Beauty In Business

Nadia Chan, co-founder of Maiko, proves that with hard work, you can make the canvas of your life a masterpiece.

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Your jaw can’t help but hang wide open as you read the curriculum vitae of Nadia Chan. At 29, she is a public relations whiz, as well as the co-founder of Maiko, the local distributor of Australian beauty brand CANVAS. Oh, and did we mention she’s also a devoted mummy to four-year-old Callum? The question on everyone’s mind is: how does she do it?

Well, you can be sure it didn’t happen with the help of magic shoes or a Fairy Godmother. Nadia worked her way from the bottom interning at CNBC Asia, one of the region’s top business news television channels. She went on to the University of Queensland, where she pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and a major in marketing, graduating on the Dean’s List. At 21, she worked full-time for an IT reseller while running two small restaurants as well.

Juggling seems to be somewhat of a speciality for the Hong Kong-born businesswoman. Not only is she responsible for managing CANVAS’ marketing efforts and strategies, she’s also the General Manager of local public relations agency, PR Communications. With all that experience under her belt, and a passion for entrepreneurship, Nadia couldn’t turn down the opportunity to venture into the world of organic beauty with her sister by bringing in CANVAS to Singapore.

What’s the biggest challenge of managing a business while raising a young child?

I feel the biggest challenge is finding a way to strike a perfect balance between achieving my personal fulfilment of becoming a hands-on parent for my son, Callum, as well as the professional fulfilment of multitasking with a full-time day job and as the co-founder of Maiko.