YOU NEED TO HAVE
A BIG VISION AND
CONVICTION. YOU
ALSO NEED THAT
ENTREPRENEURIAL,
‘NEVER SAY DIE’
SPIRIT, AND THE
ABILITY TO EVOLVE.
Penang, I can tell
you precisely’.”
Susan snagged the
job, and within the
second year, became
Pfi zer’s top salesperson
in Malaysia and
Singapore. “Pfi zer gave
me the opportunity that
changed my life,” she
says gratefully. “They
sent me for training so
I could communicate
with doctors in their
language. I was
determined to learn, and
wasn’t afraid to start
from ground zero.”
That’s the kind
of persistence and
positivity that Susan is
made of, and it helped
her steer Greenpac to
become a packaging
company with an annual
year-on-year growth of
20 per cent.
Asked if she sees the
proverbial glass as half-
full or half-empty, she
replies: “It’s refi llable.”
Susan met her
Singaporean husband
while working for Pfi zer
in Malaysia before
moving to Singapore.
The couple got married
in 1993, and Susan
helped out in her
husband’s business, a
woodworks packaging
company.1- Susan at 10
months old,
at her family
home in Alor
Setar, Kedah. - A 14-year-
old Susan
(back row,
fourth from
left) with the
volleyball
team of SMK
Tunku Sofiah
school in Alor
Setar.- At 15 years
old, with her
mother during
Chinese New
Year in Alor
Setar.
CHASING
THE
VISIONThat was when Susan
started exploring
alternative packaging
with the aim of adding
value to an industry in
which innovation was
unheard of.
With a microloan of
$30,000 from Spring
Singapore, she founded
Greenpac in 2002, at a
time when going green
was still a raw concept
yet to be embraced by
many fi rms.
“When I was
travelling, I observed
that people were only
starting to talk about
‘sustainability’ and
‘energy effi ciency’. I
knew how much waste
packaging generates,
and saw a business
opportunity there,” adds
Susan, whose husband
now runs his business
with their eldest sons.
The couple have four
grown-up children.
One of Susan’s
main objectives for
Greenpac is to turn the
industrial packaging
industry green by using
environmentally friendly
materials, and reducing
the amount of material
that is used.
Her vision, though,
was met with scepticism.
“The manufacturing
sector was scaling
down with companies
like Seagate leaving
Singapore, and the pie
was getting smaller.
“No one could
understand why I
wanted to enter what2 3her mother a low-cost
RM25,000 house in
Alor Setar in Kedah,
thus putting a permanent
roof over her family’s
heads. Six months later,
the only daughter and
middle child (she has
two older brothers and
a younger brother), was
headhunted by a fi ve-
star hotel. Subsequently,
pharmaceutical
multinational company
Pfi zer came knocking at
her door.
“At the Pfi zer
interview, they asked
me if I knew how many
chambers there are in
the heart,” she says.
“I replied, ‘No, but if
you ask me how many
rooms there are in my
competitors’ hotels, I can
tell you... all the hotels in- SUSAN, ON SUCCESS
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