As the only media present last night at the Council of Asian Shopping Centres (CASC) conference 2008 welcome dinner, we had the privilege to witness two individuals honoured for their contributions to the industry.
They are Dato’ Teo Chiang Kok, who received PPK Malaysia Award for distinguished lifetime contribution to the shopping centre industry, and Joyce Yap for distinguished lifetime dedication to management of shopping centres.
The former was momentarily lost for words upon receiving the award. Dato’ Teo, who also happened to be CASC 2008 organising chairman, attributed this recognition to teamwork and having been fortunate to pick a good location for the One Utama (1U) shopping centre, which bagged a number of awards.
PPK Malaysia advisor Kumar Tharmalingam, who read the citation for the recipient of the first award, rendered it with a personal touch having worked with Dato’ Teo for more than 15 years in Fiabci and been his friend during those years.
Dato’ Teo or CK as he would like to be called is the second son of the 84-year-old Tan Sri Teo Soo Cheng, who founded the See Hoy Chan group, which translated means “a warehouse full of wealth across the four seas”.
In the video presentation, we were shown how CK looked when he was young. He was certainly very dashing even his glasses then. One can imagine how CK caught the attention of his wife Shirley, who later bore him three children, Ping, Kheam and Juhn.
In line with his family tradition, CK had his education at one of Kuala Lumpur’s oldest and premier school, Victoria Institution before he left for his overseas education. Fishing was his hobby then.
After graduating from Kings College, University of London in electrical engineering with a Masters from Warwick University, CK started his career as a computer system analyst for Univac in 1971.
Two years later he joined his father’s family business in the property sector and there has been no turning back for the last 35 years which saw CK being part of the construction of over 30,000 homes and 20 million sq ft of commercial real estate.
Kumar shared, “To me, CK is a wonderful gift to his family in that he is very close to his parents and has worked with his father all his life. This is a rare thing in today’s world. According to his wife, he used to even be inspecting properties on Sunday with his father.”
CK and his family lived together with his parents for many years. Recently, he became a grandfather himself at age 58.
Kumar went on to tell us how CK pioneered the American Universities Transfer Programme, the first international college twinning system at Kolej Damansara Utama back in the 1980s.
What I enjoyed about Kumar’s citation of CK were the personal insights about the man himself like CK’s long sleeved white shirt and dark pant uniform.
“Rumour has it that the main supplier for his clothes was Globe Silk Store and it was with great regret that he has to change his supplier when Globe Silk Store closed,” said Kumar.
The “extremely humble” CK is very demanding when it comes to quality and work performance and has a very good memory, Kumar added.
“CK is also a greenie at heart and like to enjoy a stroll in the woods”.
Despite his family’s wealth, Kumar revealed that CK is no spendthrift, telling us that CK tried to wear the same tuxedo he made when he got married 25 years ago for a Fiabci Property Award Ceremony.
“Having more than 170 restaurants in 1U, it became quite obvious that he could not fit into it and was forced to buy a new one.
“Another time both of us purchased the first Sony Ericsson personal digital assistant that came out seven years ago and the first Sony Digital 3 megapixel camera.
“While I have gone on with my seventh phone and eighth camera, CK is very loyal and is still using them. Personal frugality is his hallmark. His motto is, ‘If it is not broken, don’t fix it."
Kumar was surprised, however, to find CK changing his old Casio watch with an attached calculator, which had allowed our man to do some fast calculations when a good deal came along.
CK’s reply was his children had given him a new watch with the initials CK on it (Psst, CK here stands for the Calvin Kline label) and also he could not read the numbers on his Casio watch anymore.
Kumar joked, “Perhaps his shirts now also have the initials CK on them!” At the outset of his citation on CK, Kumar had quoted Winston Churchill as saying that “only those born into wealth know how to be charitable” and said “nowhere is this more clearly embodied than in CK’s character demeanour and beliefs.”
We were shown a long list of charities and positions CK held in schools, hospitals, temples, guild associations, Rehda, the chambers of commerce, PPK Malaysia, Fiabci and the social work he has undertaken.
“CK’s close and personal involvement meant positive interaction among several of these associations, thus resulting in close cooperation and collaboration on several common issues among like-minded organisations.”
Kumar said CK has been a solid pillar of support for PPK’s numerous conferences and seminars over the year, including sitting on the Board of Examiners, where he enjoys grilling young aspirants in shopping centre management.
Here’s another insight into what it is like working with CK. According to Kumar, “If CK chairs a meeting, please be assured that he will always be to time every time.
“The defining moment for which he will be long remembered is the Bandar Utama township and the commercial centre of 1U, where he is the man at the helm.”
Comprising nearly five million sq ft of offices, hotels and retail centres, it has become a landmark in Kuala Lumpur drawing over 500,000 people in the immediate neighbourhood.
Fondly known as 1U, this multi-award winning building has become a great sense of satisfaction to CK as it is also an ecologically sensitive building that has been engineered to save rain water and energy.
Its latest accolade is the International Council of Shopping Centres’ Asian Shopping Centre Awards 2008 where it is the silver award winner for marketing: sales promotion and events.
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