Teddy Yip

Theodore Yip Tek Lie (né Jap, ; 2 June 1907 – 11 July 2003) was an Indonesian-Dutch businessman and a Formula One team owner of Theodore Racing in the 1970s. He was a polyglot.

Early life and business career Yip, an ethnic Indonesian Chinese of Hakka ancestry from Meixian, Guangdong, China was born as Jap Tek Lie in Medan, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia in 1907. At that time Indonesia was the Dutch East Indies, a colony of the Netherlands. Teddy Yip studied in the Netherlands and took Dutch nationality. He moved to Hong Kong in the 1940s and began to build up his business empire which included travel agencies, hotels, casinos and trading companies.

In 1962 he and several partners formed the Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau (STDM) with a monopoly to run all casino operations and many other leisure activities in Macau, including lotteries, ferries and hotels. After a few races Yip took over ownership from founder Don Nichols and introduced a DN12 chassis which also proved a failure. After both cars failed to qualify for the French Grand Prix in June Yip closed down the Shadow team. Yip rethought his involvement in racing and ended most of his other activities in order to concentrate on F1. News of his death and the subsequent funeral received extensive coverage in television, radio and print media in Southeast Asia.

Family In January 2019, Yip's adopted son, Willy, died in a Hong Kong hospital from injuries he had received in a school bus crash in the previous month.

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