Lee Shin Cheng

Tan Sri Dato' Lee Shin Cheng (traditional Chinese: 李深靜; simplified Chinese: 李深静; pinyin: Li Shēnjìng) is a Malaysian Chinese business magnate who is heavily involved in the plantation industry.

Lee Shin Cheng heads IOI Corporation Berhad (or better known as IOI Group) as its executive chairman. IOI Group was by Forbes in 2012 a palm oil and real estate development giant. It owned refineries in the U.S. and the Netherlands and won a $322 million bid for a 6-acre plot in downtown Singapore for the residential buildings.

IOI, which is listed in Bursa Malaysia, is one of the world's leading conglomerate managing oil palm plantations, specialty fats, oleochemicals and property development activities in Malaysia, Indonesia, United States, and Europe. IOI refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands is the largest palm oil refinery in Europe. IOI's oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia produce palm oil and palm kernel oil. These oils are made into specialty oils, metallic stearates and fats that are used in soaps, detergents, cosmetics and food additives. IOI Group is also a leading real estate developer in Malaysia: projects include townships, shopping malls, condominiums, office towers and resorts.

Lee grew up northeast of Kuala Lumpur on a rubber plantation, where his father ran a small Chinese food shop. He left school at the age of 11 to help support his family, selling ice cream on a bicycle for four years before returning to finish high school. He sought work with one oil palm plantation company for a supervisory job, but was turned down. The reason given—he didn't speak fluent English—important then because Europeans still own most of the plantations. Lee, who was then only 22, was undeterred with Dunlop Estate's rejection. He went on to apply and got a field supervisor job with at another palm oil company.

About 20 years later, Lee got his 'revenge' when he gathered enough financial might to buy up Dunlop Estate. In 2008, he recalled his happiest day of his life in an interview with the New Straits Times.

"My happiest day was in 1989 when I bought over Dunlop Estate from Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd. This was because during the late 1960s, I had applied for a job at Dunlop Estate but they did not employ me because I was not adequately qualified. If they had employed me, I would probably not have owned the entire asset of Dunlop Estate today. This purchase marked a significant milestone in my life," he said.