Chen profiled in The New Straits Times

John Chen accepts the College of Business' Hall of Fame award

Marketing alumnus and Hall of Famer John Chen was profiled in The New Straits Times, Malaysia’s oldest newspaper, in an article by Marc Lourdes titled “The measure of a man that is Chen.”  Chen is managing director of Foster Partners Southeast Asia.  In April, Chen and his family travelled from Malaysia to Carbondale to attend the CoBA Awards Banquet. Lourdes's article follows.

Personality:  The measure of a man that is Chen

By Marc Lourdes
The New Straits Times

It was 1985 and a 23-year-old Malaysian was struggling to make ends meet by sweeping and mopping the floors of his American university's student recreation centre. Now, 23 years later, John Chen, 47, has been honoured by the Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) for achievements in the business and corporate world.

He was inducted into the university's college of business and administration's Hall of Fame - the first international student and Malaysian to receive such an honour.

That night, he was among a dozen honoured by the university. Ace Hardware Corporation president and chief executive officer Ray A. Griffith was inducted as Executive of the Year, while the president and owner of Charlie Brown & Associates, Hotel Builders of America and owner of Carbondale Holiday Inn, Trace B. Brown, was inducted as Southern Illinois Business Leader of the Year.

Though it has only nine Malaysian students today, SIUC has had close to 5,000 Malaysians walk its corridors over the years. It was once among the more popular US universities for Malaysians.

Although Chen credits his older brother as the brains of the family, his own academic achievements are remarkable.

He arrived at SIUC in 1983 to pursue a marketing degree, and completed the four-year course in two-and-a-half years.

What makes the feat even more astonishing is that he worked four jobs while studying full-time.

"I worked from 8pm to 10pm as a janitor in one of the college buildings, as a restaurant kitchen cleaner from 10pm to midnight and then a two-hour graveyard janitor's shift.

"On weekends, I would work as a waiter at functions at the student centre," he said.

To the current batch of students waitering that night, Chen said: "Twenty-three years ago, I was like you, a waiter, in this very ballroom, serving the schools' distinguished guests. Today, I stand before you, in the same ballroom, as a Hall of Famer, which is way cool".

To his professors, he said: "Your teaching helped make me who I am today, from an introvert to an extrovert."

The Johor Baru-born Chen had no choice but to work hard, as his parents, both of whom were civil servants, were scrimping to make sure their sons got an overseas education.

"I was on a 'Pa and Ma scholarship' and did not have it easy.

"Money was tight and I wanted to reduce my parents' expenses, which is why I took as many subjects as possible and finished my degree as soon as I could," said Chen, who has been married to Candy Lim for 19 years.

His dedication and strong work ethic stood him in good stead after graduation where he found himself quickly moving up the corporate ladder.

Starting his career in advertising at BBDO (Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn), he rose to director of client services in Asia.

A career switch then saw him head to China as marketing director, and later the chief marketing officer of the country's largest Hollywood film distribution company.

In 2001, he started Foster Partners South East Asia, an executive search firm focussed on the placement of 'C' class executives, a term referring to the highest paid jobs in multinational companies.

Foster Partners' clients include big names like Microsoft, Nokia, Volkswagen, American Express, Estee Lauder and General Motors.

"The early adversity I faced taught me to be street smart. I am thankful for the experience because I learned to be independent," said Chen, who is a member of the Malaysian Corporate Round Table, the Asia Strategic Leadership Institute and the American Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia and Vietnam.

He refuses to be carried away by success and holds to the principle that the true measure of success is in how many friends a person has left after achieving his dreams.

"Success should not be valued by monetary rewards. That is just the byproduct of success.

"Many people tend to get so caught up in chasing their dreams and building their wealth that they marginalise their friends. I have been blessed with many, many friends and that is the true measure of success."

When Malaysian style was a perfect score

THERE used to be a little Kuala Lumpur in Illinois in the 1980s.

This small, mid-Western, American town was home to so many Malaysians that the label stuck for many years.

Carbondale, a college town in the heart of the state and home to the Southern Illinois University, was once a hub for government sponsored Malaysian students.

In the mid-1980s, there were nearly 700 Malaysians - both government sponsored and privately funded - here at any one time.

"The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) sent a total of 504 personnel here in batches for air frame, power plant and avionics training.

"Beginning in 1982, it lasted 42 months," said international programmes and services director, Dr Christine Svec, who remembers the Malaysian project well.

Svec said the air force students, though not in uniform, used to observe strict military discipline.

"There was no fooling around and they used to have special study sessions in the dormitories about four nights a week."

Burning the midnight oil worked out well for the students.

"I remember that when they took their certification exam, about 98 per cent of them got perfect 100 scores, which was unheard of.

"After the first group went through, we started the plaque on a wall at the back of the airport called the 100 Club. Everybody who got a 100 on their score was up there. For the first two to three years, it was all Malaysians. They were marvellous. They were outstanding."

Even so, there was teething problems as for many of the Malaysians, English wasn't their first language.

Svec recalled one such encounter, when a lecturer was explaining how to join metal using a torch.

"One student took a flashlight out of his pocket and said he didn't see how it could be used to join metal."

International programmes interim director Carla Coppi said while the RMAF project was still on, the university got another request from the Malaysian education ministry to train people who would then teach in Malaysian technical institutions.

"In addition to all these special projects, we also had the regular Malaysian students, who had been coming from the very start. That's how we hit a population at one time, of nearly 700 Malaysian students.

"That's why we wax poetic about those days, when we were truly little Kuala Lumpur, a little Carbondale kampung and how we want to see those days return," she said.

Today, the number of Malaysian students in SIUC has dwindled to nine, many of whom are the children of alumni. However, their paltry number has not stopped them from gaining visibility on campus.

Malaysian Student Association president Aaron Victor Jayapragasam, who is also the International Student Association head, will spearhead the Midwest Games later this month, where hundreds of Malaysian students from all over the Midwest will converge on SIUC to compete in a mini-Olympics.

Illinois varsity with a microcosm of cultures

FOREIGN student enrolment in the US is increasing after the slump that followed the Sept 11, 2001, World Trade Centre terrorist attacks.

A study by the Institute of International Education last year revealed that the number of international students had risen by three per cent to 582,984 with 59 per cent coming from Asia.

One of the institutions best poised to capitalise on the renewed interest in American education is the Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

With over 1,000 international students from 98 countries, the 139-year-old university is renowned for the diversity of its student body.

"We have a long history of supporting a diverse student population. There are many reasons why we value our international connections, and one of the main ones is that we gain a lot by having all of our student population exposed to people of other cultures," said SIUC research vice-chancellor and graduate dean, Dr John Koropchak.

With the advent of the Internet, SIUC's international reach has expanded. It's new website, launched last year, gets a massive 2.5 million hits a month from countries like India, China, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan.

Barking Dawg Productions, the university's in-house advertising arm, has uploaded its slick and highly professional advertisements, which sell the school and its students - both sporting heroes and corporate leaders alike - onto YouTube.

Its Internet success has led to the university formulating plans to have interactive online courses.

Among SIUC's strengths, said Koropchak, is its energy research, which focuses on generating environmentally friendly power.

Its Centre for English as a Second Language is also a big hit among international students as is its engineering programme.

Korpochak said the US was renowned for its graduate programmes, resulting in a lot of universities worldwide trying to emulate the formula.

"As a result, American universities are trying to evolve and provide even better, more unique opportunities for students that can keep our graduate programmes at the forefront."

The university's College of Business and Administration associate dean Suresh Tadisina, who taught operations management, information systems and a number of executive programmes at University Sains Malaysia from 1992 to 1993, said while Malaysia was trying to position itself as an education hub, it was still some way away from having the kind of diversity available at SIUC.

"There is also the culture itself. Graduates with international exposure and ex perience will have a lot more to bring to their jobs. So, if a student were to do their MBA at home as opposed to doing it here, for example, there would be a difference in terms of maturity, exposure, and what they can deliver."

He said students had a great advantage in studying at an institution which focused heavily on research.

"Any college or university worth its salt needs to create knowledge, and not just disseminate it.

"Since the faculty here dwells in that extreme edge of knowledge, it tends to have deeper insights of subject matter that helps in designing courses and content and delivering them."