Armed with resilience, resourcefulness and infallable faith, Eileen Chen shares her story of rising through the corporate ranks in an unconventional—albeit tenacious—fashion, and how that equipped her to launch wellness brand Ki
In the tapestry of corporate success, there are many threads that are like the others. But take a closer look at the template of weaves and emerges a standout thread that, more often than not, is slightly more unconventional and undulating—a statement accent that adds character, that adds colour, and adds creativity. Eileen Chen, founder of Ki, is exactly that.
Before starting Ki, Chen navigated the corporate world without formal education—but thrived thanks to her discipline, intelligence and tenacity. Straight out of secondary school, she worked hard to self-learn all the tools to pursue her grand ambitions, and that earned her spot in the world of consulting. Over the last 21 years, an entry point at a UK management consulting firm kicked started her corporate career, from which she was headhunted by big four consulting firm, KPMG Asia Pacific. Rising through the ranks of such a corporate stalwart has seen her live and work across the globe, from Jakarta and Hong Kong to London and France, with her expertise lying in the field of business development. Working for one of the largest global life sciences and consumer skin health companies, she harnessed her skills and tenacity to not only grow sales exponentially, but also earn the firm’s fastest-track record of promotion within nine months. In her time at KPMG, she was also the lead for an internal regional KPMG demand generation change programme, which she developed with a group of directors and partners that’s now implemented globally. Perhaps it was her experiences working abroad that armed her with the fresh, alternative perspectives to shift both business and consumer mindsets, but we can safely say it was also her resourcefulness and adaptability that strategised such market improvement.
Always the ambitious, tenacious one, the one thing that kept Eileen grounded despite her “go hard or go home” mindset was her faith—and her creative streak. “Creations and growth are joy—my ways of self-care”, she expresses. “I love anything creative and adventurous, from building things with my hands, writing when I am inspired, learning just about anything for self-development like behavioural neuroscience, to physically trying out new activities”.
It wasn’t till three years ago when her mind and body was forced to a pause because of Covid-19 that she decided to do something more for herself. After grinding for big corporates for two decades, she suddenly had a wealth of time and space to focus inwards. This is when she started volunteering at St Andrew’s Autism School, which focuses on severe cases, where she also learned the emotional challenges caregivers face daily—and this, according to Chen, was when she experienced a truly downhearted period for the first time. “There was a lot of time for self-reflection, and I started questioning my purpose. “Am I doing something I am passionate about? Is it purposeful and fulfilling?” And that was the turning point where I decided it was time to give up my very stable, progressing career to a creation that fills my heart”.
