Randolph Chen Chi Kwei died peacefully in New York City on January 24, 2019 at age 83 surrounded by his family. He was a dignified, kind and true gentleman who devoted his life to his family, friends, education, and music. Randy was a banker by trade, world-traveler, musician who loved classical and folk music, voracious non-fiction reader, weekly tennis player, yoga and hiking enthusiast, and a budding painter. Born in Shanghai to parents Chung Shu Kwei and Linda Lee Kwei, his fled the Communist army with his family in late 1948 for the safety of Hong Kong. He later departed with his brother Tom in 1952 for San Francisco aboard the SS President Wilson. Both graduated from Yale University, where he was on the Dean’s List in 1958, and Randy received his M.B.A from Columbia University. He was a McKinsey Scholar, Newington Scholar, and awarded the Rosewell C. McCrae Prize Scholarship.
Randy’s career in finance spanned the globe from Latin America to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Athens, Toronto, and New York, finally settling in Hong Kong. He became a pioneer in Asian private equity and most recently served as Advisory Partner at Shaw Kwei & Partners. He served as an advisor to a number of investment firms, including ORIX and Cigna and previously founded Pacific Capital Management Ltd in 1992, later renamed JK Capital Management. He served in senior executive positions at Citibank, American Express, and IBM. Outside of work, he was an active board member of the Asian Youth Orchestra, and served as President of the Yale Club of Hong Kong, and trustee of New Asia College, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Randy is the author of ‘East to West to East’, published in 2009 and a soon-to-be published second book ‘My Life After Seventy + Taking Stock in Old Age.’ His final mission in life was charitable works which he supported via the Kwei Foundation he founded in 2016. He is survived by his wife, Teresa, his identical twin brother Thomas, his children Katherine and Clarence and his five grandchildren, Benjamin, Kingston, Drake, Henrietta and Maxine. A private a memorial service will be held at The Yale Club on Saturday, February 2nd. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in support of Yale-NUS College may be made at: https://giving.yale-nus.edu.sg/get-involved/.
Published in New York Times on Jan. 27, 2019.