VI Blog

Meet Ken Chee and Clive Tan, VI College Founders

27 Sep 2021

Meet Ken Chee and Clive Tan, VI College Founders | VI


Just as a building has its pillars, VI College has its own.

Meet Ken Chee and Clive Tan, the pillars and founders of VI College, one of several strategic business units within the 8VI Holdings ecosystem.

Think of 8VI as the tree that holds beneath her several branches, including VI College and VI App.

The ones who planted this tree in 2008 were Ken and Clive.

See also: Do smarter, faster, and easier stock analysis with this app

Before VI was established, Ken and Clive were running their individual businesses (a branding and marketing company for Ken and a childcare centre for Clive).

During the collapse of the Lehman Brothers, Ken and Clive spotted the apparent need to educate people around them on value investing – an investment strategy they had been practising together with a mastermind group who met regularly in Clive’s childcare centre.

Where the majority of investors were running away from the stock market, Ken and Clive were finding great investment opportunities. Warren Buffett shares this nugget of wisdom: “It’s only when the tide goes out that you discover who’s been swimming naked.” Ken and Clive wanted to reach more people to teach them how to identify stocks that aren’t swimming naked without waiting for the tide to go out.

Today, the company is rapidly expanding in the Asia Pacific, aiming to enrich 100 million lives.

Meet Ken Chee

You might have seen and heard Ken’s story as an investor, leader, and entrepreneur in Singapore on some media platforms.

Amidst the glitter in his life, Ken has had his own share of challenges. He didn’t come from a well-off family. In fact, he started work as young as 13 years old when his father had lost all their savings during the 1985 Pan Electric Crisis. In his early twenties, Ken was retrenched twice.

These were the hardships Ken faced that pushed him to design a future where his family and kids could live comfortably. Hence, he ventured into what he calls the ‘twin engines’ to success – business and investment.

See also: Recession Heroes – Ken Chee

In 2003, Ken started a branding and marketing business, JM_Asia Pte Ltd, with but $9 as capital. In 18 months, his company was able to achieve $1.4 million in revenue. But this wasn’t an easy ride. Before JM_Asia, he had two failed attempts at entrepreneurship. Yet, Ken was one to keep swimming no matter how hard the current.

Ken currently manages a multimillion-dollar portfolio and a company that has already touched more than 60,000 lives. It is his dream to empower more and more people to achieve sustainable wealth.

Meet Clive Tan

Similar to Ken, Clive had explored the twin engines even before VI College was established. But he didn’t start as an entrepreneur.

Clive was a secondary school teacher in Singapore who got acquainted with value investing and was able to get sufficient returns that helped him fund his first business with his wife. They acquired a struggling childcare business, turned it into a profitable one, and sold it for a profit.

Clive’s passion for education and investment soon became the fire that ignited the vision of starting 8VI Holdings, including VI College.

At present, Clive is primarily involved in the company’s strategic planning, development of corporate policies, and risk management of its businesses, and leads the asset management activities.

In whatever he does, Clive is motivated by the feeling of making a positive contribution to society. Together with Ken and VI College, Clive does exactly this.

Pillars add strength to a building. No matter how high or big VI College gets, there are pillars called Ken and Clive to hold it together, so it doesn’t collapse.

Join our growing community.



DISCLAIMER

This article and its contents are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute a recommendation to purchase or sell securities of any of the companies or investments herein described. It is not intended to amount to financial advice on which you should rely.

No representations, warranties, or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, made to the contents in the article is accurate, complete, or up-to-date. Past performance is not indicative nor a guarantee of future returns.

We, 8VI Global Pte Ltd, disclaim any responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, from the use and application of any of the contents of the article.