In 2025, Ina Kao from Southern California stood out among 36 candidates from 14 countries across five continents for her outstanding performance in the American hotel industry. She was awarded the title of “Global Young Business Talent Star” by the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission of the Republic of China (Taiwan). As a young Taiwanese-American who grew up in the United States, Ina Kao transformed cultural differences into a driving force for progress, focusing on meeting market and community needs with a pragmatic and resilient style.
Born in the United States, Ina Kao spent most of her childhood growing up in Taiwan, returning to the U.S. with her family at the age of ten. This experience of moving back and forth between Taiwan and the U.S. made her an adapter between two cultures, leading to a personal identity challenge bridging across the Pacific.
Growing up in the multicultural and multi-ethnic environment of Southern California, Ina Kao found herself at a cultural crossroads. She recalls facing not only a language gap upon returning to the U.S. but also the challenge of cultural understanding and integration. Due to her Taiwanese background reflected in her accent and language, she was sometimes ridiculed by classmates. Even when she later attended schools with a higher proportion of Asian students, she still felt another layer of invisible pressure: the advantage that American-born Asian students had in terms of language and cultural assimilation, making students like her who returned from Taiwan more scrutinized.
These experiences made Ina Kao early on aware of the cultural differences and hidden discrimination among her peers. However, she chose not to let external judgments dictate her self-worth and identity. Ina Kao believes that “competence is the best way to invalidate bias.” The setbacks she faced in her cross-cultural upbringing did not leave her with shadow but instead prompted her to face challenges, build resilience, and confidence.
After graduating from Babson College known for entrepreneurship and business management, Ina Kao pursued a Master’s degree in Finance from London Business School. Prior to joining her mother Lorraine Kao’s Manhattan Hotel Group (MHG Capital), she worked at Union Bank and PFM Financial Advisors.
Ina Kao’s success was not accidental but built on a solid professional foundation. She majored in Marketing in college, studied Business Management in graduate school, and entered the banking industry after graduation to accumulate years of learning in business fundamentals and services. Her approach to work carries typical traits of a Taiwanese family – practical, unpretentious, yet resilient.
Ina Kao’s focus is not on proving anything to anyone but on creating products and services that are genuinely needed in the market. She showcases her value beyond ethnic labels to her partners through professional management, streamlined processes, and measurable results.
Entering the hotel industry at the most challenging time in its history – during the global pandemic outbreak where occupancy rates plummeted, markets stagnated, and uncertainty clouded the entire industry, Ina Kao swiftly stabilized her footing with the Manhattan Hotel Group through measures like applying for government PPP loans. However, she did not settle for maintaining the status quo but instead saw the staff shortage as an excellent opportunity to restructure the team and optimize processes.
During the pandemic, Ina Kao spent more time training her staff, adjusting internal standards, and re-establishing clear standard operating procedures from epidemic regulations to service attitudes. Faced with challenges like some guests refusing to wear masks and displaying escalated emotions, she always upheld her principles: politely remind and, if faced with intense or dangerous behavior, refuse service following protocols to ensure the safety of her staff. This stable, pragmatic, and inclusive management style became crucial in leading her team through the fog.
Due to her youth and being the daughter of the group’s founder, Ina Kao has also faced scrutiny from company colleagues with a “different” perspective, but she rarely explains or debates with them. Instead, she responds with data models, consumer profile analysis, and comprehensive strategic plans to showcase her competence and achieved a high occupancy rate of 99.2% for the group’s hotels.
In evaluating investment targets, Ina Kao believes that “location” is the core variable. Many cities once seen as “good locations” have lost their appeal due to issues like security, homelessness, urban management, etc. She exemplifies using Portland as an example, to illustrate that even if conditions were good in the past, decisive elimination is necessary.
Currently, Ina Kao and Lorraine Kao see potential in the Southern California market as West Coast travelers’ demand is recovering faster, with American consumers relying on credit card travel making the hotel market resilient. In the future, the group will continue to focus on Southern California and evaluate opportunities in Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego.
The core competitive advantage of the Manhattan Hotel Group lies in its management capabilities rather than a single brand. Different from traditional small hotels, Ina Kao primarily chooses mainstream chain brand hotels. She points out that brand hotels have their membership systems and booking platforms, providing a stable customer base as many travelers directly book through the brand’s official app.
“In comparison to competitors, our precise and systematic operational approach is the key to sustainable expansion.” Ina Kao emphasizes that the group adheres to a low-key, pragmatic, and disciplined management approach where all decisions undergo thorough internal discussions to ensure transparency and consensus.
Even when met with occasional employee resistance in defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Ina Kao sets reasonable levels based on market data and actual operational conditions, and actively communicates the logic behind them to help employees understand that the goals are achievable and rational. She believes that when employees achieve performance, both the hotel and employees benefit, allowing the entire team to strive towards common goals.
From facing cultural discrimination in her childhood to making a mark in the American hotel industry today, Ina Kao embodies the meaning of being a “Global Young Business Talent Star” through her solid professional expertise, systematic thinking, and unwavering resilience in not letting external judgments define her, proving that success stems from self-proving competence and professionalism. ◇