Founder’s Profile

About the Founder

Dr Lui was born in Jiangmen, China, in 1929 and settled down in Hong Kong with his family at the age of 5. The adversity and hardship that he experienced and witnessed in his young life planted in his heart the seeds of compassion and selflessness that shaped his future efforts.

A long-time philanthropist, Dr Lui has been particularly supportive of the development of education, medical care, innovative technology, arts and culture, environmental stewardship as well as the promotion of harmonious co-existence.

Over the past few decades, Dr Lui has donated considerable time and resources to a host of international charitable causes and institutions of higher learning. He has sponsored elementary education, scholarships, educational facilities, academic research and exchange programmes, because of his profound belief that education is essential for the betterment of society. He is also keen to share his business wisdom and philosophy with the younger generation, and has been recognised widely for his benevolence and charity work for the less fortunate.

In 1955, Dr Lui founded the first K. Wah company, focusing mainly on the supply of construction materials. Over the past six decades, due to his rich business acumen, Dr Lui has turned K. Wah Group into one of Asia’s largest and leading conglomerates with a diversified business portfolio that includes interests in properties, entertainment and leisure, hospitality and construction materials. Rooted in Hong Kong, the K. Wah Group now operates across Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Southeast Asia and major cities in the United States with over 33,000 employees worldwide.

Family History

Dr Lui’s family history is rich in tradition and spans cultures and continents.

Mr Lui Dak Ying, the great grandfather of Dr Lui Che-woo, was born in 1869 in Jiangmen, China. After he moved to the United States in 1885, Mr Lui Dak Ying worked in a farm in California to earn a living. Faced with many hardships in the new world, Mr Lui Dak Ying returned and settled down in China at about the age of 50, leaving his son, Mr Lui Wing Hong, behind to continue his life in the United States. Mr Lui Wing Hong passed away at the age of 47 in Los Angeles.

Mr Lui Wing Hong’s only son, Mr. Lui Kam Chuen, was born in 1911 and raised in Jiangmen. Having inherited the assets from his ancestors, Mr Lui Kam Chuen was able to enjoy a comfortable standard of living. At the age of 18, he married Ms Lee Bo Shuen. The couple’s firstborn and only son, Lui Che-woo, was followed by five sisters.

During the war that spread through China, Dr Lui’s family fled to the safety of the British colony of Hong Kong in 1934. Dr Lui was only five years of age at the time. The Second World War broke out a few years later and Hong Kong was under occupation in 1941. Dr Lui started his encounter with human deprivation and despair when he was forced to leave his schooling and began to earn a living as a hawker by selling food together with his grandmother. He deeply regretted being deprived of education in his early years and this instilled into his young mind the importance of education and knowledge as key forces behind a society’s well-being. This profound conviction was to shape his many philanthropic endeavours in the decades to come.