In Hong Kong it is known as the princely hong, or trading house, and its leader is the taipan, the big boss. Throughout most of its 156-year history, Jardine Matheson & Co. has been the foremost trader in the colony, and as readers of Novelist James Clavell know, it has been run not so much by a series of executives as by a dynasty of merchant-rulers. Now the succession has taken its strangest turn. Instead of drawing from the small Scottish knot of the founders' families, Jardine Matheson has announced that Brian Powers, 38, a former New York investment banker, will...
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