The Rosewood Hotel Group before and after

The very first hotel of the Rosewood Group was established in 1980, in Dallas, Texas, when the Mansion on Turtle Creek, a 1920s estate that had been the host to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Tennessee Williams, was reformed by a hotelier Caroline Rose Hunt. The group grew to own and manage premium hotel properties across the United States and Mexico.

Rosewood Hong Kong is the latest in a series of properties that Sonia Cheng has built since becoming CEO. In 2011, her family’s business New World Hospitality bought Rosewood from its Texan owner following which it announced its expansion to Thailand, the U.K, and China. Cheng renamed the company Rosewood Hotel Group and began the journey of reinventing the Rosewood brand for a younger generation of travellers and an era where luxury was being redefined in many ways. In 2018, the company unveiled plans for expansion in Munich, Houston, Yangon, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Venice, and Hermana Mayor, an island in the Philippines. Today the company comprises ultra-luxury Rosewood Hotels & Resorts®, deluxe New World Hotels & Resorts, and KHOS™, a dynamic global business lifestyle hotel brand. Motivated by the success of her grandfather and father and their advice that ‘people will make your business successful’, Sonia believes it is crucial to hire and develop the right people Managing personalities, different backgrounds, different skill sets, and being able to identify the strengths and weaknesses are most important according to her and are among the most challenging issues a CEO faces in a growing organisation. While she appreciates professionalism and education, she looks for passion, humility and collaborative attitudes when hiring for her team. “after all its people business,” she says. She believes in productive use of time and finishes off her emailing first thing when the work day begins. She is not averse to technology and uses whatsapp for communications but prefers an in-person meeting to encourage transparency and helps build a stronger culture of collaborative success.

Education and early career

Born in 1980 in Hong Kong, Sonia Cheng is the second child of Hong Kong billionaire property developer Henry Cheng. After studying in Hong Kong for some years, she moved to a private co-ed boarding school and went on to acquire a Bachelor of Arts degree in applied mathematics, with a concentration in economics from the prestigious Harvard University. With a Harvard Degree in hand and rising expectations from peers and family, Cheng kick started her career as a real estate investment banker at the American multinational investment bank Morgan Stanley. She moved to the private equity investment arena with Warburg Pincus, where she had to work in the field of real estate investing. In 2008, she joined New World Hospitality in 2011, she went on to become the CEO of the Rosewood Hotel Group.

Sonia Cheng, A Born Leader

Sonia Cheng is the Chief Executive Officer of the Rosewood Hotel Group and leads a team of accomplished industry specialists to expand the footprints of the Rosewood Hotel Group regionally and internationally. Apart from being the CEO of Rosewood Hotel Group, a brand which she helped reach new heights post its acquisition, she is the executive director of the Hong Kong-listed New World Development, executive director of New World China Land, and non-executive director of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group which constitute one of Hong Kong’s largest business clusters.
She has been named amongst ‘The Bloomberg 50’ by Bloomberg Businessweek and has even been listed amongst the 40 under 40 list by Fortune. According to lifestyle & luxury magazine Gafencu, she is listed amongst the 300 Most Powerful People in Hong Kong.
Sonia Cheng oversees a growing portfolio which has 67 global properties and manages her four young children at home all with ease. Along with her husband Paulo Pong, she founded the fine wine group Altaya, recognized as the ‘Best Wine Merchant of the Year Asia Pacific 2011′ by the Wandering Palate.

Achievements of Sonia Cheng

Apart from being the CEO, there is a long list of achievements as would be expected of a dynamic leader like her.

• The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference has Sonia Cheng as a member of its 13th Guangzhou Municipal Committee.
• She is an affiliate of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
• The consultative board of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong has appointed Sonia Cheng as one of its members.
• She is a member of the Y. Elites Association.
• She is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organisation,
• She is a member of the Hong Kong United Youth Association.
• She won the 2018 People of the Year award by Architectural Digest China.
• She has been listed in Asia’s 50 Power Businesswomen in 2015 & 2016 as per Forbes Asia.