Remembering David Webb's Legacy: A Hong Kong Activist Investor Who Fought for Transparency

David Webb, who died at age 60 from prostate cancer, made an extraordinary impact on Hong Kong's financial world through his relentless push for corporate governance reform and transparency.

Webb's biggest contribution was creating webb-site.com in 1998, a non-profit database that became an unmatched resource for Hong Kong's financial sector and media. What started as a simple website collecting public records about Hong Kong companies turned into what one person called a "one-man Bloomberg terminal.” The platform provided vital information about directors, license holders and financial data that became a crucial source of information on listed companies and their employees for journalists and investors.

His research packed a real punch as well. In 2017, Webb published his "Enigma Network" report exposing 50 Hong Kong companies with questionable cross-shareholdings and inflated values. The fallout was swift: some company shares crashed by as much as 90% within a month. His work also led to concrete changes, including HKEX limitations on the number of boards and tenure for independent directors effective just last year.

Despite being a constant thorn in the establishment's side, Webb earned respect from the very institutions he criticized. He served as a non-executive director at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing from 2003-2008 and spent 24 years as an SFC panel member. His efforts were officially recognized when he was named an MBE for his efforts to raise standards of corporate governance in Hong Kong in June 2025.

Webb didn't merely limit himself to corporate issues either. He backed Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, even giving a speech during the 2014 Umbrella Movement calling for a “free market in leadership” and blasting the close relationship between the city's government and business tycoons.

What made Webb so effective was his approach - he did his homework. As former SFC boss Ashley Alder put it, Webb's "enduring contribution was that of speaking truth to power in a manner so well founded in research and impeccable logic that the powerful had few, if any, convincing answers.”  His transparency work created something unique - there was nothing like it in major financial centers like New York or London.

Webb left behind a legacy of institutional reform and transparency that fundamentally changed how Hong Kong's financial markets operate, proving that one determined individual really can take on an entire establishment and win.

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