success?
I think it’s because we are able to accommodate a wider spectrum of opinions, even among the rational set. I think this is how we differentiate ourselves from similar groups, because they only allow a much narrower spectrum of opinions.
Also, when we started Save HK, there was a huge reliance on the founders to maintain the group with different posts and opinions and comments. So I believe one of the biggest reasons for our success is that the group’s founders all come from a very similar background with a similar point of view. From the beginning, I think people realised that we were rational,  educated and civilised people, and I think other like-minded people were very drawn to finding this safe space.
As I mentioned, the original idea was never to have 185,000 members. Our growth was 100 percent driven by word of mouth, and today you see members from different parts of the world, different careers and education and an even broader purview than our original niche positioning.

What are Save HK’s biggest successes?
With the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, we at Save HK wanted to help the community so we started to brainstorm on some ideas. One of those was to distribute masks and disinfectant products to those in need. We’ve done a few trips around town to low-income areas to ensure they have enough supplies during this difficult time. We also recently held an online fundraising concert in June and we were able to raise over HK$500,000 for two local charities that primarily help single-parent families as well as children from a low-income background, so I’m very proud of that as well.

“Save HK’s growth was 100 percent driven by word of mouth… we now have 185,000 members”

Any upcoming projects or collaborations?
Actually, we just finished an exciting project. A new song was written and composed by a Save HK member, and I arranged it to be performed by several KOLs. It was just released this morning, and it pays tribute to front-line medical workers, especially the ones who came from China. It’s very meaningful and I’m very proud of it.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
A family elder once told me that success can only be determined in a 20-year timeframe. What you do now, be it failure or achievement, can only be deemed as such in hindsight. If you’ve stumbled, don’t give up, the race isn’t finished.

What’s a secret people don’t know about you.
I’ve never watched Titanic, nor do I want to.

RAPID-FIRE ROUND
Favourite movie: Die Hard
Favourite movie quote: “Sometimes you just got to say what the F, make your move” – Risky Business
Biggest item on your bucket list: To write a song
Favourite sport: Wrestling
The Rock or Stone Cold: Stone Cold by a hair. When I saw my first Wrestlemania in Boston, that’s when he won his first championship.

Thank you.

 

Interview by: Tenzing Thondup
Photos: Jack Law
Styling: Jhoshwa Ledesma
Venue: Bertie’s Cigars