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Barclay Crawford

In a city where those considered royalty boast proud histories of success and fortune, the Li family sit pretty close to the throne.
David Li Kwok-po's  family includes a who's who of some of the most powerful names in Hong Kong - many of whom have found themselves at the centre of controversy.
His brother, Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, is the former education secretary and cabinet official - and was one of the key players in an inquiry into government interference in academic freedom.
His cousin, Andrew Li Kwok-nang, is the chief justice.
One of David Li's uncles is Ronald Li Fook-shiu, a former chairman of the Hong Kong stock exchange, who in 1990 was  jailed for taking bribes in return for approving listings.
Uncle Simon Li Fook-sean  was a high court judge who ran unsuccessfully  for chief executive in 1996.
These are only a few of the prominent family  that has members in  law, government and business and has managed to juggle good ties with the British and  Beijing  for six generations.
David Li, 68, was born in London, educated at Cambridge and knighted by the Queen for services to British education. But he can still trace his origins to Waitun in the northeastern corner of Heshan county,  south of Guangzhou.
The family fortune was built by great-grandfather, Li Shek-tang, who imported rice  from Vietnam and ran a shipping company. David Li's grandfather, Li Koon-chun, took the fortune a step further, founding the Bank of East Asia in 1918, a significant moment as it was the first owned by local Chinese rather than British immigrants.
Mr Li is the chairman and chief executive of a bank that has grown into the city's third largest and the biggest that is locally controlled.
BEA has in recent years capitalised on its early steps into the mainland market to drive profits.  It announced a 20.6 per cent net growth in profit last week to HK$4.14 billion, driven partly by mainland earnings.
His prominent role at BEA - and his imposing collection of government and business connections - has seen him become the banking sector's representative in the Legislative Council, and take  roles in numerous professional organisations.
Mr Li is the chairman of The Chinese Banks' Association  and the Hong Kong Management Association. He is also a member of the Banking Advisory Committee and the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee.
These positions are in addition to sitting on numerous boards in Hong Kong and internationally, including on the SCMP Group, publishers of the South China Morning Post.
Little wonder  at his claim to sleep only four hours a night.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen appointed Mr Li director-general of his re-election campaign last year. The campaign headquarters  were the  bank's offices.
The dapper Mr Li is  outspoken and one of the more colourful  public figures.
He was once caught  having an affair   when he left his shoes, with his name  on them, outside  a Paris hotel room.
When  the city was being ravaged by the flow-on affects of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, he was one of the few prominent financial figures to propose abandoning the Hong Kong dollar's peg to the US dollar.
Mr Li was also the only senior banker to criticise the government over its approach to introducing Article 23 anti-subversion legislation.
Frank Ching, who wrote The Li Dynasty biography of the family, said Mr Li's entrepreneurial streak began at Cambridge, where he started studying medicine but quickly switched to maths.
A band he was playing in became a business opportunity with the opening of a nightclub. 'We offered discounts to girls and before you knew it, people were flocking to hear us play every Saturday night and I managed to earn a sizeable  profit at the end of term,' he  had said.
This passion for money manifested itself in a  church hymn he wrote asking for guidance through the Heng Seng Index to 'put more dollars in my hand' and 'let my chequebook  buy my happiness'.
Mr Li is not the only member of his family to be the centre of recent controversy.
Arthur Li, who had been tipped as a future chief executive candidate, became embroiled in the controversy over allegations of  pressure from the government to force the Hong Kong Institute of Education to merge with Chinese University last year.
While he was cleared of allegations, the report into the incident damned his credibility as a witness and said it was 'more likely than not' that he told members of the institute's ruling council that the institute would be 'raped' if they did not agree to merge.



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