Dr Wong Fong Fui

Dr Wong Fong Fui was born in Johor Bahru where his family worked on a rubber plantation. Growing up he taught himself English, was accepted into a secondary school, and after finishing moved to Australia with his family to study Chemical Engineering at UNSW.

After working in Malaysia and England, he married and became a Singaporean citizen in 1986 where he began working for an Indonesian oil and gas company.

As an energetic 59-year-old he made headlines in the early 1990s when he turned QAF around from the verge of bankruptcy to a leading regional food empire that now generates over $800 million in sales.

As QAF group managing director, he was probably best known for growing the Gardenia line of breads into a regional household brand.  Mr Wong's restructuring successes also include chocolate maker Sunshine Allied – where he turned the company's loss of $4.5 million into profit of $3.5 million within two years, and Myanmar's flagship carrier Airways International, which he successfully built and privatised.

The deals earned him a reputation as one of the most exquisite turnaround specialists. He also developed Shop N Save, the no-frills chain of supermarkets, into a serious competitor to NTUC Fairprice.

Since taking control of Boustead Singapore in his early 50s CEO, Wong Fong Fui transformed the conglomerate from a company valued at $80 million to a market capitalisation of approximately $341 million.

Connecting back to his early days of study in Australia, a generous donation from Dr FF Wong enabled the establishment of the UNSW Founders 10x Accelerator program, which enables program delivery and seed investment into UNSW’s entrepreneurs and high impact startups.