The managing director of brands and apparel for textile and clothing giant Esquel, Dee Poon is the daughter of not one but two fashion business legends, Esquel’s Marjorie Yang and Harvey Nichols and ST Dupont owner Dickson Poon. Esquel manufactures more than 110 million cotton shirts a year for a range of brands, including Fila, Hugo Boss, L.L Bean, and Muji, employing more than 35,000 people to do so. Dee is also the managing director and chief brand officer of PYE, Esquel’s retail arm and luxury brand, and Determinant, its mid-market brand and the name on the 30 million plus reusable masks it has made and distributed during the pandemic.

Poon has often said that sustainability is her number one priority, and she is constantly working to improve the company’s environmental and social impact. She is also on the board of the YL Yang–Esquel Education Foundation. A keen supporter of the arts, she is on the board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and the international council for London’s Tate and New York’s MoMA, as well as being a patron of the Asia Art Archive.

(Photo: Richard Ramos)