Dato Jannie Chan Siew Lee (曾秀丽), also known by her married name, Jannie Tay, is a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an entrepreneur and former president of the Singapore Retailers Association and the

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, militar ...

Business Forum, in both cases the first woman to hold the position. Chan earned a B.Sc. in

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

and an M.Sc. in

pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

from

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

in 1968 and 1971,Dato' Dr Jannie Chan Siew Lee
Prominent Alumni,

, 2012, updated 13 February 2013, retrieved 11 September 2013."Beyond watches and reishi: Jannie Tay's approach to business"
Knowledge@SMU Paper6,

Singapore Management University The Singapore Management University (SMU) is a public autonomous university in Singapore. The university is the only city campus in Singapore. It ranks third in Asia as a specialist university, behind Hong Kong University of Science and Techn ...

, 2 March 2010, retrieved 11 September 2013. and was a lecturer in both subjects at the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

.Cheah Ui-Hoon, Save Our Planet Foundation, "Leaving a lasting legacy", ''The Business Times'', 19 December 2008, repr.

AsiaOne AsiaOne is Singapore's first pure play digital content platform, serving readers primarily in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. AsiaOne was first launched in 1995 by Singapore Press Holdings and is currently a joint venture between mm2 Asia ...

, 22 December 2008
archived
at the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

, 8 February 2009. In 1979 she co-founded The Hour Glass Limited, a luxury watch retailer, with her husband, Henry Tay."Watch retailer Jannie Tay on creating a sense of luxury in Singapore"
Business,

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

, 29 November 2010 , it had 41 stores in several countries; she was formerly executive vice-president and executive vice-chairman. She founded the holding company Save Our Planet Investments (Hypha Holdings, 2005) and the non-profit Save Our Planet Foundation (2007), which works for reforestation to

mitigate climate change Climate change mitigation is action to limit climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases or removing those gases from the atmosphere. The recent rise in global average temperature is mostly caused by emissions from fossil fuels bur ...

. Her most recent company is Scientific Tradition Pte Ltd, which develops mushroom products based on traditional Chinese medicine. Chan contributed to the 2006 book, ''Six Billion Minds: Managing Outsourcing in the Global Knowledge Economy''. She is the first female president of the Singapore Retailers Association and of the ASEAN Business Forum, the first female executive board member of the

Commonwealth Business Council The Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) was an institution of the Commonwealth Family that aimed to use the global network of the Commonwealth of Nations more effectively for the promotion of global trade and investment for shared prosperity. ...

and founder chairman of the Commonwealth Business Women Leaders' Network. She also serves on the first Business Advisory Council of the

United Nations Office for Project Services The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is a United Nations agency dedicated to implementing infrastructure and procurement projects for the United Nations System, international financial institutions, governments and other partne ...

(since 2000) and on the Business Advisory Council of the

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It was established in order to increase economic ...

(since 2004). She is active for women's rights: she was one of the organisers of the first Women Inspire exposition and business forum in Singapore in 2002 and was president of the Singapore chapter of WOW (Women for Other Women). On 20 June 2019, Chan was declared bankrupt by the Singapore court for owing a moneylender over S$4 million in unpaid debt. Chan began serving a two-week prison sentence for contempt of court on 9 September 2019, after losing her appeal against a 2017 sentence judgment. On 15 October 2019, the Singapore High Court rules that Chan's forced sale of $3.85m apartment to be paid to Official Assignee.

Personal

Chan is of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

Chinese heritage; her father and grandfather were "sinsehs" (practitioners of traditional medicine). She has six siblings, four of whom became physicians. Chan and her husband have three children, Audrey, Michael (who now manages The Hour Glass) and Sabrina. Their first child died in childhood. They divorced in 2010.

Awards

* 1989: Special Volunteer Award, Community Chest of Singapore * 1996: Louis Feraud Les Honours award (Business category) * 1999: Honorary doctorate,

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic (United Kingdom), Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and High ...

* 1997: Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World award, Paris * 2003: Darjah Sultan Ahmad Shah Pahang, carrying the title

Dato' Datuk (or its variant Dato or Datu) is a Malay title commonly used in Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as a traditional title by Minangkabau people in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The title of the wife of Datuk is Datin. Origin The oldes ...

* 2003: Distinguished Alumni Award, Monash University * 2009: APEA Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award, Enterprise Asia * 2011 Lifetime Achievement for Outstanding Contribution to Tourism. Presented at Singapore Experience Awards.

Key Positions Held

* 1990: President, Women for Other Women Association (WOW) * 1997–1998: Director, International Women's Forum Leadership Foundation * 1997–1999: Board Member, Women's Leadership Initiative Board, John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University * 1998: President, ASEAN Business Forum * Jul 1999–Jul 2016: President, Singapore Retailers Association * 2002: President, Women’s Business Connection * 2002: Chairperson, Commonwealth Business Women Leaders network * 2003: Founding member and Chairman, Retail Academy of Singapore * 2004: Chairman, Retail Industry Skills and Training Council * 2004: Member, United Nations ESCAP Business Advisory Council * 2011: Chairman, Asia-Pacific Retailers Association

Personal life

Chan was married to Henry Tay were married in 1969 and divorced in 2010. They have three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Jannie Living people Singaporean women in business Monash University alumni Singaporean people of Hakka descent Year of birth missing (living people)