It was a privilege to have Kwon Ping Ho, who is Founder and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings and Laguna Resorts and Hotels, join us for a lively fireside chat session held at Antler’s office (our generous venue sponsor).

Despite being a dropout from Stanford University, an Internal Security Act detainee and experiencing an initial business failure in China during his younger days, Kwon Ping persevered, co-founded and built home-grown hospitality company Banyan Tree to be an internationally acclaimed luxury hotel group.

Kwon Ping was meant to spend 1.5hrs with us sharing his fascinating 30-year entrepreneurial journey, succession planning in a family business, and lessons on leadership and entrepreneurship. But he generously stayed an extra hour for a lively Q&A session and interacted with our enthusiastic Harvard alumni attendees. I am sure we all went away that night feeling at least inspired to pursue our dreams and not be disheartened by past failures and major setbacks.