Frank Tsao

Tan Sri Frank Tsao Wen-king (; 1925 – 12 August 2019) was a Chinese-born entrepreneur who established shipping and textiles businesses in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Tsao took over his family shipping business in Shanghai and moved it to Hong Kong when the Communists took over China. He founded International Maritime Carriers (IMC Group) in Hong Kong, before moving it to Singapore in the early 1990s.

Tsao helped build Singapore into an international shipping hub, and co-founded MISC and Unithai, the national shipping companies of Malaysia and Thailand, respectively, as well as Suntec City in Singapore. For his contributions, he was awarded the nobility title Tan Sri by the King of Malaysia, the Silver Bauhinia Star of Hong Kong, and the Honorary Citizen Award, Singapore's highest honour for non-citizens.

Early life in Shanghai Tsao Wen-king was born in 1925 in Shanghai, into a moderately wealthy business family. His grandfather started a shipping company on the Huangpu River. His father, George Tsao Ying-yung , continued to run the shipping and import-export business. His mother, Tsao Ng Yu-shun, was an heiress who inherited a major stake of the China National Development Bank. Tsao studied economics at the prestigious St. John's University, Shanghai, and took over the family business when his father "lost interest" in it. Tsao also helped establish Unithai, the national shipping line of Thailand, and, more significantly, bailed the company out during a period of financial difficulty in 1986–1987 by investing in the company through IMC. By the early 1990s, he owned an estimated 70% of Unithai's shares. Tsao and a group of Hong Kong tycoons, including Li Ka-shing, established Suntec City Development, which developed Suntec City in the 1990s.

Honours For his contributions to the country's shipping industry, the King of Malaysia conferred Tsao the noble title Tan Sri, equivalent to a knighthood. In the 1990s, he was awarded Malaysian citizenship by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

In 2006, he was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star by the Hong Kong government and honorary citizenship by the city of Dalian. In 2008, he was granted the Honorary Citizen Award, Singapore's highest honour for non-citizens.

Personal life Tsao was married to Maisie Chow Tsao for seven decades until her death in 2014. They had two sons and two daughters: Calvin (of Tsao & McKown Architects), Mary Ann, Frederick and Cheryd.

On 12 August 2019, Tsao died in Singapore at the age of 94 from kidney failure.