Stanley Ho Hung-sun[a] GBM GLM GBS GML OBE CStJ SPMP SPMT (Chinese: 何鴻燊; 25 November 1921 – 26 May 2020) was a Hong Kong and Macau billionaire businessman.

Ho was the founder and chairman of Shun Tak Holdings, through which he owned many businesses including entertainment, tourism, shipping, real estate, banking, and air transport.

[5] Apart from Hong Kong and Macau, he also invested in mainland China, Portugal, North Korea where he operated a casino, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mozambique, Indonesia and East Timor.

Having suffered a stroke in July 2009, followed by a long period of recovery, Ho began steps in late 2010 to devolve his grip on his financial empire to his various wives and children.

Ho was descended from his great-grandfather, Charles Henry Maurice Bosman (1839–1892), who was of Dutch Jewish ancestry,[8] and his Chinese mistress Sze Tai (施娣), a local Bao'an (present-day Shenzhen and Hong Kong) woman.

He made his first fortune smuggling luxury goods and food[14]: 9  across the Chinese border from Macau during World War II.

By bidding high and promising to promote tourism and to develop infrastructure, they won the public tender for Macau's gaming monopoly license in 1961, for US$410,000, of which US$51,000 was provided by Henry Fok.

[18] Through a subsidiary, TurboJET, it owns one of the world's largest fleets of high-speed jetfoils, which ferry passengers between Hong Kong and Macau.

Clementina Leitão Ho died in 2004 and was buried in the St. Michael the Archangel Cemetery (Portuguese: Cemitério São Miguel Arcanjo).

In the late 1950s, Ho met Lucina Azul Jean Ying née Laam King-ying (藍瓊纓) and began a relationship.

He also invited internationally renowned dancing groups, such as the National Ballet of China, to perform in Hong Kong and Macau.

One of a number of thoroughbred racehorses owned by Ho, Viva Pataca, named after the currency of Macau, won several top Hong Kong races in 2006 and 2007.

For seven months Ho was confined to the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital and, later, the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, during which period he made only one public appearance, on 20 December 2009, when he travelled to Macau to meet Chinese president Hu Jintao on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Macau's return to Chinese sovereignty.

[42] In 2003, Ho donated a Qing dynasty bronze boar's head to China's Poly Art Museum, a state-run organisation that aims to develop, display, rescue and protect Chinese cultural relics.

The boar's head is part of a collection of twelve looted from the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860 when it was sacked and burnt by the French and British armies.

[43] On 21 September 2007, Ho donated to the Chinese government a Qing dynasty bronze sculpture of a horse's head originally taken from the Old Summer Palace.

[44] In late January 2011, a dispute erupted among his wives and children involving the transfer of ownership of his private holding company, Lanceford.

Ho said his intention from the outset was to divide his assets equally among his families and that the actions of the directors of Lanceford effectively eliminated this possibility, according to a statement issued by his lawyer Gordon Oldham.

[50] In 2003 Ho received the Gold Bauhinia Star from the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chee Hwa.

[54] On 25 May 2020, Ho was reported to be in a critical condition,[55] and he died at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital on 26 May 2020, at around 1 pm local time.