Name: Opening Keynote | Fortune Leaders Forum 2026
Uploaded: 2026-09-08
Duration: 7 min 28 s
Description: Daisy Ho, Managing Director of SJM Resorts, S.A., takes the stage to open the Fortune Leaders Forum Macau with the event's keynote address. Daisy Ho, Managing Director, SJM Resorts, S.A.

Daisy Ho, Managing Director of SJM Resorts, S.A., takes the stage to open the Fortune Leaders Forum Macau with the event's keynote address.

Daisy Ho, Managing Director, SJM Resorts, S.A.

Opening Keynote | Fortune Leaders Forum 2026

Conferences

Mr. Lee Williamson, distinguished guest, good morning. Lee, thank you for setting the tone for our discussions today and together with your fortune colleagues for bringing together leaders of such exceptional caliber. It is a great pleasure to welcome all of you to Macau and to the Grand Palace. This is the first Fortune Leaders Forum to be held in Macau. And SJM is proud to serve as host partner to an organization that for almost a century has been one of the world's most respected voices in business. I believe our theme, leadership in the age of convergence and complexity is particularly resonant today as it features, as it captures a paradox that many of us experience firsthand. No generation has had more information, more computing power, or easier ways to connect. Yet business leaders often find it harder, not easier to see what lies ahead. Why is this so? The reason is not simply that change is accelerating. Economies and industries are also now so tightly connected that when one part sneezes, others could catch cold. In such an environment, leaders must understand not only the decision before them, but how it will affect and be affected by the wider world. When we must deal without complete clarity of the future, clarity of purpose becomes decisive. Decisions will be taken at different times by different people and under different assumptions. Yet purpose remains the one constant, the North Star that keeps everyone moving in the same direction. For Macau, being at the center of a collusion of forces is nothing new. We have long connected East and West, China and the world, commerce and culture. Our city's identity was built through exchange, and our progress has come from an ability to turn changing circumstances into new opportunities. Among Macau's integrated resort operators, SJM is the only one with roots in this city. For more than 6 decades, we have walked alongside Macau from the opening of its tourism market in the 1960s through the handover, the liberalization of the gaming industry, the years of the pandemic, and the city's integration into the Greater Bay Area. At each stage, we learned that progress did not depend on knowing exactly what came next, but on recognizing what was worth carrying forward. Our foundations are in gaming and hospitality. But as Macau continued to evolve, we looked inward at the strengths we have built over decades and how we could make them relevant in the new era for Macau. Gastronomy is a strong case in point. Long before it was widely recognized as a defining part of the travel experience, our founder, my late father, Doctor S Stanny Ho, invited the legendary Joel Rubuchon to open, to open Rubichon Aguilera at Hotel Lisboll in 2001. When the Michelin Guide arrived in Hong Kong and Macau in 2009, it became the first Western restaurant across the two cities to receive 3 stars, placing Macau firmly on the international culinary map, and has retained those three stars for 18 consecutive years. From that beginning, we have built a dining portfolio that together with our parent company now hosts 10 Michelin stars across 8 establishments, the highest total in Hong Kong and Macau. In the process, SJM has become a cradle of culinary talent, a proud contributor to Macau's standing as a UNESCO Creative city of gastronomy and giving the world another compelling reason to experience our city. The same spirit also lies behind our longstanding involvement in the Macau Grand Prix, the International Dragon boat races, the Macau Golf Open, and many more events that are deeply woven into the histories of both SJM and Macau. Over the years, we have helped nurture them, expand their intention international reach and establish them as signature features of the city's tourism calendar. Importantly, the value they create does not stop at our doors. Our support for cultural traditions help keep them alive in the community. The international events we champion bring recognition and opportunity to the city, and our investment in people helps local talent grow and flourish. Visitors experience Macau as a whole, and we are one part of that whole. What held us together was the conviction that SJM success is inseparable from Macau's. That conviction has allowed us to look beyond the immediate return from a restaurant or sporting event and consider the wider value each can create for Macau as a destination. It is also why lending our full support to this forum is so meaningful for us. At a time when no single industry posses all the answers fortune has brought to Macau, leaders who might not otherwise share a table. This exchange will not only strengthen our our city's role as an international center for business dialogue and collaboration, but its substance is directly relevant to Macau's next chapter. Today's discussion on technology and talent, finance and health, travel and destination economies, and the future of the Greater Bay Area all touch upon Macau's 1 + 4 diversification strategy. Their relevance lies not only in each field individually, but in the connections between them. And those connections matter as much to the economies represented in this room as they do to ours. Therefore, on behalf of SJM I thank fortune for bringing this forum to Macau, and I thank all our speakers and delegates for contributing your experience and perspective. This evening, the Grand Hall will bring together 6 of our Michelin recognized restaurants and the chefs behind them. What I have described this morning is better experience than explained. I hope you will also find time to enjoy the city itself, and that you leave with a sense not only of what Macau has been, but of what it is becoming. Thank you.