Jennie Chua

Jennie Chua is a businesswoman from Singapore. She is the co-founder of Beeworks, Inc. In 2013, she was named one of Forbes Asia's "50 Women In the Mix".^[1] She has been called "Singapore's Grande Dame".^[2]

Personal life and education

Jennie Chua was raised in the Tanglin area of Singapore. She is the oldest of 12 children. Her father was married twice. He was businessman, selling cloves and nutmeg. Chua started working as a teenager, as a typist and tutor. She was awarded a scholarship to attend the University of Singapore. She attended one year and then dropped out. After school, she worked as a teacher. She met Goh Kian Chee when she was 16; whom she married in 1968. He attended Cornell University. Chua moved there and attended Cornell for hotel management. Chua had two sons. She and Chee divorced in 1977.^[3]

Career

After graduation, Chua started working as general manager at a Mandarin Hotel in Singapore. In 1977 she started working, for 11 years, at the tourism board of Singapore, as director. In 1988 she started working for Westin Hotels. At Westin, she was marketing director. She became the first woman general manager at Raffles Hotel in 1990. In 2003, she became the Chief Executive Officer of Raffles Holdings. She quit Raffles Holdings in 2007. She became CEO of Ascott Group, a department of CapitaLand, eventually she became the chief corporate officer for CapitaLand. She left the company in July 2012. Chua is the co-founder of Beeworks.^[3] Today, she is 40% shareholder of the company. Her work is currently focused on the fast food market in Singapore.^[2][3]

She is a former teacher at the Asian Institute of Tourism in the Philippines.^[2] Chua is also the Ambassador to Slovakia.^[4]

References