A list of all the episodes you will find in the So This Is My Why podcast that features people with an entrepreneurial background, including show notes, links and other episodes that you might find interesting.
Ng Kai Yuan is the co-founder of Our Grandfather Story: a Singapore-based digital publisher dedicated to uncovering timeless and overlooked stories across Southeast Asia.
Ep 37: Ng Kai Yuan [Co-Founder, Our Grandfather Story] Read More »
Chye Neo Chong is the former Managing Director of IBM Malaysia with over 30 years in the information technology industry, and current independent director at Hong Leong Financial Group and Bursa Malaysia.
Chye was appointed to the role of MD in 2015, becoming the first woman to helm the company in its 57-year history in Malaysia and was also awarded the CEO Champion Award by Talentcorp in 2015 and recognised by the Malaysian Business publication as one of Malaysia’s Women of Influence in April 2018.
Ep 35: Chye Neo Chong (ex-MD, IBM Malaysia) Read More »
Shawn Chong is one of Malaysia’s top mixologist, a three-time Diageo World Class Malaysia champion, once listed as the No. 25 Bartender in the world and co-founder of Kuala Lumpur’s pioneering speakeasy, Omakase + Appreciate. A speakeasy that was listed in the Top 10 of Asia’s 50 Best Bars Award 2016. He is also the founder of Bar Class Academy Asia.
Maurizio Leo is the Co-Founder of Terminal Eleven (which developed the stargazing mobile app, Skyview), sourdough baker, blogger, writer and Founder of the Perfect Loaf.
To date, The Perfect Loaf is a two-time Saveur Magazine Blog Award winner. In 2016 The Perfect Loaf won both Editors’ and Readers’ Choice Awards in The Food Obsessive category and the 2018 Readers’ Choice Award for Best Special Interest Blog. In addition, The Perfect Loaf was a 2019 Webby Award nominee.
Maurizio is a regular contributor to the King Arthur Baking blog and is the Resident Bread Baker at Food52. Maurizio has written articles on bread baking for Edible Magazine, the Bread Baker’s Guild of America, and Bread Magazine.
Darrion Nguyen is currently a lab research technician at Baylor College of Technician & the face behind “Lab Shenanigans”: a social media brand that makes fun, easily digestible science content that has garnered over 600,000 followers to date (½ million on Tik Tok!)! He is also known as the Asian Millennial Tik Tok version of Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Dr Finian Tan is a Singaporean venture capitalist and Chairman of Vickers Venture Partners: a VC he founded in 2005 with 4 other partners and which is now ranked the 5th most consistently performing fund manager worldwide.
Prior to Vickers, Finian was inter alia:
Regional Director & Head at J.Aron – Goldman Sachs’ Asian trading arm;
Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry for the Singapore Government, where he oversaw the creation of the $1 billion dollar TIF fund (he was subsequently appointed as chairman of the said fund); and
A Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson Eplanet & the founding partner of its Asia Pacific Operations, where he led the investment into Baidu and remained its largest backer until IPO.
But how did it all begin?
Ep 30: Dr Finian Tan (Chairman, Vickers Venture Fund) Read More »
Freda Liu is one of Malaysia’s most prominent radio television hosts, having worked at BFM 89.9 – Malaysia’s only business radio station, for over 12 years. She has conducted over 5000 interviews and some prominent names include Martin Cooper, author Stephen Covey, motivational speaker Nick Vijucic, former GE CEO Jack Welch, the Duke of York HRH Prince Andrew to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
At BFM, her show Enterprise provides the tools to help businesses succeed covering topics with the startup scene, personal development, technology to organizational development. While HerVantage talks about women of leadership and influence to showcase women representation in all strata of society from sports, the arts & sciences to entrepreneurship. Freda has authored five books called “PR Yourself” and “Shake & Spear Your Business: The Romeo & Juliet Way, ” and “Everybody Loves Ray” (biography) “Bursting Fixed Mindsets” and her latest “In Your Skin”.
She also contributes to The Star, one of the leading English newspapers. She was recently awarded the ASEAN Rice Bowl Awards for Malaysia Startup Journalist Of The Year and a nominee for MaGIC’s Social Enterprise journalist. Freda is a member of the National Association of Women Entrepreneurs Malaysia (NAWEM) and the Malaysian Association of Professional Speakers (MAS). She started her Lean In Circle called Think and the Malaysian chapter and has over 100 members in her group.
Ep 27: Freda Liu (Business Radio TV Host of BFM 89.9, Author, Emcee & Moderator) Read More »
Cesar Kuriyama is a video maker, director, producer, animator, and founder of 1 Second Every Day – a mobile application that allows users to record one second of video every day and then chronologically mashes them together into a single film. And an app that is well on track to being the No.1 Downloaded Free App in the App Store!
Ep 26: Cesar Kuriyama (Founder, 1 Second Every Day) Read More »
Chan-Yau Chong is currently The CEO of CarbonCare InnoLab, A NGO promoting sustainability. His other social interests include disability rights, and global citizenship. He is the President of the Hong Kong Blind Union, former Chairman and current Director of The Board of the Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong Foundation, former Chairman of and current Board Director of Carbon Care Asia, former Executive Director of Oxfam Hong Kong. He received awards including Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award, MBE, China Poverty Alleviation Award, and Honorary Fellowship from the University of Hong Kong.
Ep 25: Chong Chan-Yau (President, Hong Kong Blind Union & CEO, CarbonCare Innolab Read More »
Malek Ali is a Malaysian-Singaporean serial entrepreneur who has:
✦ Founded Malaysia’s only business radio station, BFM 89.9, that disproved conventional thinking then that Malaysian radio listeners only wanted entertainment content. BFM has gone on to become the most influential radio station in Malaysia
✦ Founded Fi Life, that aims disprove the adage “insurance is sold and not bought”, by operating Malaysia’s first online life insurance service. Work-in-progress.
✦ Worked with JobStreet.com to disrupt the newspaper recruitment classifieds market in South-East Asia by launching an online job portal and related recruitment tools. That job is done.
✦ Invested in Newswav, a Malaysian news aggregator, so all your news can be in one app. Work-in-progress
✦ Invested in Kakitangan.com, that provides cloud-based payroll and leave services. Work-in-progress.
Currently at Fi Life, he is working towards increasing the financial wellness of Malaysians:
✦ Working with employers to provide financial wellness programmes for their employees.
✦ Moderating weekly webinars on important topics that impact your personal finances
✦ My radio station hosting a weekly radio programme, Ringgit & Sense, to increase your financial literacy
✦ And soon, launching financial advisory services that will develop your own individual financial plan
Ep 24: Malek Ali (Founder of BFM 89.9 & Fi Life) Read More »