“Partnership is the new leadership.” These words are more than a mantra for award-winning Hong Kong-born and Macau-based entrepreneur, philanthropist, and daughter of casino magnate Stanley Ho, Sabrina Ho. They are an ethos: a guiding philosophy that has propelled her to the top of the arts and auction industry, while also enabling her to inspire change through empowering women worldwide.
Ho’s most recent project has been founding Poly Auction Macau, where she and her team are launching the first-ever charitable auction, which is also the first to donate one hundred percent of proceeds from an exclusive collection to the development of arts. In this project, and in the initiatives preceding it, partnership has been key.
“The secret behind the success of Poly Auction Macau is our unique ability to harness human ingenuity, capital resources, and hunger for change of so many different players,” explains Ho. “Alone, we can only do so much. But when the auction, arts, philanthropic, and business communities all come together, we can be an accelerator for extraordinarily impactful and enduring change. Strategic partnerships are a win-win.”
Ho channels this mantra into promoting two of her lifelong passions: the development of Asian arts and culture, as well as advocating for women and girls globally by creating avenues for equality, education, and prosperity at scale.
“Women earn 70 percent of Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and about the same share of Masters of Fine Arts in the U.S.,” she explains. “But less than half of working artists across all arts disciplines are women. And when it comes to the business side of things (museum and gallery work, agents and representation, auctions and more) women are tremendously underrepresented. I believe that this should change, and that through smart, strategic partnerships, we can accomplish it.”
This article originally appears on Forbes.