Obituary
I was deeply saddened by yesterday’s news of Stanley Ho Hung Sun’s passing but the media coverage of his departure also triggered fond memories of one of the most likeable personages I was fortunate to meet during nearly four decades of reporting.
Apart from his sheer likeability, the other characteristic that struck me most was his extraordinary approachability. I have met very few other big names in my professional life as a journalist who were as easily approachable as Stanley Ho.
I still remember my first interview with him in the mid-1980s when he received a colleague from Jornal “Va Kio”, Henry Tam Kai Hung, and my-humble-self at his office overlooking Victoria Harbour to talk about his future development projects for STDM, which then ran the government’s casino monopoly concession. We were impressed by his forthrightness in answering our questions and his pleasant demeanour, and we were also captivated by his knowledge of even the minutest details of his company’s projects and bold vision for Macau’s future. One of the things he mentioned in the interview was his plan to build a “second Lisboa” casino-hotel on what then was still a muddy or dusty (depending on the weather) football pitch next to Hotel Lisboa. Well, that is where we have the Grand Lisboa nowadays.
I also remember a TV interview at his private Repulse Bay Road mansion in the late 1980s. After the interview the team’s seasoned cameraman and sound technician told me that they had never met “such an easygoing magnate.” They made it a point to underline that both of them had met quite a number of business moguls for TV interviews on various continents, “but none was like him.” They were right.
I also remember Stanley Ho several times asking his highly capable PR team in Macau – Julie de Senna Fernandes and Constance “Mimi” Chan – to request my presence at his office to clarify a few issues about an article I wrote. The meetings always turned out to be straightforward, informative and, last but not least, humorous.
Indeed, Stanley Ho was a very humorous person. His joke-laden speeches at STDM and later SJM’s Chinese New Year banquets were legendary. No doubt, Stanley Ho was not only an astute business mogul but also an adept PR and media relations person. I guess that he was the first local business leader who had his own professional PR team. His relations with the media in Macau, Hong Kong and elsewhere were famously easygoing. No doubt, Stanley Ho liked the press and the press liked him. Unlike others in his field of business, he never came across as arrogant or aloof. Some of Macau’s current casino bosses and media relations staffers could have learnt a lot from him.
Stanley Ho was not only a beloved family patriarch, as his bereaved family rightly pointed out in their statement yesterday, but he was also the undisputed patriarch of Macau’s gaming industry. He will be dearly missed but also be remembered as one of the most approachable business leaders ever.
In my own name and on behalf of our team, I express herewith my deepest sympathy to his bereaved family.
– Harald Brüning
