Talk by David Chua Ming Huat
Date: 15 October 2014
UTAR Department of Consultancy and Commercialisation (DCC) successfully organised an entrepreneurial talk by former President of Genting Hong Kong Limited David Chua Ming Huat on his valuable experiences and extensive knowledge in the management of securities, futures and derivatives trading; assets and unit trusts management; corporate finance and corporate advisory business to UTAR students and staff mainly from the Faculty of Business and Finance. The talk was held on 15 October 2014 at UTAR Perak Campus.
His two-hour talk is part of DCC’s entrepreneurial talk series and was aimed to enlighten students on business and the qualities of a successful entrepreneur. Also attending the talk were UTAR Education Foundation Board of Trustees Chairman Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Sak Cheng Lum, UTAR President Ir Prof Academician Dato’ Dr Chuah Hean Teik, Faculty of Accountancy and Management Prof Dr Cheng Ming Yu, UTAR lecturers and staff.
In her opening remarks, Prof Cheng thanked the speaker David Chua for his great contribution to UTAR and its students by giving a talk about his valuable experiences. She also highlighted on her appointment as the UTAR Professorial Chair of Mr and Mrs Chua Chai Leng Professor of Economics.
Tan Sri Sak welcomed the students and introduced the speaker; David Chua, the former President of Genting Hong Kong Limited. Chua joined Genting Berhad as Chief Operating Officer of Genting Berhad from September 2006 to February 2007 and went on to become President of Genting Hong Kong Limited until his recent resignation. Prior to the Genting Group, Chua held key management positions in various international securities companies in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. He co-founded ECM Libra, an investment banking group in May 2002 and prior to that he served as the Group Managing Director of Hong Leong Capital Berhad from April 1998 to May 2002. He was responsible for the investment banking business of the Hong Leong Financial Services Group.
“To be an entrepreneur, the motivation has to be passion and commitment. It’s not easy to become an entrepreneur overnight. Some people may get there when they are young like Mark Zuckerberg and some will get there when they are not so young. Apart from having the right values, you (the students) should equip yourself with more knowledge and always be ready to face challenges in the business world,” said Chua.
He advised the students, “If you are given an opportunity to become an entrepreneur, you need to learn, unlearn and relearn and constantly do that to compete with the other potential young entrepreneurs. You need to push yourself very hard to achieve your goals and realise success”. He further added that he went through the same when he first started his career as a research analyst in Hong Kong. “I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics. I didn’t completely grasp finance at that time, but I learnt finance eventually to do my job. Therefore, I would say that the future belongs to those who learn, unlearn and relearn.”
He also emphasised to the students on the importance of having a good command of English to progress well in the business career. Chua also shared his knowledge on issues such as the global economic status, global economy and China, how economy realities influence the market and so forth.
Chua is currently a Board member of the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Limited, an associate company of Genting Hong Kong which is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and is also the Chairman of the Board of Travellers International Hotel Group Inc, a joint venture between Genting Hong Kong and Alliance Global Group Inc, Philippines.
