Malina Ngai

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 with digital platforms to create a single customer experience. 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. Ngai now wants to invest a further $490 million to open 1,000 new stores while upgrading AS Watson’s technology and supply-chain infrastructure. CK Hutchison is reportedly considering listing AS Watson on both the Hong Kong and London stock exchanges. At a Fortune conference in Kuala Lumpur last year, Ngai said she often reflects on how AS Watson’s founder, Alexander Skirving Watson, might think about the company 185 years after its launch: “I believe that he’d be positively surprised that [we’ve gone] from one store to 17,000 stores.”