Chi Man Kwan CEO & Founder of Raffles Family Office | #FiresideChatWithRFO EP1 - YouTube

There was some nice classmate.

And there are some not so nice one.

So I got in to fight, argument and play football.

And then I realised I have to toughen up because nobody gonna to help you.

And if you keep crying, nothing is gonna happen.

Hi everyone, welcome to fireside chat with Raffles Family Office.

I'm Kendrick.

And we are glad to have with us Mr Kwan Chi Man, the CEO and Founder of Raffles Family Office.

Good to have you here, Mr Kwan.

Hahahaha

Let's go fire! Hahahaha

We know each other for a long time.

But we know that you are national or residence of 4 different countries.

Maybe can share with us a lot more.

I've to say I'm from quite complicated background.

My parents are from China obviously.

And my dad moved to Hong Kong when he was 28.

And my mom was actually a factory worker in Macao.

So she moved to Macao when she was 18.

It was kind of arranged marriage right? So I was born.

So in a way I was born in Macao.

And...

But every scene I born in Macao, Macao at that time was still a fishing village,

so there is nothing happening besides ... casino that's it.

So my dad knew that Macao was very limited in terms of future growth, in terms of his career.

In terms of opportunity.

My younger sister was 3, my younger brother was 1.

So we moved to Hong Kong at that time.

When I moved to Hong Kong,

people were surprised and I was being asked by Hong Kong because I was foreigner.

What happened was it?

They asked me, " Do you speak Cantonese?"

You know people actually.

Macao is just next to Hong Kong right? But some people at that time,

they didn't realise that Macao is actually very very much like Hong Kong.

It wasn't easy. Primary 1.

And after Primary 4, and my family, family business and my dad's career starts to take off.

And we start thinking and looking further ahead.

So I remembered I was after Primary 4, it was last week of August,

and my dad said, "Shall we go to Singapore for family trip to visit my uncle?"

So my father's older brother.

So we spent one week in Singapore and we basically didn't do much.

Yes, we went to center and things like that.

But I think the most important things that happened was,

my uncle showed us around that's where we met my cousin.

And you know we are still very much like brother to be.

And he showed us around the way of life in Singapore and the kind of education system which it was.

The most impressive as compared to Hong Kong and Macao at that time.

And you won't believe it, my parents decided on the spot and said,

"Son, why don't you just stay back and try to get into the school?

And, good luck!"

Hahaha

At that time, I knew that I couldn't find it.

But, I had to deal with them so I made peace with them and said,

"Yes, ok. I'll do it but you have to let me go back to Hong Kong. Give me a week pack up and I come back again."

What happened was that was the time that it really hit me that my life is gonna to change.

Like for a whole load and I'm literally by myself after that.

So, I remembered my first flight to Singapore I took at Singapore Airline.

I was crying so much.

And the ... actually booked me into a business class on the second level.

Ok ok

And I remembered for the whole flight I didn't stop crying.

I was so scared.

It must be really terrifying for kid to move to Singapore at such a young age alone.

What was your biggest fear?

As a kid, I mean a lot of people doesn't know that because,

by the time we met, we was in secondary school.

I was kind of a finish product, I was said I'm quite a timid people.

Timid?

Ya, I tend to, when we get into argument, I'll be the first one to cry.

Oh, it is not like you now by the way.

Hahaha

Doesn't it like you now, but ya.

I spent 6 months to get into school.

A lot of tuition all the time.

And yet my English up to standard.

I got into a primary school. I remembered there were 2 or 3 classmates that can speak Cantonese.

And a bit of Mandarin. I didn't speak a lot in Mandarin, I was basically in Cantonese.

Culturally, I haven't met any Malay and Indian classmate before.

Fortunately and unfortunately, there was some nice classmates.

And there was some not so nice one.

I got into fight, argument and play football.

And then I realised I have to toughen up because nobody gonna to help you.

And if you keep crying, nothing is gonna happen.

But I think what happened after that was

I think I went a bit overboard.

OK

Hahaha

Is it?

You know, the one who shooting this video,

we know each other from Catholic High.

Kendrick, you know ... Catholic High?

Those people who know me from Catholic High, know that I'm a fighter.

I mean as in not in a good way, in the bad way.

So I fight all the time, I get into fight.

If you say something ..., even remotely I'm gonna punch to your face, that was me in 13.

I went overboard. It took me like...I don't know.

5, 6 years to kind of soft it, kind of calm myself.

Sometime I get so angry. I mean sometime I become like a ... truly like.

I go crazy.

Why Catholic High? You know particular reason why you choose Catholic High.

Hahaha

Because of my cousin. Ok.

What happened was? When I was in Primary School. My Primary School was in MacPherson.

After school, I was very free person.

I hangout at a lot of places. And that time, so happened that,

the most friendly to me or the place I hangout the most is Bishan, Junction 8.

Ok

I always see these students with short and the medal ....

And I thought it was quite cool.

And why don't I get into the school?

And my cousin, my aunty, my relative and my friends said that was a very good school.

And Lee Kuan Yew sent both his sons to the school.

It's very difficult to get in.

What happened was? In Primary 6, I actually spent about, I remembered 6 months before PSLE.

I actually stayed behind school and do a lot of study.

And luckily I did it so.

That was it.

Secondary school, any fond memories or something like...maybe Juno and I, we don;t know about.

Although we have known you for 20 over years.

Yew...

Something you like to share.

I think the fond memory always be fun we have in school.

The thing we do the crazy thing we do.

I mean during recess, we will have half an hour. We spent 5 minutes eating and 25 minutes we gonna play football.

And you know exam/test when you have supposed to be 10 minutes early outside studying,

we'll play football and be late for exam for 5-10 minutes right?

The thing that I remembered the most was the school camp.

The school camp we had but you would never there.

Hahahaha

You always away for national duty right?

I remembered that was set 2, and we had this army experience camp right?

That was my first impression and first experience what it called total obedient.

All they have gave it to you, you have to like it and you have to do it.

But at that time I didn't understand this thing, I went a bit crazy.

As usual, fighting totally.

Hahahaha

Then after that you went into Singapore Polytechnic.

Yup

Singapore Polytechnic and of course after that to UK.

Right?

What brings you to decide UK? Not somewhere in Australia or US and...

When I was preparing O-Level, I already know what I want to do.

Ok

I know that I want to go into Finance world.

Ok

I know that I'm very good in numbers.

Ok

I know that I'm not a person that like to memorise a lot of history book.

And that way I didn't see the point of doing A-Level which studying all those things that wasn't related to my future.

So anyway I went to ... politic business admin which we were in same group together,

and you are disappeared after...I don't know after first year, and went pro player badminton.

SP was good in the sense that it prepared me very well for my degree in UK.

But at the same time, I didn't make a lot of friends at that age during the period of time.

So that's where it makes me appreciate Catholic High even more because Catholic High, the one who shooting is Catholic High,

the one running this office is from Catholic High,

so you know all these people where I appreciated in that four years in Catholic High the most so far.

But why UK? Because people know that I'm a Man U fans, I'm a football fans.

So obviously I gonna go there for football.

But actually it's much more to that.

I think one thing I was very very fascinated is the way that English are very diplomatic in solving problem.

And actually during my first year in England, in Lancaster,

I thought it was very strange because I thought it was overboard.

You know there was a lot of different games and I was very active in football,

and pool and gaming all this thing.

So I played a lot of pool, and I was very good at it so I represented it for my college.

But the funny thing was, you know in American pool you played and you just hit and you missed,

you take a seat and the other guy take the turn.

Then he will poke some ball and if not he missed, he will sit down.

But what happened in UK, it was very very fascinating

because if I'm playing game against you, if I turn my head, even if I poke the ball,

what I'm expected to do is I'm expected to have two advices, speak to them for like 5 minutes on the pool table, it seems like forever.

And then we will discuss, "You should do this, you should do that."

And then three people will have like same different strategic and talked about 5 minutes.

Can you imagine one pool game, half an hour per game is very normal.

But sometimes I think it gives us another perspective of how English deal with problem.

After your Uni days, I'm sure you always wanted to return to Hong Kong.

To be with your family.

Ya

So I think that's where you started your first job.

After my degree, actually I didn't want to work.

Ok

Hahaha

I thought working was for the weak.

Ok

I don't know

You want to start your own business?

I don't know.

Actually I started my own business in Uni days.

It was very trendy to wear ...

Yes, it is a ...

... right?

So I think in UK it run out of stock.

Everything was sold for a pound. And because it was out of stock so people will buy it in optional ebay for 2 or 3 pounds.

So what happened was...

I placed an order in China, to copy the whole thing.

And there is eBay if we order it is 3 pounds right?

And that thing, I remembered it costed me 2 dollars RMB which is like 20 p.

So the profit margin is like 15 times.

So I think I saw a few egg of them.

And I started selling other stuffs.

Before I even graduated, I've actually made 30-40 thousands pounds at that time going back to the Hong Kong.

Everyone was looking for a job that pays them 10-12 thousands Hong Kong dollars.

So that is almost 4 years of my salary.

So I didn't work, I just took money.

And fortunately and unfortunately, the stock market was doing very well so I started to invest my money to stock market.

As usual, I made a lot of money.

From half million it becomes 2 millions within a very short period of time.

So I thought I never go and work.

I'm...

Just to be a business man.

A self-made man.

Ya, I'm just gonna...

So what happened was? In 2008, the market crashed.

So, I lost a lot of money.

50-60% off what ever I made.

Which is the 2 millions.

I had a very unhealthy lifestyle which means I was spending like no tomorrow.

Ok

I was going a long holiday.

Was basically, money wasn't something that I should...

take care of

I just spent.

Within 9 months, the 2 millions was gone.

Ok

Some of it was spent, some of it was lost.

And then I went into ...

Ok

It's not a lot.

200 thousands

Ok

Hong Kong dollars

So I thought I gonna work now, I've to go work, I've to suck it out.

And after my training, 6 to 9 months,

Lehman Brothers head. The bank stop.

I realised I choose the worst ... stuck my banking career.

So I realised that banking investment, traditional investment, insurance is not go to work because nobody trust bank anymore.

Let's go back to the basic. I started doing a lot of personal loans.

I was No.1 sales in the bank.

All my revenue, 99% came from personal loans.

And that consolidation.

So I was very good at it.

After 9 months, after 12 months, I started hosting seminar.

Campaigns

Hahaha

So I was giving lessons.

So within about a year, a year and a half, I repaid all my debts.

After that, I thought I need a new challenge, because it was getting too easy.

So, I decided let's try the proper banking stuff.

Let's try the investment and insurance.

Somehow I got into Standard Chartered, as a Relationship Manager.

What point did you know that let's get out of banking and where you are today?

In Standard Chartered, maybe in the first 6 months, I thought I was gonna to drop out.

I was almost about to give up.

And Standard Chartered started this international banking segment

that supposed to be international banking.

So they want to change all the local branches.

And I was very lucky because of my background, my skill set and everything.

So I was very lucky, I was the first one on Hong Kong island to be selected,

and sent for training for 6 months in Beijing and Shanghai.

The most lucrative, the most profitable one was Hong Kong Immigration scheme, the CIS scheme.

And same as personal loans, I dig and dig and dig,

fast forward 12 months, I started giving seminar again.

Hahahaha

Banks, banks, banks and...Ok forget it, no more challenges.

So that is why you decided to came out and start everything on your own.

No, I think at that time. Ya, I think half of it was because it was becoming very mechanical.

Ok

Like you just go to office and it becomes very automatic doing the same thing.

Again, again and again.

You know the satisfaction level is just...

So that was one of the reasons.

The second reason was, I accumulated a lot and big portfolio clients.

I needed some help.

So I told my boss at that time,

I have a good friend, Ray..., can you write him into this Standard Chartered and

Let us work together.

Initially she said no.

After a while, she said yes.

And Ray is my Hong Kong partner.

So I think that was when I realised that retail bank couldn't satisfy some of my clients.

Because they were expecting more from bank.

I started to speak to a lot of target banks.

And actually at that time I have a reputation of doing a lot of revenue in the bank.

So actually quite a few private bank came to me.

And fast forward 6-9 months, I accepted UBS offer.

But last minute, EMP came about and offered me something better 20% more. Totally freedom.

I decided take care of EMP, so I moved to private bank.

So I started my own company, actually we started our own company.

I came to Singapore for holiday, I remembered, I'm not sure if you remember.

We stayed in W Hotel

You stayed in W.

I stayed in W Hotel. Yes.

I brought my family, I brought my girlfriend.

My first company was actually called CHS Global Investment.

Yes! That was the name that we ...

That was the name!

And why because it supposed to be investment ... that all the Catholic High boys will come together.

And then we invest.

And then I was doing a bit of pieces here and there.

You know, I was kind of like a middleman.

Yes

I engaged other EAM, I engaged other insurance company, property agencies,

and financing companies.

So it kind of like I'm the middleman of everything.

And we realised we thought about, "Why don't we create one brand?"

Yes

To house everything.

And then we started a company with four of us.

All four of us in Hong Kong.

And it ... came out with name.

I was the youngest one among the four founders.

I mean at that time, very first company.

I was the youngest one so I proposed to Raffles.

I spoke a lot to my friends, and I ... to use CHS Google investment.

They said no, it's a stupid name.

Hahahahaha

First, we started Raffles Capital.

And then Raffles SM Management, Raffles Property, Raffles Finance, Raffles Corporate Service,

Raffles Management, Raffles Family Office.

I actually did register Raffles Education.

Even though it's no working in any sense.

But I'm preparing for the future.

Yes

Yup

And, I bought a company car, and the car plate was Raffles.

It took me 18 months to get it, but I got it.

We should register Raffles Medical in ....

Hahaha

Raffles Medical ya

I think that will be...

That is the future of Health Care.

We come to the end of the first of chapter.

And now we are with Mr Kwan.

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