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Bestowal of the Distinction of “Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de la Légion
d’Honneur” on Mr. Clement Kwok, Managing Director and Chief Executive
Officer, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited
Hong Kong, 9/01/2015
Speech by Mr Barthelemy, Consul General of France in Hong Kong & Macau
Check against delivery
Dear Clement Kwok,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,
First of all let me start by welcoming you all to the French Residence.
As you know, we are gathered tonight for an important moment. We are here to celebrate a
man, a man of decision, but most of all a man of care and attention to others. A man we all
esteem, and a man I feel happy to stand next to tonight.
Clement, you have become, over the course of your brilliant career, a friend of France. I have
tonight the true privilege to express, on behalf of the French government, my gratitude for
your exceptional contribution.
In a couple of minutes I will bestow you with a medal and a rank, Chevalier dans l’ordre de la
Légion d’Honneur, which all French people know about, cherish and look up to. It is a very
prestigious title, created by one of France’s historical figure, Napoleon, to reward those who
have made an outstanding contribution to our country. You truly deserve it.
I will now try to illustrate it as best as I can.
But before I go on, I would like to pause a minute to thank, and I’m sure you will agree, the
wonderful people who accompany you tonight.
Your dearest colleagues, your close friends, your beloved family, your wife Serena and your
two sons Dominic and Justin. I am sure they all played a decisive role in your achievements,
the achievements that we are celebrating tonight.
Dear Clement,
In every leader lie strong foundations, and you built yours along the River Thames, as a
student at the London School of Economics. After you graduated, you decided to stay for a
couple of years (maybe to enjoy the famous London sunny weather) and began your career
with Price Waterhouse as a Chartered Accountant. You then went on to work with Barclays,
before returning to Hong Kong in 1986 to work with Schroders Asia as an investment banker.
Your talent, attention to details and hard work did not go unnoticed as you were soon
promoted to head the corporate finance department. In 1996, you became CFO of one of
Media contact:
Ms Pauline DYKMANS, PR & Communications Manager, Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau
26/F, Tower II, Admiralty Centre, 18 Harcourt Road, Hong Kong
Tel: (+852) 3752 9921 / Fax: (+852) 3752 9905 / Email: press@consulfrance-hongkong.org
Website: www.consulfrance-hongkong.org / Facebook: www.facebook.com/franceinhk
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Hong Kong’s most iconic company, MTR; iconic and profitable, a detail I am sure no CFO
would want to overlook! You managed among other things the opening of the Airport Express
line, on of HK pride, maybe not as famous as the tramway but particularly cherished by its
visitors!
At last, in 2002, you were appointed in the position you still hold today, Managing Director
and President of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels group.
For almost 13 years now, you have been taking everyday decisions for a group of over 9000
employees spread among 10 Peninsula Hotels around the world, residential and commercial
properties and the well-known Peak Tramway.
So, of course, we are all wondering for your secrets. They most probably lie in your
personality, and I tried to gather along some clues I would like to share.
First, a short while after you took your position, you were confronted with the outburst of
SARS in Hong Kong, one of the worst crisis the hotel industry had ever to deal with. Hotels
even as prestigious as yours saw occupation rate plummet, and soon you had to take
decisions, hard decisions. And among your decisions one caught my attention: you decided
to engage every one of your employees to make sacrifices but to hold tight together through
this difficult period, while nobody would be laid off. It proves your appetite for long term view
rather than tyranny of short-term results. It probably explains why generations of families
continue working for the Peninsula Hotels since it was founded in 1866, some of which I am
sure are among us tonight.
As I said in my introduction, Clement, you are a man of decision. Not only of decision,
because everybody can make decisions, but a man of wise, carefully weighted, humancentered and forward-looking decisions.
The second story I wanted to share about you has to do with another key aspect of your
personality: your attention to details. The story is the opening of the Peninsula hotel in Paris
last summer. Like every one of your hotels, this one is absolutely unique. It is located in a
late 19th century majestic Haussmanian building, steps away from the Arc de Triomphe. It
took six years and France’s finest artisans, those who renovated the Louvre and the Chateau
de Versailles, to undertake the restorations needed to bring back its ultimate grandeur. The
result is stunning. It is an immense contribution to the preservation of French heritage, which
we could not be more thankful for.
This has of course a lot to do with your passionate attention for French culture and style. It
has a lot to do with your fine education and taste. I could go as far as to say it has also to do
with your charm and sympathy.
Dear Clement,
Aside from being a talented manager, you have a lot of “extracurricular activities”, if I may
say, so many it is hard to mention them all.
Media contact:
Ms Pauline DYKMANS, PR & Communications Manager, Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau
26/F, Tower II, Admiralty Centre, 18 Harcourt Road, Hong Kong
Tel: (+852) 3752 9921 / Fax: (+852) 3752 9905 / Email: press@consulfrance-hongkong.org
Website: www.consulfrance-hongkong.org / Facebook: www.facebook.com/franceinhk
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Despite your heavy schedule, you have relentlessly given time for the community. I am of
course tempted to talk about your time as Captain of the Hong Kong Golf Club, but it might
give away too much as to what a diplomat’s job is really about.
So instead I will mention one of your involvement that contributes to bringing France and
Hong Kong even closer together. Of course you all have heard about the French May, the
artistic festival organized each year by the French Consulate, with the ambition of bringing
art everywhere in theatres and on the streets of Hong Kong. Thanks to your implication,
Clement, we have organized countless press conferences, dinners, VIP stays at the
Peninsula Hong Kong. Last year, we even managed to bring the iconic French actress
Catherine Deneuve, alongside Johnny To and Wong Kar-Wai, through a Typhoon 8 dinner at
the Garden Suite. It gives a good measure of your team’s talents, and through your team
your own talents. Thanks for helping us striving to do what you do best : achieving perfection.
Dear Clement,
I was a bit long, and we all want to hear you now, but I felt it necessary. Let me now, in the
name of the President of The French Republic, officially thank you for a brilliant career,
attention to others and attachment to France.
Clement Kwok, au nom du Président de la République, je vous remets les insignes de
Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur.
Media contact:
Ms Pauline DYKMANS, PR & Communications Manager, Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau
26/F, Tower II, Admiralty Centre, 18 Harcourt Road, Hong Kong
Tel: (+852) 3752 9921 / Fax: (+852) 3752 9905 / Email: press@consulfrance-hongkong.org
Website: www.consulfrance-hongkong.org / Facebook: www.facebook.com/franceinhk