The Ghim Li Group CEO tells us how she pivoted her family’s business during the pandemic and changed the sanitiser industry with plant-based biotech made in Singapore
How I’m Making It is a weekly series in which Tatler speaks to influential individuals about their unique journeys and what keeps them going.
16 years ago, Felicia Gan was pursuing a career in law, adamant that she would not be joining Ghim Li Group, the lifestyle knitwear apparel supplier firm operated by her family.
After cautiously joining the family business in 2006, Gan worked her way up to take over the reins as chief executive, a position she still holds today. She also started creating antibacterial fabric face masks and set up Esta Technology, the first plant-based biotech in Singapore that has revolutionised the sanitiser industry.
This is how she did it.
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With 40 years behind it and an international reputation for being an excellent global supplier of causal lifestyle knitwear apparel to major retailers worldwide, Ghim Li Group was certainly thriving and primed for Gan to take over.
So it was a surprise for many when Gan announced that she had different plans and that she did not actually want to join the business her mother started.
“I did not actually intend to join the family business,” Gan told Tatler Singapore. “I wanted to be a lawyer and so I went to the University of Nottingham and graduated with a law degree in 2003. I was admitted to the Singapore Bar in May 2005.”
Upon graduating, eager to begin her career, Gan joined local law firm Rajah and Tann as a junior lawyer. After some time there, in 2006, Gan was asked by her family to help out at Ghim Li Group with legal matters.
“They wanted me to come on board to help the company as the legal officer and assist in the legal compliance, board and secretarial matters relating to our public listing and I decided to just give it a go,” Gan explained.