Crash driver top executive
Global software boss man behind wheel of costly McLaren supercar when it flipped
Atop global software executive was the driver of a halfmillion-dollar McLaren supercar which flipped and crashed on an Auckland motorway, the Herald can reveal.
Heng Loon Chee, 56, appeared briefly at the Auckland District Court yesterday for a registrar’s remand hearing.
He entered no plea to a charge of driving in a dangerous manner, after the black McLaren he was driving hit a median barrier on the Northwestern Motorway near Pt Chevalier and flipped off the road on April 22.
One person was taken to hospital with minor injuries after the crash.
While Chee was listed in court documents as a sales manager, Herald inquiries reveal he is an executive at Massachusetts-based multinational computer company Dell EMC, a subsidiary of Dell Technologies.
Chee, who has not replied to
HHerald requests for comment, lives in Auckland and works at the data storage and information security company’s New Zealand office.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Chee has been the channels director for Dell EMC since January 2011.
Bloomberg’s executive profiles show he was previously the managing director of channels and alliances for the Asia-Pacific region at Avaya Inc, a job he started in February 2009.
Avaya Inc is an American multinational technology company based in California’s Silicon Valley.
Chee, who has a degree in mechanical engineering from Montreal’s McGill University, also served as vice-president for the Asia-Pacific region at SonicWALL, a Silicon Valleybased software security company, from 2006. Bloomberg said Chee had “more than 20 years of experience in Asia-Pacific management roles at leading technology companies including IBM, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems and Horizon Education and Technologies”. It is not clear if the McLaren Watch video from the crash scene at nzherald.co.nz was owned by Chee or if he was taking it for a test drive from a nearby McLaren dealer.
Despite several attempts by the Herald, McLaren Auckland has refused to comment on whether the wrecked supercar was part of its fleet.
Regardless of who owned the McLaren, an Insurance Council spokeswoman said it was highly likely the car was insured.
She said if it was a dealer’s car the insurance policy would be whatever the driver signed before taking it for a test.
“If you took the McLaren for a test ride, then your own insurance may, or may not, cover the damage to a third party. But not the car.”
She said there were some insurance companies that specialised in insuring high performance cars, such as NAC Insurance and Star Insurance Specialists.
“The higher the risk, or the potential cost of something, then presumably you’d be paying a higher price for insuring the McLaren.”
Chee, who faces a maximum penalty of three months’ jail or a $4500 fine if convicted, will appear in court again this month.
He was remanded at large.