Since 2018, Joey Wat has served as Chief Executive Officer of Yum China, the largest restaurant company in China. It has more than 10,000 restaurants in its portfolio, including KFCs and Pizza Huts.
Although her parents couldn’t afford much of her education, she found a way to learn and succeeded in her studies. She attended the University of Hong Kong, where she earned a degree in social science, and later received her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in the U.S.
She started her career working in management consulting and other divisions within McKinsey in Hong Kong, before joining international health and beauty retailer A.S. Watson Group in the U.K. a few years later.
After spending a decade with Watson Group, she then entered the food industry in 2014 as KFC China’s president before shifting among various roles at its parent company Yum China. She finally took over as CEO in 2018.
Her very first experience in that industry was when working as a waitress to help out her family. She once explained, “I never knew that I would be in the restaurant business, but when I was 15 years old I worked in a Chinese restaurant for three years before university and I learned so much.”
Her humble roots and the challenges she faced taught her humility and empathy. When she took over the job of managing director of beauty chain Savers in 2007, it was mainly because she knew that employees would lose their jobs if no one turned the company around.
“Of course the downside of (it is) my career might be impacted, but that’s the moment that I thought — ‘It’s time to do the right thing’. Sometimes the right thing, is not the easy path”, she then said. It is this frame of mind which eventually led her to her current position.
More recently, when COVID-19 hit and Yum China temporarily closed its stores, she decided to keep some stores open even if it meant operating at a loss. She then stated, “Lockdown is a middle-class privilege.”
In any case, her career path and achievements have made her one of only 37 female CEOs listed on Fortune 500.