TAN MIN-LIANG
CO-FOUNDER, CEO AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR, RAZER BUSINESS ICON, AVID GAMER AND FORMER LAWYER
Shirking a legal career to make a livelihood with computer gaming hardware proved an astute decision for co-founder of Razer and former lawyer Tan Min-liang. Launched in 2005 in San Diego with American gamer Robert Krakoff, when Tan was just 27, Razer offered tech peripherals that quickly gained a cult following with their sleek designs, cool factor and cutting-edge performance.
Fast forward to the present, and Razer’s product offerings currently encompass everything from gaming laptops, mice, keyboards, mouse pads and chairs to fitness bands and tablets, each with its own near-rabid fan base. With Tan—an avid gamer himself since childhood—at the helm, the company notably raised $721 million in its oversubscribed IPO in Hong Kong in 2017, and today operates 18 offices worldwide and boasts 150 million users globally. The firm is backed by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings and Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures.
Razer launched a $100 million Southeast Asia headquarters in Singapore’s one-north technology and business hub in October 2021, and has plans for a staff headcount of 1,000 as it eyes new revenue streams in console gaming, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. The structure is partially powered by renewable energy.
DID YOU KNOW?
When he was 40, Tan earned the title of Singapore’s youngest self-made billionaire when Razer went public in November 2017.
China-born Forrest Li is the founder, chairman and CEO of Singapore-based online gaming, e-commerce and digital payments company Sea, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Sea Group is backed by Chinese tech giant Tencent, and is considered Southeast Asia’s most valuable listed company. Shares in Sea Limited have spiked approximately sevenfold in the last four years, lifting the valuation of the business to US$120 billion.
Sea operates three brands: e-commerce business Shopee, online gaming service Garena and fintech unit Seamoney. In September 2021, the company raised US$6 billion in a sale of convertible bonds and new shares. Sea was also granted a full digital bank license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore in December 2020, allowing the firm to accept deposits from and provide banking services to retail and non-retail customers.
DID YOU KNOW?
Sea acquired Singaporean football club Home United in 2020, which it subsequently renamed Lion City Sailors FC.
Former Parkway Shenton physician Michael Tan is co-founder and executive director of Fullerton Health, which he established in 2011 with ex-colleague Daniel Chan. Driven by the impetus to make quality healthcare affordable and accessible to all in Asia Pacific, he helped grow the fledgling brand into a medical force.
Today, Fullerton Health operates more than 500 medical facilities across nine markets in Asia Pacific, in countries such as Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong. The group also counts high-profile brands such as Singapore Airlines, Standard Chartered and Marina Bay Sands as corporate clients.
Tan previously served as Parkway East Hospital’s
CEO from 2008 to 2010; his other roles with Parkway Shenton Singapore prior to that were as the group’s medical director, from 2003 to 2007, and then its vice-president of business development, from 2007 to 2008.
DID YOU KNOW?
Fullerton Health debuted a Fullerton Digihealth Kiosk at the North Coast Lodge migrant worker dormitory in September 2021. The machine offers video consultations, dispenses medication, and prints medical certificates, receipts and referral letters.