Most Powerful Women Asia

Malina Ngai

Courtesy of AS Watson
  • Title
    Group Chief Executive Officer
  • Company/Affiliation
    AS Watson
  • Country/Territory
    Hong Kong SAR

Malina Ngai, once a competitive rower for the city of Hong Kong, leads the world's largest international health and beauty retailer, with 17,000 stores across 31 different markets. Since becoming group CEO of AS Watson in 2024, Ngai has pushed the company deeper into "O+O retail," fusing physical stores, digital platforms, and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. AS Watson, the retail division of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, reported revenue of 209 billion Hong Kong dollars ($26 billion) last year, a 10% jump. At the Fortune Leaders Forum in Macau this month, Ngai pushed back against using AI to cut jobs, arguing the technology should "increase the quality of our people’s intelligence." She pointed to a warehouse in Foshan where, with robots doing the heavy lifting, 62% of workers are now women.