Jennie Chua

Personal life and education

Jennie Chua was born in Batam, Indonesia and raised in the Tanglin area of Singapore. She is the oldest of 12 children. Her father, Chua Kok Kuan, was a wealthy businessman who sold cloves and nutmeg, but lost his business when she was 10. Chua was educated at Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and started working as a teenager, as a typist and tutor. After doing her A Level studies at Anglo-Chinese School, she was awarded a scholarship to attend the University of Singapore, where she dropped out after a year. After school, she worked as a teacher. She met Goh Kian Chee, son of Goh Keng Swee, when she was 16; the couple married 8 years later in 1968. As Goh attended Cornell University, Chua moved there and attended Cornell for hotel management. Chua has two sons, Goh Ken Yi and Goh Yang Peng. She and Goh Kian Chee divorced in 1977 and remained on amicable terms.

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 commenced her career with Westin Hotels, where she served as the marketing director. Subsequently, in 1990, she achieved a groundbreaking milestone by becoming the first woman to hold the position of general manager at Raffles Hotel. 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. Today, she is 40% shareholder of the company. Her work is currently focused on the fast food market in Singapore.

She is a former teacher at the Asian Institute of Tourism in the Philippines. Chua is also the Singaporean Ambassador to the United Mexican States, and former Ambassador to Slovakia.