🗣️ Investor Talk #27: Chin Hui Leong

Co-founder - The Smart Investor

Welcome to Investor Talk — where we interview successful investors to uncover their journeys, strategies, and the lessons they've learned. Get inspired by real stories and gain valuable insights to sharpen your own investment approach.

Every interview follows the same set of sharp, insightful questions — such as “What is your investment strategy?”, “What are your highest conviction stocks?”, and “What’s the biggest investment mistake you’ve made?”

In this edition, we have the pleasure of interviewing:

Name: Chin Hui Leong @chin_investor
Age: 48
Residence/Country: Singapore
Invests since: 2005

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
I grew up in Penang, Malaysia and studied in Singapore in my late teens. My first job started with project management and turned into procurement. It was an unexpected twist which turned out to be a decade of work, where I travelled around Asia, Europe, and the US visiting businesses of all shapes and sizes. That’s where the kindle of interest in studying businesses was lit. I was fascinated by how people, culture, business strategy, and industries intersect and the cornucopia of outcomes created.

In a nutshell, investing was a hobby which gradually into what I wanted to do every day. The Great Financial Crisis, which happened two years after I started investing, was a gut-wrenching experience when it was happening but turned out to be the most eye-opening moment. In my mind, the event was the greatest ever stress test for businesses, and from it, you get the clearest view of what businesses can survive and thrive when things get better.

In 2020, just before the pandemic, I co-founded The Smart investor together with David Kuo and Joanna Sng.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆?
My investing style is inspired by Motley Fool co-founder, David Gardner @DavidGFool, and forged by Tom Engle, a popular member of the old Motley Fool boards.