www.andrewchow.sg Necessity is the mother of invention. This saying, which may sound trite to some, resonates resoundingly with the stories of these CEOs, who have all risen from humble beginnings to conquer the business world - and their personal circumstances. Thanks to a combination of innate smarts, hard work, and a bit of luck, they have turned their life around to become successful entrepreneurs who can well serve as inspiration for a new breed of businessmen. Click here to find out more! So who are these homegrown towkays who went from rags to riches?

1. Compilation of articles by asiaone.com
15 CEOs in Singapore
who went from rags
to riches

2. Necessity is the mother of invention.
This saying, which may sound trite to some, resonates
resoundingly with the stories of these CEOs, who have all risen
from humble beginnings to conquer the business world - and
their personal circumstances.
Thanks to a combination of innate smarts, hard work, and a bit of
luck, they have turned their life around to become successful
entrepreneurs who can well serve as inspiration for a new breed
of businessmen.
So who are these homegrown towkays who went from rags to
riches?

3. Chong Phit Lian, Jetstar Asia Her family
struggled financially after her father, the sole
breadwinner, died just before her O-level
examinations. While several of her siblings
stopped schooling to go to work, the
Malaysia-born headed to Singapore on her
own to study.
To pay her living expenses and school fees,
Ms Chong had to take up several tuition
assignments and apply for grants.
After graduating from polytechnic in 1975,
she did three jobs - as a technical assistant,
selling insurance and giving tuition - before
she saved enough to apply to a university in
Birmingham.
While there, the hardships followed her - she
had to work part-time as a factory hand while
studying and even needed to borrow money
from a professor once to foot her school bills.
Her never-say-die spirit is what drives her in
her work, she said. "It doesn't matter if
people say I cannot make it, I'll just do my
best," she said.
The engineering graduate has indeed come
far. She was the first woman CEO of Jetstar
Asia when she took the reins in 2006 - the
previous three CEOs were men and from
Australia.

4. Olivia Lum, Hyflux Unlike most entrepreneurs whose
tales begin with the struggles of setting up a business,
Ms Lum's started way before that - as a child worried
that one day, there would be no food on the table and
no roof over her head.
It would be an understatement to say that life was
hard for Ms Lum as she was growing up. An orphan,
she was brought up by a doting grandmother in
Kampar, Malaysia. Yet the gambling habits of her
grandmother left Ms Lum in constant fear that one
day, the two would be homeless and hungry.
True to her fears, the gambling habits of her
grandmother led to disaster. They had to downgrade
from their terrace house with a garden, to a small
wooden home. The maid they used to employ had to
be let go because they could no longer afford to pay
her salary.
With little money, she resorted to working during her
free time - giving tuition, working as a promoter in
department stores, and going door-to- door peddling
everything from cosmetics to flower pots.
A 'spur of the moment' decision saw the gutsy woman
plonk down $20,000 in seed money from her own
savings to distribute water treatment equipment and
systems. Of this amount, half was spent even before
the business started operating, said Ms Lum.
The Malaysian-born entrepreneur has since turned
water treatment firm Hyflux from a three-man
operation into a 2,000-strong company.
In June this year, she clinched the Ernst & Young
World Entrepreneur Of The Year (WEOY) award.

5. Neo Kah Kiat, Neo Group Mr Neo's
family was so poor that utilities got cut
off every once in a while, and they had
wooden planks nailed to the windows
to keep out the sun and rain.
"If the planks fell off, we'd use cloth to
cover the gap. When there was no
electricity, we'd use candles," he said.
He was a top student but chose to
drop out after Secondary 2. His family
was desperately poor at the time and
he wanted to start earning money as
quickly as possible.
In 1992, with a capital of $15,000
borrowed from relatives and friends,
he leased a small kitchen in Joo Chiat
and hired eight staff.
Today, Neo Group is the parent
company of three catering businesses,
a wine cellar, a Japanese food-outlet
chain, a restaurant and a yacht
catering service.

6. Patrick Liew, HSR International
Realtors (HSR) As a child, Patrick
Liew's family of seven stayed together
in a tiny room only 200 square feet in
area - he slept under his
grandmother's bed. Today, the 53-
year-old is the chief executive officer
of HSR International Realtors (HSR) -
the biggest property agency in
Singapore, with more than 7,000
employees.

7. Annie Gan, Jian Huang Construction
All Ms Annie Gan wanted, when she
went to Singapore more than 18 years
ago, was a good job to help pay for her
part-time studies here.
At 21, and armed with just a Sijil
Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) - the
equivalent of an O-level qualification -
she arrived here in 1992 and found
work as a clerk at a sub-contracting
firm.
'I did everything at the company, even
my colleague's share of work, and I
didn't complain because I was hungry
to learn,' she recalled.
She could hardly have dreamt of how
far she would come. Today, she is at
the helm of Jian Huang Construction, a
multimillion-dollar building firm with a
fast-moving global operation.

8. Linda Onn, restaurateur and celebrity
11 years ago, she started off as an
office administrator with a salary of
just RM700 (S$296) a month.
When she got TV offers and became a
spokesperson for various products, her
savings grew. In fact, it grew to such a
point that six years ago, Linda didn't
know what to do with her money.
"So I decided to go into business and
open up a family restaurant because
my parents had the experience and
most of my family cook well."
From only one in 2004, she is now the
proud owner of five restaurants.

9. Yeo Thian In, Yeo’s Mr Yeo's family left
China for Singapore in 1938 due to the
Japanese threat in China. He and his
brothers had to work doubly hard after
their first factory in Outram Road was
bombed by Japan in January 1942.
As it turned out, the bombing was a
blessing in disguise.
He remained humble; even though he
may have been the boss of what is
known today as the multi-million
dollar company recognised
internationally for its beverages,
canned foods and instant noodles,
people who came to the office often
mistook him for a clerk because he
'had no airs'.

10. Eric Chan, Partyworld When he was
about eight, his parents were so poor
that they could not afford to feed their
five children and sold off one of his
sisters to a temple.
He recalls: "I got by with only 5 cents a
day for pocket money. Some days, we
had to go without a single meal."
Enamoured by music, he became a
regular on the Chinese xinyao circuit
here.
Later, he ventured into the new thing
on the entertainment scene then, KTV
disc-jockeying. He resigned from his
day job and with $10,000 from his
savings, opened a part vocal school,
part "mobile KTV" business.
He is now managing director and
founder of Partyworld, one of two
chains that dominate the KTV business
here.

11. Eldwin Chua, Paradise Group A mini
restaurant empire, a three-room
Robertson Quay condominium and
two luxury cars, including a Mercedes -
this is a life he never dared dream of.
Second of four children, his father was
a lorry driver at his grandfather's
gunny sack trading company, while his
mother was a part-time baby-sitter.
Although the family was not poor,
finances were tight and the family
lived frugally.
In 2002, his grandfather asked him to
help run his coffee shop in Defu
Industrial Estate. He quit his property
agent job, sank $10,000 of his savings
into the stall and became a cook.
He is now chief executive officer of the
Paradise Group of Chinese restaurants.

12. Michael Tien, Atlas Sound & Vision
His story, though not quite a rags-to-
riches one, comes close. When Mr
Tien's parents' 20-year-old sound
systems business failed in the 1980s
recession, the family was left with
nothing save 'the clothes off our
backs'. It was thus a 'no-brainer' for
the young Mr Tien, fresh out of
national service, to abandon plans for
university and go into business.
With affirmation from Bose Corp's
founder Dr Bose, the Tien family
decided to start over. The new Atlas
Hi-fi was profitable within a year, and
hit its predecessor's peak turnover of
$3.5 million within three years.
Mr Tien took over from his late father
in 2003 as the company's CEO, and
decided to move Atlas from being a
family business to an enterprise.

13. Jennie Chua, Ascott Group Her
beginnings were humble, as a junior
teacher in St Margaret's secondary
school in the 1960s.
'I had to leave university because my
family was so poor that I had to go out
and work,' she says. 'And the only job
that was available to me was
teaching."
In 1971, Ms Chua joined the Mandarin
Hotel as a trainee. 'I was paid $650 a
month, after hard bargaining,' she
recalls. 'They wanted to pay me $400,
but I said no. But $650 was big money
then.'
She took charge of CapitaLand's
subsidiary the Ascott group in 2007,
and soon she became CapitaLand's
chief corporate officer. She is
concurrently president and CEO of the
Ascott Group; and holds directorships
and chairmanships in other
companies.

14. S.M.A. Jaleel, MES (Mini Environment
Service) In his youth, he slept out in
the open at his father's wooden stall in
a back lane off Stamford Road. A thin
blanket provided cover.
For 12 years, he used public latrines or
a standpipe to bathe and to do his
daily washing in between hasty packet
meals and helping to tend the stall
which sold odds and ends.
He left school in Secondary 2 because
his father couldn't afford the fees and,
after selling lottery tickets to
supplement his income, started
cleaning choked drains and, later,
clogged canals.
Now, his company owns four multi-
million dollar hostel projects and is
fast expanding in the Middle- East in
places like Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha.

15. Anastasia Liew, Bengawan Solo Born
Tjendri Anastasia to a housewife
mother and provision store owner
father in Bangka Island off Palembang,
Indonesia, the third of eight siblings
grew up in Palembang.
After civil unrest in the country in the
1960s forced her to stop school at
Secondary 3, she signed up for baking
and cooking classes to upgrade herself.
Two years after marriage, the restless
housewife began making butter and
chiffon cakes from the kitchen of her
four- room flat in Marine Parade to sell
to friends.
By 1987, Bengawan Solo had five
stores and a central kitchen in Harvey
Road. It became so successful that
investors knocked on her door with
huge bids to buy over the company.

16. Lim Hock Chee, Sheng Siong
Supermarket In the early 1970s, he
was feeding pigs and cleaning pens on
his father's farm in Lim Chu Kang.
By the early 1980s, the farm had
already been relocated by the
Government.
'The Government literally broke our
rice bowl as they phased out pig
farming in Singapore,' quipped Mr Lim.
Left with stocks of pork to clear, he
stumbled upon a mini-supermarket
owner who was willing to rent him
space to sell the meat.
Now, he runs one of Singapore's
fastest growing retail chains, Sheng
Siong Supermarket.

17. Dennis Ng, Einsoon Pets Supply
Growing up, Dennis Ng did not have
much to look forward to. He lived with
his family of six in a one-room flat, too
poor to even think about a dream job
for the future.
Though he was faced with a life of
hardship, Mr Ng remained optimistic
and studied hard, obtaining a diploma
from Ngee Ann Polytechnic while
working as a part-time cashier at Cold
Storage.
Today, he is the founder of Einsoon
Pets Supply, a distributor of pet food,
grooming products and cat litter in
Singapore, with profits increasing by
the year.

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More than 220 interviews/features in 5 years from local and international media