Born in 1941, to a Jewish family, the son of Business tycoon Lawrence Kadoorie (1899–1993) and his wife, Muriel Gubbay. Kadoorie was educated at Kowloon Junior School in Hong Kong as well as Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland. His family's roots in Business in the Far East go back to his grandfather, a descendant of Iraqi Jews originally from Baghdad, who first settled in Shanghai in 1880. After a spell in Bombay, India, his grandfather made a fortune in Shanghai, mostly lost in 1949, and later, in Hong Kong through Finance, real estate and utilities. Headquartered in Hong Kong soon after 1949, Kadoorie's Father and uncle expanded the family businesses into a Diversified group, led by the company flagship CLP Holdings Ltd.