Macau gaming icon Stanley Ho stepping down as SJM chairman

Macau casino icon Stanley Ho is at long last stepping down as chairman of the company he founded, SJM Holdings.

On Thursday, SJM informed investors that the 96-year-old Ho intends to resign as chairman, executive director and a member of the executive committee at the conclusion of the company’s annual general meeting in Hong Kong on June 12. Ho will subsequently be appointed chairman emeritus.

Stanley’s daughter Daisy Ho, a current SJM board member, will succeed her father as chair. Stanley’s ‘fourth wife’ Angela Leong and Timothy Fok Tsun Ting will be appointed co-chair and executive directors, while SJM CEO Ambrose So will be named vice-chair, executive director and CEO.

Stanley, whom SJM says “has justifiably been acknowledged as the founding father of Macau’s gaming industry,” has been relinquishing his business duties and divesting his stock holdings in recent years as his health began to fail. In June 2017, he turned over control of his Shun Tak Holdings conglomerate to his daughter Pansy Ho.