A day before our scheduled interview with Ee Soon Wei, Malaysians woke up to a new government—with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad leading the charge for a new Malaysia.
“It feels like there is a new dawn waiting for us, which promises restored hope,” Soon Wei commented wistfully at the start of our interview.
If there is anyone who could talk at length about change and its impact on a legacy, it would be Soon Wei. The CEO of Art Printing Works (APW) has been working tirelessly the past eight years to breathe new life into his family business—a commercial printing entity that was said to have turned in good profit during its heydays in the 1980s and 1990s. APW was an offshoot of The Royal Press, a letterpress printing house in Malacca, that was founded by Soon Wei’s grandfather Ee Lay Swee.
But Soon Wei did not start in the family business after completing his studies in marketing and management in Melbourne. Instead he chose to go into a corporate career—contributing to top companies like Sara Lee in his early 20s, where he was in charge of marketing and branding.