Mr. Foo Chee Juan
Chairman of ATA IMS Group
Sail Stormy Waters Steadily to a Great Destination
Mr. Foo Chee Juan/Fu Zhiyuan (符致远), a member of Hainan Business Chamber’s (Singapore) Management Committee (2021-2023) and Foo Clan Association’s (Singapore) 2nd Vice President (2021-2022), is the founder and Executive Chairman of ATA IMS Group. For more than 30 years, Mr. Foo has dedicated himself to the electronic processing and manufacturing industry. With the business philosophy of “integrity-based”, the working passion of “determined to reform,” and the extraordinary courage of “never admitting defeat”, Mr. Foo had built Malaysia ATA IMS Group into a global electronics manufacturer; ranking 23rd in the world. The global electronics manufacturing service foundry has become an outstanding example of new-generation successful entrepreneurs.
Harbor Aspiration for Great Destination
Mr. Foo, whose ancestral home is in Wenchang City, Hainan Province, was born in Singapore. His hardworking and kind-hearted parents had high hopes for him, and named him Zhiyuan (translates to reach afar in Chinese) in reference to a famous quote from Zhuge Liang’s Letter of Warning to My Son: “Unless he is indifferent to fame and fortune, he cannot harbor aspirations; unless he stays calm and quiet, he cannot reach afar.” His parents would hope for him to live up to his given name; to set great aspirations and achieve significant undertakings. Grateful for his upbringing, Mr. Foo remembers how his father, despite the uptake in preference of sending one’s children to English schools back then, insisted that he go to a Chinese primary school to learn more about the Chinese traditional culture instead. His father often inspired him to learn from historical events and to look upon people as mirrors; reminded him of the need to contribute back to China, and most importantly, to be upright and honest. Such education and upbringing in his early years, which was mostly centered around his Chinese roots and which heavily featured the Chinese soul, undoubtedly had a great impact on his future life and work.
Later, Mr. Foo was admitted to the University of Oregon and obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Financial Investment, Economics, and Marketing. His inclusive perspective of Chinese and Western cultures had laid a solid foundation for him to dominate the business world.
Integrity and Honesty make ATA IMS Group Great
In 1991, Mr. Foo Chee Juan founded ATA Group. In the beginning, the Group had only 20 employees and 5 plastic injection molding machines. Mr. Foo took “integrity” as the foundation of life and corporate culture, and led his employees to continuously realize management efficiency, technology iteration, and service upgrading, eventually winning unanimous praise and trust from customers. Now, the Group has 15,000 employees and nearly 800 plastic injection molding machines. From a small plastic injection molding company, the Group continues to transform and expand and has successfully become a one-stop manufacturer for diversified and multi-functional manufacturing. The Group’s business partners include Pioneer, Sony, Panasonic, Brother, Apple, HP, Dyson, and other world-renowned brands. The Group continues to invest in new fields, from plastic product injection molding to product development and design, mold design, plastic product injection molding, metal stamping products, HEPA filters, wire harness production, printed circuit board design, assembly and finished product assembly, as well as transporting them to all parts of the world.
On the road of entrepreneurship, there will always be ups and downs. The global financial crisis in 1997 closed many companies. The Group’s customers were also adversely affected, and the order volume decreased sharply. Mr. Foo worked 16 hours a day under great pressure, personally engaging in new customers development, factory operation, sales, and customer relationship management. He was personally involved in all aspects of the business, and finally fought a beautiful turnaround and achieved a “glorious turn.”
In recent years, the Group’s business has been booming, ranking among the top 50 global electronic manufacturers. Across the years, the Group’s reputation rose steadily, ranking 30th in the world in 2019, 27th in 2020, and 23rd in 2021.
In 2018, the Group was successfully listed on the Bursa Malaysia, and in 2018 and 2019, it won “The Edge Billion Ringgit Club” for highest returns to shareholders over three years among listed companies with a market value of more than one billion on the Bursa Malaysia.
Given Mr. Foo Chee Juan’s extraordinary achievements, the Malaysian royal family canonized him as “Dato’ Sri”.
Be a Trailblazer and Innovator
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. These days, the vigorous development of new technologies such as green energy, artificial intelligence, rapid data transmission driven by 5G technology, the application of data transmission between the Internet and cloud systems, and the protection of data and information is promoting the great-leap-forward development of the electronic manufacturing industry. Mr. Foo analyzes the current economic situation with a comprehensive, dialectical, and long-term perspective, and opens a new situation in the changing landscape with the development philosophy of “customer first.” He closely follows the pace of technological innovation of the times, walking with the world’s advanced technological innovation companies to continuously improve and update technology, to consistently add value to customer needs, and to essentially strive to become a leader in the field of product technology innovation.
Over the years, Mr. Foo Chee Juan had always been concerned about his ancestral hometown Hainan. With the establishment of the Hainan Free Trade Port, Mr. Foo, who has invested in Hainan previously, now has a new investment plan. He is determined to contribute to the development of this land where his ancestors have lived for generations.
If you sail in the commercial sea, you will retreat if you don’t advance. To sail stormy waters, you need to be proactive and self-transcendent; to go steadily and achieve an aspirational goal, you need to make up your minds and persevere. Mr. Foo Chee Juan, a wise captain, is leading ATA Group to the goal of becoming a top 10 global electronic manufacturer – the future is promising!
