Tan Sri Dato' Seri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun (born 1952; (Chinese: 陳志遠; pinyin: Chén Zhìyuǎn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Chì-uán); is the current owner of Cardiff City F.C. and also is the Chairman and Chief Executive of Berjaya Corporation Berhad, which controls a wide array of businesses which includes golfing, property, resorts, and gambling in a group known as the Berjaya Group. He operates the second pay-TV service in Malaysia, MiTV, that was launched in September 2005. In 2010 he entered the Forbes billionaire list with an estimated worth of US$1.3 billion (RM4.2 billion). Tan's success in the Malaysian business sector has been attributed in part to his close association with prominent Malay political figures.
Tan was born in 1952, in Batu Pahat, Johor. He worked as a clerk and an insurance agent before going into business in the 1980s. In 1982 he purchased Malaysia's McDonald's franchise and in 1985 he bought Sports Toto when the lottery agency was privatised by the government. Vincent Tan has had close links with Mahathir Mohammed and his family, the ex prime minister of Malaysia. Vincent Tan obtained the license of his lottery business from an untendered privatisation in 1985 (Studwell, Joe; Asian Godfathers, page 130, Grove Press, 2007)
On 23rd of February 2012, Vincent has decided to retire from an active corporate role in (B-Corp), the flagship of the Berjaya Group of Companies.
Famous quotes containing the word vincent:
“And deep into her crystal body poured
The hot and sorrowful sweetness of the dust:
Whereof she wanders mad, being all unfit
For mortal love, that might not die of it.”
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (18921950)