Datuk Vincent Choo and his wife Datin Cynthia Cheong are the Development Agent or master franchisee in Malaysia of Subway, an American fast food sandwich chain, which first came to Malaysia in the late 1990s. The Choos took over the franchise from an existing franchisee and expanded the chain over two decades to more than 200 outlets. They were jointly honoured with the Lifetime Achievement in Food and Beverage award at the McMillan Woods Global Awards Night 2017. 

Subway was started by Dr Peter Buck and Fred Deluca about 50 years ago in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA as a restaurant that served fresh, affordable, made-to-order...

Phuture Foods Sdn Bhd is a plant based pork substitute start up by two young Malaysians, Jack Yap (CEO) and Lim Jin Yin in 2018. Their inspiration came from the success of Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat in the USA which are two of the biggest plant-based meat substitute companies in the world. The difference between the two is that Beyond Meat does not use GMO (genetically modified organisms) ingredients while Impossible Foods uses genetically modified soy. Both have gone mainstream into restaurants and are available in supermarkets and upmarket grocery chains.   

Jack Yap was running a vegetarian restaurant for a few years but he...

Tan Sri Dato’ Lim Kuang Sia, 68, founder of Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd (Kossan), has a Master’s degree in chemical engineering from Imperial College London, UK. His first degree was a Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) from Nanyang University, Singapore. An entrepreneur at heart, Tan Sri Lim started Kossan in 1979 to manufacture high technical-input rubber products known as Technical Rubber Products (TRPs), which are used in a wide array of industries, including infrastructure, automotive and industrial applications.  When the HIV/Aids epidemic created a spike in world demand for gloves, the enterprising Tan Sri responded by venturing into...

Kuan Kam Hon @ Kwan Kam Onn, 73, is the founder of Hartalega Holdings Berhad (Hartalega), currently the largest nitrile glove producer in the world. Chairman Kuan worked in the family’s building and construction business, Kuan Yuen & Sons Company in the early 1970s. Then he left in 1978 to start Timol Weaving Sdn Bhd, one of the pioneers in woven labels and badges. In 1981 he established Hartalega Sdn Bhd. By 1988 Hartalega had four production lines producing rubber gloves in Kepong. Twenty years later, Hartalega Holdings Bhd was listed on Bursa Malaysia and under the stewardship of Chairman Kuan, the company is now the world’s...

On 17 September 2020 Top Glove Corporation Berhad (Top Glove) announced its  full financial year results ended 31 August 2020. Revenue for the year reached a record high of RM7.24 billion and profit after tax was RM1.9 billion, a spike of 417% from the previous financial year. Public shareholders (57,000) were rewarded with a final dividend of 8.5 sen per share bringing the total dividend payout to 11.8 sen per share or approximately RM961.2 million. Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai, 62, Executive Chairman of Top Glove, was over the moon with the excellent performance of the company he co-founded the company with his wife, Puan Sri Tong Siew Bee, in...

The late Dato Choo Ching Hwa (1931-1996) and his wife, Datin Choo Lein Sei Keng, travelled around the world to conduct research on the design and development of cemeteries in the early 1980s shortly after Dato Choo retired from political activities. They set up Xiao En Memorial Park, Malaysia’s first private landscape cementery in 1987. The modern architecturally designed Xiao En Centre was officially opened on 1 June 2007 in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. Covering a space of 13,900 sq metres it has an exhibition center, seminar hall, life care resource center, theater, auditorium, and funeral facilities.

The Choo members continues Dato Choo’s...

These are trying times for Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay (KT Lim), Chairman of Genting Malaysia Berhad (GentingM) until 27 August 2020, when he was redesignated as Deputy Chairman. The position was switched with Tan Sri Alwi Jantan (formerly Deputy Chairman) who is now Chairman of Genting Berhad.  Tan Sri KT Lim remains the Group CEO. His son Lim Keong Hui, who was Deputy CEO of Genting Hong Kong (Genting HK) which owns the luxury cruise lines, resigned from the Board of Genting Hong Kong and from his post as Deputy CEO on 28 August 2020 in the midst of a major restructuring of the debts of Genting HK which is about US$3.4 billion as of July 31...

On 19 June 2020 Grab CEO and co-founder Anthony Tan wrote a Dear Grabbers letter to employees to inform them of a reduction of staff to just under 5% across the region because of the impact of Covid-19. It was a painful decision but necessary to continue in the build up of the Group. Cost review across the board is taking place to limit cash burn and to sunset non-core businesses. The last few years had been breathtaking enough as the Grab Unicorn raced to establish itself in 225 cities across 8 countries.  

Grab was founded in 2012 as MyTeksi, a ride-hailing App by two Malaysians, Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling who were colleagues at...