Much-travelled shipping grandee Richard Hext is taking over as chairman of the Hong Kong Maritime Museum (HKMM) from Ian Shiu after his five-year tenure, in which the venue increased visitor numbers by nearly 40%.
Hext, who holds an MA in modern history and economics from Oxford University and has an avid interest in the maritime history and culture of China and East Asia, is a long-time Hong Kong resident.
He is a non-executive director of Hong Kong-based Anglo Eastern Univan Group and of Swire's Singapore-based China Navigation Company, and chairman of Vanmar Shipping.
A past director of John Swire and Sons (HK), chief executive of Hong Kong-listed Pacific Basin Shipping and chairman of Univan Ship Management, he also headed up the ill-fated online broker LevelSeas at the turn of the century.
Hext said: “What a story! Fishing village dubs itself ‘Fragrant Harbour’ and reinvents itself — first as a shipping and trading centre, then as world champion East-meets-West financial centre. The HKMM tells us how all this happened, helping us anticipate our future and what else the sea has in store for us.”
New science centre
The museum, which is based at Pier 8 on the Central Waterfront has plans for a new marine science educational centre within its existing site.
“If properly implemented, this proposal will substantially broaden the scope of the museum whilst also greatly increasing our visitor numbers, our profile and our educational impact,” Hext said. The museum attracts about 130,000 visitors a year.
Shiu, who oversaw several well-received exhibitions, including The Silver Age and Maritime Silk Road exhibition East Meets West, has been proposed to succeed as chair of the museum’s endowment trust.
Museum director Richard Wesley said Hext’s background in shipping and education offered “perfect attributes to advance our ambitious plans”. Hext is a governor of the University of Central Lancashire in the UK and member of the Hong Kong advisory board of Stanford University’s graduate school of business.
The HKMM was founded in 2005 by members of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association at Murray House in Stanley. It relocated to the Central Harbour Waterfront in 2013 and was named as a TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Top 10 Museum in China in 2017.
