Yes, he was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, as heir to the enormous New World Development real estate and retail empire founded by grandpa Cheng Yu-Tung. But Cheng is making his own mark on the Hong Kong–based company’s sprawling operations. The Harvard-educated scion, who has worked at Goldman Sachs and UBS, is the executive director of NWD, which has a market cap of $8 billion, and also Chow Tai Fook, China’s $7.3-billion-a-year answer to Tiffany & Co. In 2009 he launched a luxury-goods company to sell European brands in Asia and opened a new brand of eco-friendly shopping malls-cum-art galleries in China called K11. Alter ego: Cheng decorates his office with his own art. –O.A.