Sir Yue-Kong Pao CBE JP (; 10 November 1918 — 23 September 1991), is the founder of Hong Kong's Worldwide Shipping Group which in the 20 years from purchasing its first used ship in 1955 became by far the largest shipping company in the world with over . Anticipating the seriousness of the shipping downturn starting in the late 1970s, he drastically reduced his fleet and was able to pay off associated debt and raise cash to diversify his interests notably through the purchase of a controlling stake in The Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company Limited (now known as Wharf (Holdings)) and later Wheelock Marden giving exposure to Hong Kong real estate, shipping terminals, retail, ferries, and trams. He was noted for his unmatched access to leaders in both the commercial and political arenas and was equally at ease with Western political leaders and the Chinese leadership in the run-up to Hong Kong's ceasing to be a British colony in 1997 (for example Margaret Thatcher wrote the foreword to his biography published in 1990 and he was appointed a Vice-Chairman of the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee planning Hong Kong's constitution after 1997). He was also a generous philanthropist notably in educational projects (helping set up universities, libraries, and scholarship schemes). He died in 1991 but his corporate legacy continues to be controlled and run by his family. Early life Pao was born in 1918 in Ningbo, the third of seven children of an upper-middle-class family. He was a 29th-generation descendant of Bao Zheng. In 1931, he went to Hankou to work in his father's shoe manufacturing business whilst continuing his education at night. However, he decided that the shoe business did not suit him and he secured a traineeship with a foreign insurance company. By the age of twenty, he was established in his new position and married his wife Huang Sue-Ing, who was chosen by his parents. In 1937, Hankou came under attack from the Japanese, and Pao along with 70 colleagues moved to Hunan and then Shanghai whilst leaving his wife in the relative safety of Ningbo. As tension eased, he sent for his wife to join him. Career In the late 1930s in Shanghai, Pao found a position in the insurance department of the Central Trust of China. Pao was soon moving up the corporate ladder, moving into the area of banking, and