Red Roulette

Desmond Shum’s international background helped him become successful in China.

Desmond Shum was born in Shanghai in 1968, but he moved with his family to Hong Kong when he was a child. In 1989, he enrolled in the University of Wisconsin in the United States to study finance and accounting. Shum’s experience of living abroad gave him a valuable mix of business knowledge and social skills.

Shum worked first as a stockbroker in Hong Kong and then for a private equity firm, which rode the boom in inward investment in the 1990s. At the age of 29, he was back in mainland China as the CEO of a company involved in business services and internet hardware, but he quit when the tumultuous market changed.

Shum married Whitney Duan, a capable, accomplished and ambitious businessperson.

In 2001, through his links with his former job, Shum met Whitney Duan, who was the imposing and accomplished head of her own company. Duan’s first job had been as an assistant to a university president. She showed talent and got the opportunity to work for a county government, in charge of bringing investment...