Peggy Cherng is an American billionaire businesswoman as well as the Cherng co-founder of the famous American fast food restaurant chain Panda Express in 1983. She now serves as the co-chief executive officer of Panda Restaurant Group. She is listed as America’s second richest self-made woman born outside the United States.
Peggy Cherng- Early life
Peggy Tsiang was born in Burma and grew up in Hong Kong. Her schooling was in Hong Kong’s Clementi Secondary School and graduated in 1966. She then went to the United States to attend Baker University and there she met her life partner Andrew Cherng, then a sophomore. She then attended Oregon State University, University of Missouri, and earned a master’s in computer science in 1971, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1974. After earning her Ph.D., she and Andrew moved to Los Angeles where they married.
Peggy Cherng- Career
From 1975-1977, she worked as an engineering specialist at McDonnell Douglas, where she coded battlefield simulators for the US Air Force. From 1977-to 1982, she was a technical engineer and software department manager at Comtal Corporation, a subsidiary of 3M.
Peggy Cherng- As a Businesswoman
In 1973 her husband Andrew Cherng along with his father Ming Tsai Cherng took over a restaurant and started a new Chinese restaurant called Panda Inn in California. In 1982, Peggy Cherng left Comtal and became Operations Manager at the Panda Restaurant Group. In 1982, she designed the computer system to track customer feedback and streamline operations. She used technology to track inventory and reorder ingredients.
She was the CEO and president of Panda Restaurant Group from 1997 until 2003, and in 2004 she became co-chair and co-CEO of Panda Restaurant Group. Panda Restaurant Group bought stakes in other restaurant franchises such as Urbane Cafe, Just Salad, Uncle Tetsu, Pieology and Ippudo
Personal life
Peggy Cherng and Antony Cherng have three daughters. The oldest is the chief marketing officer at Panda Express, the second daughter manages investments for the Cherng Family Trust and the youngest one works with the Panda Charitable Foundation.
What is Peggy Cheng Networth?
By March 2018, Peggy Cheng had a net worth of $3.3 billion. She was also listed 12 on America’s Self-Made Women list for 2019 by Forbes. In 2019, her development company CFT NV Developments LLC purchased land in Hawaii for $10 million. She and her husband are the Hawaii master franchisees for Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. She is also on the boards of the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the United Way of Los Angeles, Methodist Hospital of Arcadia and the Peter F. Drucker School of Management.
In 2018, it was announced that the Cherng Family Trust purchased the former Mandarin Oriental hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and rebranded it as a Waldorf Astoria. The total acquisition price for the property was $214 million.
Apart from business, the Cherngs are also interested in philanthropic activities, In 2011, they donated $2.5 million to support the Collins College of Hospitality Management at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
The California Institute of Technology and the University of Missouri received about $30 million and $1.5 million respectively as gifts from the Cherngs which would benefit its education journey.
