CHANGING LIVES

More than a decade after joining her mother’s textile and apparel manufacturing business, Esquel Group, Dee Poon is now weaving her own path with her new company, Tessellation. She lays it bare about work, female empowerment and the importance of protecting mental health

- Tara Sobti

IT'S the week before Chinese New Year and Dee Poon has just had dental surgery. “I’m sleep-deprived and swollen,” she says over video chat from the Esquel Group offices in Wan Chai, where she’s back to work merely a day after the procedure.

The Hong Kong-born entrepreneur has no time to feel sorry for herself: in January this year, after 13 years at the forefront of the family business as president of Esquel brands and distribution, Poon flew the coop and formed her own entity, Tessellation, in partnership with her cousin Natasha Cheng. Tessellation will comprise Esquel’s luxury-retail arm, Pye; mid-market workwear brand Determinant; and Esquel’s venture and technology business. It will also encompass several sustainability-focused platforms including Exponent Envirotech, a technology that helps reduce the use of water and chemicals in industrial processes; Vertex Greentech, a materials innovator that uses technology to create sustainable fabrics; and Compass Greentech, which provides sustainable solutions for accessories and packaging. In this new venture, Poon is president of Tessellation brands and retailing—a title she is still coming to terms with.

“I hate [the sound of ] that. It makes me sound like an old white man,” she says half-jokingly. “Esquel and Tessellation will still work together in many ways, but I wanted to be able to move at a difference pace and create room for a different culture. We have a past and a heritage, and we aren’t exactly sure where we are going, but we’re looking forward to a different type of energy.”