Calvin Cheng Ern Lee is a
Singaporean
Singaporeans, or the Singaporean people, refers to citizens or people who identify with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. Singaporeans of Chinese, Malay, India ...
businessman and former
Nominated Member of Parliament
A Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) is a member of the Parliament of Singapore who is appointed by the president. They are not affiliated to any political party and do not represent any constituency. There are currently nine NMPs in the Parl ...
. Cheng is known for his views on socio-political issues in Singapore. He began his business career in the modeling industry and expanded into event hosting, publishing, and educational technology.
Education
Cheng earned his undergraduate degree in
Philosophy, Politics and Economics at
Hertford College
Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colleg ...
,
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. He later earned a master's degree in industrial relations. In 2017, he made a donation to Hertford to establish a prize for PPE students.
Business career
Cheng was the Asia-Pacific head of
Elite Model Management
Elite Model Management (MM) refers to two independent chain modeling agencies that originated as one in Paris, France in 1972 with subsequent locations in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, London and Toronto. In 2004, the agencies in New York, Miami, ...
from 2001 to 2004.
During his tenure, he opened an Elite agency in India while developing other projects in the region. In 2004, Cheng set up Elite Models Singapore Pte Ltd. The company was renamed Looque Models Singapore Pte Ltd in 2005.
Through Looque he ran several
franchising
Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busine ...
businesses in the fields of luxury events, media, and talent management in entertainment and business.
[ Cheng ran ]Ford Models Supermodel of the World
Supermodel of the World (''Ford Supermodel of the Year'', formerly ''Face of the 80s'') is an international modeling contest established by Eileen Ford in 1980. The contest showcases young fashion model entrants from over 50 countries in order t ...
competitions under license from Ford in China in 2007 and in Malaysia in 2011. The World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
named Cheng a Young Global Leader
Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL), was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum. The YGL, a non-profit organization managed from Geneva, Switzerland, is under the supervision of the Swiss government ...
in 2009.
On 23 November 2011, several model agencies, including Looque Models, were fined for price fixing
Price fixing is an anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given ...
. Cheng claimed in defense that the goal was to raise wages for models. The Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) ruled that Association of Modelling Industry Professionals Singapore (AMIP) engaged in anticompetitive price-fixing, resulting in customers paying more and having a considerable and adverse impact on the market. The CCS noted in its decision that as president of AMIP, Cheng played a central role by instructing AMIP members how to mask the collusion to evade detection and complaints. Cheng appealed, claiming that statements in the decision were damaging to his character. The appeal was dismissed because he had not been personally fined.
In August 2015, Cheng merged one of his franchise businesses, Lumina Looque Knowledge Hubs Pte Ltd, with a Chinese firm called ReTech that focused on educational technology
Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...
, and led the company to IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
on the Australian Stock Exchange
Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as, ...
in June 2017.
In May 2022, Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority awarded a provisional virtual asset license to Cheng's company Web3 Holdings FZE.
In February 2023, Cheng's digital asset management company, Damoon Technologies, which allowed fiat money
Fiat money (from la, fiat, "let it be done") is a type of currency that is not backed by any commodity such as gold or silver. It is typically designated by the issuing government to be legal tender. Throughout history, fiat money was sometime ...
to cashless transactions and vice-versa, was officially given regulatory approval by FINMA
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is the Switzerland, Swiss government body responsible for financial regulation. This includes the supervision of banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges and securities dealers, as wel ...
, Switzerland’s financial services watchdog.
Government roles
In July 2009, Cheng was appointed to a year term as a Nominated Member of Parliament
A Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) is a member of the Parliament of Singapore who is appointed by the president. They are not affiliated to any political party and do not represent any constituency. There are currently nine NMPs in the Parl ...
in Singapore's 11th Parliament. As NMPs are supposed to reflect nonpartisan views, the newspaper ''Today
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...
'' questioned his appointment in light of his membership in Young PAP
Young may refer to:
* Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents
* Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood
Music
* The Young, an American ro ...
. Cheng resigned from Young PAP shortly thereafter. His term as an NMP ended after 21 months when Parliament was dissolved during the general elections.
In 2012, Cheng was appointed to the newly formed Media Literacy Council (MLC) of Singapore's Ministry of Communications and Information
The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI; ms, Kementerian Perhubungan dan Penerangan; zh, 通讯及新闻部; ta, தொடர்பு, தகவல் அமைச்சு) is a ministry of the Government of Singapore respons ...
, which was created to "promote civility and responsibility on the Internet". He served two two-year terms on the MLC.[
]
In November 2022, the prime minister of Serbia appointed Cheng as the first honorary consul of Serbia to Singapore to establish closer ties with the country. Prior to his appointment, Serbian interests would seek assistance from Singapore ambassadors based in Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
, Indonesia.
Socio-political views
Cheng often posts his views on socio-political issues in Singapore on Facebook, and is known for attracting controversy at times for his outspoken views.[
]
In November 2015, while he was on the Media Literacy Council, Cheng advocated for the killing of children of terrorists on the Facebook page of entrepreneur and commentator Devadas Krishnadas.[
] His comments led to a verbal warning from Tan Cheng Han
Tan Cheng Han is a Singaporean lawyer and legal academic. Until 2012, he was the dean of the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, where he taught contract law and company Law and directed the EW Barker Centre for Law & Business. F ...
, the Chairman of the MLC. Cheng apologized to the MLC.[
]
Amos Yee
Amos Yee Pang Sang (, born 31 October 1998), also known as just Amos Yee, is a Singaporean convicted sex offender and former blogger, YouTuber and child actor. Yee is currently serving six years' imprisonment in the United States for sexual offense ...
, a teenager who had been previously jailed for comments offensive to the Singaporean government, was convicted and jailed in 2016 for "hurting religious feelings" in his online responses to Cheng's Facebook posts. In March 2017, a United States judge granted Yee political asylum
The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...
, citing the different ways that Cheng and Yee had been treated, where Cheng was not charged, and Yee was charged and convicted.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheng, Calvin
1975 births
Living people
Singaporean Nominated Members of Parliament
Singaporean businesspeople
Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford
Singaporean people of Chinese descent