Kenny Yap Kim Lee (), popularly known as “Kenny the Fish”, is the executive chairman of
Qian Hu Corporation
Qian Hu Corporation Limited () is a Singapore-based ornamental fish service provider, with services ranging from the farming, importing, exporting and distribution of ornamental fish, to their specialty of breeding Dragon Fish (aka Arowana). Qia ...
, an
ornamental fish specialist company founded in
Singapore.
Yap was conferred the Singapore Youth Award for
Entrepreneurship in 1998. He also received
Spring Singapore’s International Management Action Award 2000. He was named one of the 50 stars of Asia by
Business Week
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
in 2001, and went on to receive the
Yazhou Zhoukan Young Chinese Entrepreneur Award 2002 and the Ernst & Young Services Entrepreneur Award 2003, among other accolades.
Education
Yap graduated with a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from
Singapore Polytechnic in 1985. He later graduated from
Ohio State University with a 1st Class Honours degree in Business Administration.
Career
Reflecting on his family's early challenges in fish-farming, including the death of thousands of expensive tropical fish, Yap told Forbes in 2010: "We basically had no idea what we were doing." That was when the family was starting out in fish-farming 25 years earlier.
By 2010, the Qian Hu Corp, of which Yap was the executive chairman, was one of the biggest exporters of tropical fish in the world and operated a dozen stores around Asia.
Quote
* "''We knew that we were small fish. Small fish have to swim together to survive. Without my four brothers and two cousins, I don’t think there would be a Kenny Yap.''" — Kenny Yap
References
External links
Kenny Yap's E-book, The Rise of An Asian Entrepreneur
Kenny Yap's profile
Singaporean businesspeople
Singaporean people of Chinese descent
Hwa Chong Institution alumni
Singapore Polytechnic alumni
Living people
Ohio State University Fisher College of Business alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
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