He is currently chairman of the Urban Renewal Authority and is a former non-official member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong.

Previously, he was chief executive officer of the MTR Corporation, and was chief executive officer of Brambles Industries PLC, a global support services company listed in the United Kingdom and Australia, until resigning in 2003 after shareholder accusations of mismanagement.

[2][3] From 1997 to 2001, he was chief executive of GKN PLC, a leading engineering company based in the United Kingdom and before that he spent 20 years with the BOC Group PLC and was appointed a director of its board and chief executive of its Gases Division in 1993.

He also holds an MBA degree from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and attended the six-week Advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School.

The Hong Kong media once described Chow as one of the most powerful Chinese men in the western world.