Actor Michael Douglas to Speak at CLSA Hong Kong Investor Forum Sept. 15
Actor Michael Douglas, known for his role as Gordon Gekko in the film “Wall Street,” will address financial workers in Hong Kong at the CLSA Investors’ Forum on Sept. 15, the company said.
Douglas, who as Gekko popularized the phrase “greed, for lack of a better word, is good,” will join a list of past speakers that includes former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and most recently former U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who spoke last year, CLSA spokeswoman Simone Wheeler said in an e-mail today.
Douglas, who won an Oscar for best actor in 1988 for his portrayal of Gekko, is reprising the role in a sequel “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” which will hold its Asian premier for CLSA clients on Sept. 14, the brokerage said in a press release.
Gekko’s character as corporate raider epitomized the excesses of Wall Street of the 1980s, and his role has become synonymous with take-no-prisoners approach to deal making in the world of high finance.
“He has become a symbol of greed and what went on in the past,” said Allan Zeman, chairman of Hong Kong-based property developer Lan Kwai Fong Holdings who has produced Hollywood films said in a telephone interview. “But obviously it took the financial tsunami to show that model had flaws.”
Gordon Gekko
Zeman, who is vice chairman of Wynn Macau Ltd., said the largely Asian audience will have a different take on whatever message Douglas delivers on the hubris of Wall Street as the region was “essentially spared and in essence did not get caught up in the Gordon Gekko syndrome.”
During his luncheon address to conference attendees, Douglas will touch on topics “ranging from filmmaking to nuclear abolition and the prevention of small arms proliferation,” the release said.
Zeman, who said last year’s speech by Palin was “totally missable” added Douglas will also enliven the four-day forum. “If you listen to too many bankers it becomes boring,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Frederik Balfour in Hong Kong at fbalfour@bloomberg.net
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