Market Entry & Scale-Up
Introduced Philips Lighting and GE Lighting to the Chinese market, building distribution across 50 cities and earning the industry title “Godfather of imported lighting in China”.
Hong Kong · Asia-Pacific
Eric Cheung
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Leaders Capital Company Limited
Three decades building and leading businesses across Greater China and the Asia-Pacific — first as a senior executive for Philips, GE, Carlsberg, Novartis and NetEase, today as a venture capital and family office principal investing at the intersection of healthcare, technology and cross-border growth.
30+
Years of senior leadership across Greater China and Asia-Pacific
US$30M+
Medical equipment sourced and delivered to India with the Tata Trust
5
Global multinationals led at country or regional level
3
Boards and advisory councils served across Europe, Africa and Asia
Executive Profile
An operator's instinct. An investor's discipline.
Eric Cheung is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Leaders Capital Company Limited, a Hong Kong-based venture capital and family office platform investing across the Asia-Pacific region. Since 2019 he has directed the firm toward opportunities that combine commercial return with measurable impact — with a particular concentration in healthcare, medical supply chains and technology-enabled growth.
That investment thesis is grounded in an unusually broad operating career. Over more than twenty years in Mainland China, he held senior executive mandates at both Western multinationals — Philips, General Electric, Carlsberg and Novartis — and at defining Chinese enterprises including NetEase and Linksus Communication Group. In each, he was brought in to open a market, turn a business, or build an organisation from the ground up.
He began his career on the Jardine Matheson Graduate Management Trainee Programme and holds an AMP from Harvard Business School (AMP 184) and a Bachelor of Social Science from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Turnaround & Growth
Led NetEase's transformation into China's first internet gaming company and the milestone move to positive revenue — a first for the Chinese internet sector. Nowadays NetEase's gaming revenue accounts for over 88% of the company's total revenue.
Category Leadership
Built Novartis China's OTC and health-food franchise into the country's #1 selling brand, and drove Carlsberg to #1 imported beer in China.
Capital & Governance
Founder of two Hong Kong investment vehicles; board and advisory mandates in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Signature Project · 2020–2021
US$30 million in medical equipment, delivered to India with the Tata Trust.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, India faced an acute shortage of oxygen concentrators, ventilators and critical-care equipment while global supply chains seized. Leaders Capital was asked to solve a problem that was simultaneously commercial, logistical and diplomatic.
Eric Cheung led the sourcing effort across Chinese and regional manufacturers, negotiated allocation in a market where every buyer was competing for the same units, and worked directly with the Tata Trust — one of India's oldest and most respected philanthropic institutions — to coordinate customs clearance, in-country logistics and distribution to the hospitals that needed it most.
More than US$30 million of equipment was sourced and delivered. The initiative remains the clearest expression of how Leaders Capital operates: relationships built over decades, converted into execution under pressure.
US$30M+Equipment sourced and delivered
Tata TrustInstitutional partner in India
China → IndiaCross-border supply corridor built from zero
A message from Mr. Ratan Tata
Dear Eric,
Thank you so much for your invaluable inputs and assistance in sourcing critical medical equipment from Chinese manufacturers. Without your support, we would never have been in a position to earmark capacity, which is still minuscule compared to what is being ordered by various nations.
I remember meeting you at the BAO forum and also at Venkat's office in Mumbai. I look forward to the pleasure of meeting you again when things are more under control on a global basis and when we can travel again.With warm personal regard,
Ratan Tata
Joint Investment with Mr. Ratan Tata in India
China's Proven Digital Models, Replicated in India
Since 2015, through Aranti Capital — its English name personally chosen by Mr. Ratan Tata, its Chinese rendering by Eric Cheung — and Leaders Capital, we have partnered with Mr. Tata to invest in a new generation of Indian startups.
The Tata Group is India's sole multinational conglomerate — at once the nation's largest traditional industrial house and its foremost software-outsourcing enterprise. Yet across its vast commercial map, one piece was missing: emerging, digital-native companies. Our investments were built to fill exactly that gap.
Each portfolio company draws on the Tata Group's unrivalled brand authority, its far-reaching commercial network, its bench of senior management talent and its access to capital — enabling rapid scale. The thesis is simple: take business models already proven in China and replicate them on Indian soil.
In just a few years, several have achieved breakout success — Xiaomi India, Paytm, Ola and Abra among them.
US$200M+capital deployed
30+portfolio companies
US$3B+combined valuation
Selected portfolio companies
Career
Thirty-six years, ten mandates, one market thesis.
From graduate trainee at Jardine Matheson to founder of two Hong Kong investment platforms — a career spent opening the Chinese market for global brands and building Chinese enterprises for global scale.
2019 — NowHong Kong
Leaders Capital Company Limited
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
- Founded and led a venture capital and family office platform investing across Asia-Pacific markets.
- Spearheaded the sourcing and delivery of over US$30 million in medical equipment to India during COVID-19.
- Partnered with the Tata Trust on logistics and distribution, materially reshaping medical supply into the region.
- Invests in India alongside Aranti Capital in partnership with the late Mr. Ratan Tata — the joint record featured above.
2015 — 2026Hong Kong
Aranti Capital Limited
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
- Venture capital and family office mandate focused on the India–China corridor.
- Co-investment partnership with Mr. Ratan Tata from inception — the firm's English name was personally chosen by Mr. Tata.
- Deployed US$200M+ across 30+ Indian startups with a combined valuation exceeding US$3B.
- Breakout portfolio successes include Xiaomi India, Paytm, Ola and Abra.
2018 — 2020China
Harvard Business School
Recruitment Partner (Part-time)
- Identified and recruited candidates in China for the HBS SELP programme.
2011 — 2015Shanghai · Guangzhou
Linksus Communication Group
Vice President
- Grew the group from inception into one of the largest marketing and PR agencies in Mainland China, with more than 1,000 staff.
- Directed high-profile campaigns for Unilever, Pepsi and BMW.
- Led the A380 launch campaign for China Southern Airlines.
2005 — 2011Shanghai
Novartis China
Marketing Director
- Built the OTC and health & functional food business through innovative go-to-market strategy.
- Expanded online and offline channels to reach the #1 selling position in OTC and health food in China.
- Established Novartis as the #1 OTC brand in the Chinese market.
2002 — 2005Beijing
NetEase
Vice President
- Drove the transformation of NetEase into China's first internet gaming company, setting the industry standard.
- Delivered the company's move to positive revenue — a historic first in China's internet sector.
- Contributed to strategic decision-making at one of the largest NASDAQ-listed Chinese portals.
1998 — 2001Beijing
Carlsberg Hong Kong Brewery
General Sales Manager
- Directed sales and distribution strategy for Carlsberg in China.
- Oversaw the establishment of a new brewery in Shanghai enabling local production.
- Drove Carlsberg to become the #1 best-selling imported beer brand in China.
1994 — 1997Hong Kong
General Electric
General Manager
- Introduced GE lighting products to the Chinese market, reaching #2 imported brand position.
- Built a distribution network for imported lamps across the market.
- Established Hong Kong warehousing and sourced production capacity in Indonesia.
1992 — 1994Hong Kong
Philips Hong Kong
National Sales Manager
- Brought Philips Lighting to the Chinese market and established it as the #1 imported brand — earning the industry title “father of imported lighting in China”.
- Built a local distribution network spanning 50 Chinese cities.
- Curated the SKU range to local demand and grew sales six-fold.
- Initiated and delivered the landmark city-lighting project on the Bund, Shanghai.
1990 — 1992Hong Kong
Jardine Matheson
Graduate Management Trainee
- Rotated through Jardine Logistics & Freight Forwarding, China Consumer Products and the Property Group.
Organisations Led & Served
Philips
General Electric
Carlsberg
Novartis
NetEase
Jardine Matheson
Linksus
Tata Trust
Harvard Business School
Leaders Capital
Governance, Advisory & Education
Where institutions ask him to sit.
Board and advisory mandates spanning European academia and UK-registered international development, anchored by executive education at Harvard.
Maastricht School of Management
Maastricht University · Netherlands
Member of the Advisory Board, contributing an Asia-Pacific perspective on curriculum, partnerships and regional positioning. MSM is one of the Netherlands' oldest international business schools — founded in 1952 and now part of Maastricht University's School of Business and Economics, with Triple Crown accreditation (AACSB, EQUIS, AMBA). Its MBA is ranked #2 in the Netherlands by Eduniversal, and its DBA programme is ranked #2 globally by DBAStudies.
Global Council of Investment and Business Development for Africa
London, England · Registered under the Companies Act 2006 (England & Wales), No. 4825900
Member of the Board. Board advice and board governance for a council that has mobilised over US$3 billion in sustainable investments across 16 projects in North-West Africa — achieved within four months — with a further US$9 billion in commitments in the pipeline and a collaboration agreement signed with UNSDG.
Harvard Business School, Harvard University
Advanced Management Program · AMP 184
Completed the Advanced Management Program, Harvard Business School's flagship senior-executive programme. Later served as an HBS Recruitment Partner in China (2018–2020).
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Bachelor of Social Science
Major in Government and Public Administration; minor in Business Administration. Chairman of the Government and Public Administration Society, 1988–1989.
Keynote Speaker for Harvard and Business Forums
Ideas that travel across markets, disciplines and generations.
For more than a decade, Eric Cheung has been invited to keynote at business, investment and education forums across Greater China, the Asia-Pacific and leading global institutions.
His talks bridge operating experience and investment judgment — covering cross-border market entry, venture building, family-office strategy and the lessons of scaling enterprises in China and India.
Invitation from Harvard
Network & Reach
Three decades of relationships across China's business establishment.
A career built inside both Western multinationals and leading Chinese enterprises produces something that cannot be recruited for: direct, long-standing access to the founders, chairmen and institutional decision-makers who shape China's private sector.
Those relationships span technology and internet, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, consumer and FMCG, marketing and media, and family-office capital — and they extend outward into India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa through active board and advisory mandates.
For multinational boards and executive search partners, this is the practical value: the ability to convene the right people, in the right market, quickly — and to make a partnership work after the memorandum is signed.
News & Moments
Moments that shaped the journey.
From boardrooms in Mumbai to the launch of Leaders Capital in Hong Kong — a few snapshots of the people, places and milestones behind the work.
Leaders Capital
Three decades of trust across three cultures — partnerships delivered under pressure.
Hong Kong SAR
Languages
Operating across three business cultures.
EnglishFluent · verbal & written
Mandarin 普通话Native · verbal & written
Cantonese 廣東話Native · verbal & written
Contact
Board seats, advisory mandates, partnerships and investment enquiries.
Eric Cheung welcomes approaches from multinational boards, executive search partners, institutional investors and organisations seeking senior counsel on China and the wider Asia-Pacific.
Enquiries in English, Mandarin, Cantonese or German are all welcome.
Emailecheung@amp184.hbs.eduLinkedInlinkedin.com/in/eric-cheung-hbsamp184Telephone+852 9603 6777CVDownload PDFSave Contact (vCard)⤓ vCard
Based inHong Kong SAR · operating across Asia-Pacific
