Philip N. L. Chen
Chief Executive
Cathay Pacific Airways, Ltd.
Philip Chen is chief executive of Cathay Pacific Airways. He first joined the company in 1977. Prior to his current appointment, he was deputy managing director from April 1997 to June 1998 and COO from July 1998 to December 2004.
Mr. Chen was the chief executive of Hong Kong Dragon Airlines from 1994 to 1997. Dragonair became one of the most successful and profitable airlines in the world during his time, after suffering major losses earlier. Before his appointment at Dragonair, Mr. Chen was regional general manager of Southeast Asia for Cathay Pacific, based in Singapore, from 1992 to 1994. That was the largest region in Cathay Pacific in terms of staff numbers and on-line cities. From 1989 to 1992, he was based for almost three years in Beijing as the chief representative and general manager of Swire China, covering a wide range of different businesses. The posting gave him a unique opportunity and the invaluable experience to learn about many different parts of China.
Mr. Chen attended Wah Yan College in Hong Kong and received a BA, a DMS, and an MBA from the University of Hong Kong, where he received the Tom Martyn-Jones Memorial Award. He was employed by the University of Hong Kong from 1984 to 1988 in charge of the marketing module in the University's MBA program. In 1995, he attended the Stanford Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He is currently a director of Swire Pacific Limited, John Swire & Sons (Hong Kong) Limited and John Swire & Sons (China) Limited. He also serves on a number of industry and educational organizations and committees.
