Her Company Ecosystem Is Committed To Propelling Possibilities

And whereas 2020 was one of reflection, in 2021, we need to be “fast and agile” and “emphasise excellence”, says Shirley Crystal Chua, founder and group CEO of Golden Equator.

- Daven Wu

It’s almost trite to point out that visionaries and entrepreneurs are born with it, that ineffable, undefinable quality that make people sit up and pay attention, and to say: “Okay, you have my attention. Show me what you’ve got.” You can’t hothouse it into existence. So, you can’t create it at will. And you certainly can’t teach it.

Even if you’ve just met Shirley Crystal Chua, it’s immediately obvious that she has that it quality. You sense it the minute she walks into a room — physically diminutive but radiating a calmness of purpose, an outsized intelligence and a killer instinct. You also get the sense that with one gestalt glance around the room, she has already taken a measure of everyone in it, assessed their capabilities and worked out what problems need to be solved, and how she will solve them.

It all happens in an eye-blink and later, much later, when you’re no longer in the direct line of her gaze — she has that rare ability to look you in the eye and give you her full attention, even when a stylist is orbiting her and applying makeup and hairspray for this issue’s cover photo — you realise how it’s no accident that in eight short years, she has created a formidable collection of multi-family office, fintech, consulting, fund management and workspace businesses.