John Louis Marden

John Louis Marden, CBE, JP (1919–1999) was a British businessman and philanthropist. He was the chairman of the Wheelock Marden.

John Louis Marden in 1919 was born to George Marden, a former Imperial Maritime Customs officer in Canton and Shanghai and chairman of the Wheelock Marden, the Far East conglomerate ranging from property and retailing to insurance and aviation. He was educated in Shanghai and England and graduated from the Gresham's School and the University of Cambridge in economics and law.

After his education, Marden joined his father's firm in 1946 as a trainee on secretarial and shipping division before he was transferred to the insurance department. In 1952, he became the director of the company. He succeeded his father as the chairman of Wheelock and Marden, as known as "taipan" in 1959. As the chairman of one of the leading firms in Hong Kong, he sat on the boards of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Dairy Farm, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel and Hongkong Electric Company, among many others. He was called "the taipan among the taipans" by former acting Governor Sir David Akers-Jones. He was also an unofficial member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong for a brief period of time in 1971.

In the 1970s, the four largest traditional British firms, Jardine Matheson, Swire, Hutchison as well as Wheelock Marden were undergoing rapid decline and facing the challenges from rising local Chinese entrepreneurs. Sir Douglas Clague lost control of Hutchison Whampoa in 1975 through disastrous speculation on foreign currency and stock market. Jardine was outbid by shipping magnate Sir Yue-kong Pao for the Hongkong & Kowloon Wharf & Godown Company in 1980 which the two groups had previously shared control when the latter decided to diversify from ships into property. The Hongkong Land faced consistent threat from Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings and nearly went bust in the early 1980s.

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