Page 53 - Forbes - Asia (March 2020)

51

ANDRE K OO

Koo graduated from the New York Military Academy (left page).
Posing with his father Jeffrey Koo Sr. (left). As a cadet, Koo’s
responsibilities included caring for horses and their stables (top).
Koo says the academy drilled into him a strong work ethic and
discipline that he credits with his success today.

The youngest of Jeffrey Sr.’s three sons, Koo
started down a different path before becoming
chairman of Chailease. Lured by its glossy bro-
chures, he convinced his parents to enroll him
at age 14 in the New York Military Academy,
whose notable alumni include Donald Trump.
Once there, he found he wasn’t prepared for
the rigors of military school. “I thought about
quitting several times,” he says. He’s now glad
he stuck it out—he says the academy instilled
corporate defaults. Chailease’s lending in mainland China a strong work ethic and discipline that helped
grew 26% in 2019 to NT$131 billion ($4.4 billion), to more him to succeed.
than a third of the company’s almost $13 billion total port- Koo followed in his father’s footsteps to earn
folio. “We might slow down a little bit because of the vi- his M.B.A. from NYU’s Stern School in 1994,
rus situation,” says Chailease senior executive vice president then stayed in New York to work at real estate in-
Kevin Liao. Although Chailease’s Wuhan office is closed (for vestment firm Colony Capital for a year. “[Found-
now), he says: “We expect continuous growth in China in er] Thomas Barrack showed me the ropes and
the next 10, 20 years without question.” got me excited about real estate,” says Koo. “It
shaped what I wanted to do.”
hailease is only a small piece of a much larg-
Koo left Colony to oversee his family’s U.S.
C er family empire, started over a century ago property investments, including Hilton and
by Koo’s great grandfather, Koo Hsien-jung.
Radisson hotels across the country. “That was the
most enjoyable, fun part of my life,” he says of his
The crown jewel is CTBC Bank, founded by
COURTESY OF CHAILEASE HOLDINGS for a time by Koo’s oldest brother and Wharton grad Jef- Sr. called his youngest son back to Taiwan to join
Koo’s father Jeffrey Sr. in 1966 and helmed
two years in hospitality. In 1996, though, Jeffrey
a backwater of his empire, Chailease.
frey Jr., now 55. With $105 billion in assets in 2018, it is
Taiwan’s largest private bank by assets. Next is investment
Koo’s first assignment: learn about the divi-
sions under the Chailease brand. Chailease was
bank China Development Financial Holdings, with $100
billion in assets, where Jeffrey Sr.’s second son and Whar-
already filling a vital gap in Taiwan’s financial
ton alum Angelo Koo, 54, served for five years as chairman
ecosystem, providing loans to small companies
(and now runs one of its subsidiaries).

MAR CH 2020 that most banks shunned as too high-risk and
F ORBES A SIA