This inquiry explored the language choices of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Chinese family business and the factors directing their choices. Interviews were conducted with 17 CEOs of family businesses located in Sarawak, some of whom are the sons and grandsons of the founder of the business. The results displayed that all the CEOs can speak their Chinese dialect, Mandarin and some other Chinese dialects. Their ability in English and Malay depends on their age. All of them can speak English, save two older CEOs in their 80s. Only one CEO in his 40s can speak Malay fluently but the Malay ability of the older CEOs is insufficient for transactional functions. The factors directing the CEOs’ language choices for business are: own language repertoire, adjustment to client’s choice for communicative efficiency, language choice as a business strategy, relationship building, and lack of business terms in the language. The CEOs employ their interlocutor’s ethnicity as a proxy to define the right language to use for communicative efficiency. The inquiry displayed that while the CEOs are cooperative in their language choices, they are aware that making the right or wrong choices can supply or limit access to business chances.