So This Is My Why

Chye Neo Chong is the former Managing Director of IBM Malaysia with over 30 years in the information technology industry, and current independent director at Hong Leong Financial Group and Bursa Malaysia.  Chye was appointed to the role of MD in 2015, becoming the first woman to helm the company in its 57-year history in Malaysia and was also awarded the CEO Champion Award by Talentcorp in 2015 an...

Shawn Chong is one of Malaysia’s top mixologist, a three-time Diageo World Class Malaysia champion, once listed as the No. 25 Bartender in the world and co-founder of Kuala Lumpur’s pioneering speakeasy, Omakase + Appreciate. A speakeasy that was listed in the Top 10 of Asia’s 50 Best Bars Award 2016. He is also the founder of Bar Class Academy Asia.  Today, Shawn shares why he decided to enter th...

Maurizio Leo is a software engineer-turned-baker from Albuquerque, Mexico whose blog, The Perfect Loaf, remains one of the most authoritative sources when it comes to all things sourdough!  To date, The Perfect Loaf is a two-time Saveur Magazine Blog Award winner. In 2016 The Perfect Loaf won both Editors' and Readers' Choice Awards in The Food Obsessive category and the 2018 Readers'...

Darrion Nguyen is currently a lab research technician at Baylor College of Medicine & the face behind “Lab Shenanigans”: a social media brand that makes fun, easily digestible science content that has garnered over 600,000 followers to date (½ million on Tik Tok!)! But who is Darrion?  What led him down this path towards marrying his twin loves of theatre & science, quickly becoming the As...

Kenji Chai Vui Yung is a popular Malaysian graffiti artist most known for his alter ego, Chaigo the Stray. A dog that, if you’ve ever been to Kuala Lumpur, you’ll have probably seen spray painted all over! But more than that, Kenji Chai has done plenty of mural art and collaborations with companies such as Tiger Beer, Netflix, Volkswagen, Uniqlo, and CIMB. His drawing of a giant cockerel on the si...

Dr Finian Tan is a Singaporean venture capitalist and Chairman of Vickers Venture Partners: a VC he founded in 2005 with 4 other partners and which is now ranked the 5th most consistently performing fund manager worldwide. Prior to Vickers, Finian was inter alia: Regional Director & Head at J.Aron - Goldman Sachs’ Asian trading arm; Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry for th...

Chef Darren Teoh Min Guo is the head chef and restaurant owner of Dewakan, where in April 2019, it became the first Malaysian restaurant on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list at 46th place with the title Best Restaurant in Malaysia. “Dewakan” derives its name from a combination of two Malay words: Dewa (meaning “God”) and “makan” (meaning “to eat”). And at Dewakan, Chef Darren is known for taking rar...

Lily Xu Lijia (徐莉佳) is a Chinese sailboat racer who won the bronze medal in the women’s Laser Radial class at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London where she was also the flag bearer for China at the closing ceremony. She also medalled at the 2006, 2008 and 2012 World Championships.  In this STIMY Episode, Lily shared: 3:38: Why Lily had short hair un...

Freda Liu is one of Malaysia’s most prominent radio-television hosts, having worked at BFM 89.9 - Malaysia’s only business radio station, for over 12 years. She has conducted over 5000 interviews and some prominent names include Martin Cooper, author Stephen Covey, motivational speaker Nick Vujicic, former GE CEO Jack Welch, the Duke of York HRH Prince Andrew to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. A...

Cesar Kuriyama is a video maker, director, producer, animator, and founder of 1 Second Every Day - a mobile application that allows users to record one second of video every day and then chronologically mashes them together into a single film. And an app that is well on track to being the No.1 Downloaded Free App in the App Store! In this STIMY episode, we covered: 2:42: His struggles in picking u...

Chong Chan-Yau is the CEO of CarbonCare InnoLab, the President of the Hong Kong Blind Union, former Chairman and current Director of The Board of the Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong Foundation, former Chairman of and current Board Director of Carbon Care Asia, former Executive Director of Oxfam Hong Kong. He has received many awards including Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award, MBE, China Poverty...

Malek Ali is a former lawyer turned serial entrepreneur most known for founding BFM 89.9, Malaysia’s only business radio channel, and Fi Life, Malaysia’s first online life insurance service. Malek shares a ton of fascinating insights on what it’s like being an entrepreneur & trust me when I say he hasn’t had it easy! It seems as though every time he starts a business, a financial crisis hits! ...

Sarah Chen is many things but she is above all. a powerful advocate & role model for women empowerment. She is the co-founder of Lean In Malaysia, which boasts over 5,000 women within the network, bringing women back into the workforce, accelerating women into leadership positions. And also sits on multiple boards including 131 & counting , which is a bipartisan effort to fete the unpreced...

Alena Ose’ Murang is a Sarawakian sape player singer, teacher, speaker, social entrepreneur, visual artist & heritage advocate. Born in Kuching, Sarawak, to a Kelabit father, Ose Murang and English-Italian mother Valerie Mashman, Alena and her older brother were immersed in their local heritage from young including dance and the local lute instrument, the sape. While Alena has never formally s...

Saw Teong Hin is an award-winning, Malaysian director, producer and screenwriter for film, TV and theatre and was Louis Vuitton Malaysia’s Generation Next (2003), was Tatler’s 100 People You Must Know In Asia (2006), received the CHT Essence Art Award (2009), was August Man, Men Of The Year (2017) and was Chinese Film Association Malaysia Leading Film Industry Person (2018).  He is best known for...

Tan Kheng Hua is a popular award-winning actress/producer in Singapore and Malaysia. Kheng has appeared on stage, and in TV series and movies that include Phua Chu Kang, The Philanthropist (NBC), The Patriarch (UFA), Serangoon Road (HBO Asia Original Series), Netflix’s Original Series, Marco Polo, and most recently, as “Kerry Chu”, the mother to Constance Wu in in the movie adaptation of Kevin Kwa...

Patricia Kelikani is a multiple Emmy award-winning filmmaker and videographer.  Having spent 12 years working at Loma Linda University where she became Director of Advancement Films, she is also the producer, director and cinematographer of the 12-time Emmy award winning TV documentary series, “Life on the Line”, narrated by Lisa Ling. In 2014, Patricia became a freelancer and founded Kelikani Fil...

Dr Jason Leong is a former doctor turned Malaysian stand-up comedian star who has been enthralling his audience since 2010 when he did his first open mic gig at Zouk, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Since then, he has gone on to, amongst others,  Be the first Malaysian to win the 7th International HK Comedy Competition 2013 & win the title of Crowd Favourite; Perform at Comedy Central’s Stand-Up Asia,...

Louisa Jane Gurski is a two-time British Olympian who competed as a sprint kayaker in the London 2012 Olympic Games (5th place) and Rio 2016 Olympic Games (7th place) and the inaugural European Games in Baku.  She has obtained incredible achievements including the gold medal in the K-1 5000m at the World Championships, and the silver and bronze in 2013 Montemor-o-Velho and 2009 Brandenburg respect...

Renyi is the co-founder of MyBurgerLab, MyPizzaLab and MyBobaLab alongside his friends and partners, Chang Ming and Wee Kiat.  If you live in KL, you will probably have heard of MyBurgerLab: the burger joint that went completely viral several years ago with their charcoal buns & continue to hit the headlines due to their innovative flavours. Quirky options that include the nasi lemak burger, t...

Yi Jun Loh is a Malaysian food blogger at Jun & Tonic (nominated for the Saveur Blog Award 2018), a food writer for TASTE, Saveur & Food52 & podcaster for Malaysian’s national radio channel BFM (Baking Bread) & his own podcast, Take a Bao.  If you’ve ever wondered how you can break into the Malaysian food industry, then this is the podcast episode for you! Who is Yi Jun Loh? Now yo...

Joey Law is the mother of 15-year-old Founder & CEO of MinorMynas, Hillary Yip, who was our STIMY Episode 13 guest! Joey & Hillary are STIMY’s very first mother-daughter pairing and I’m so honoured to have them on board. This episode is particularly dear to my heart because even before I’d launched STIMY, I knew that I wanted to feature inspiring mothers like Joey on the podcast.  I really...

Hillary Yip is the CEO of MinorMynas, a startup that creates fun, immersive, online products for children worldwide in a safe environment. And as at the time of this interview being recorded, she is a mere 15 years old!  She founded MinorMynas at the age of 10 - which makes her one of the youngest CEOs in the World , and has been featured in places such as the BBC, CCTV, Yitiao, Yeti and the South...

Danielle Merlyn Kettlewell is an Australian synchronised swimmer who competed in the team synchronised swimming event in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. She was vice-captain of the Australian team which placed eighth overall with 75.4333 in the free routine and 74.0667 in the technical. She was also selected as Australia’s first Mixed Duet in the sport of artistic swimming for the 2019 FINA World Aq...

Morgan Then is the Sarawakian half of the popular Australian electronic duo, Slumberjack. Since launching their career with a No. 1 track on Triple J’s influential sister station, Unearthed, SLUMBERJACK have released four EPs—including their newest effort, Black & Blue—and over 10 singles. They’ve received 2 ARIA Gold Records (for their 2014 self-titled debut and their 2017 single, “Fracture”)...