Chia Su-Mae - A Skincare Brand Founder And Second-Generation Leader
The PEAK Singapore|September 2021
A skincare brand founder and second-generation leader on growing her family’s bee-based business.
Koh Yuen Lin
Chia Su-Mae - A Skincare Brand Founder And Second-Generation Leader

While her peers were playing makebelieve, a young Chia Su-Mae was making money. When she was 10, for instance, she would repot cuttings from her mother’s garden to sell to neighbours. With a knack for identifying consumer needs, a head for numbers and infectious positive energy, Chia is a natural-born salesperson. Joining her father’s company HDI, a local bee wellness brand selling supplements such as honey, bee pollen tablets and royal jelly, seemed a natural progression.

But, instead of studying business, she wanted to get into the bar. With a laugh, she recalls, “My eldest brother Brandon is 11 years my senior, and he studied law. As a kid, I gathered my understanding of lawyers from watching TV: people arguing and defending their clients. I wanted to study law too so that I could be a better lawyer than Brandon, and win our arguments.”

This story is from the September 2021 edition of The PEAK Singapore.

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This story is from the September 2021 edition of The PEAK Singapore.

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