Yeap Chor Ee

Yeap Chor Ee was a businessman and philanthropist. He was born in the village of Nan'an, Fujian, China, in 1867. Armed only with indefatigable energy and strong business acumen, he came to Penang at a mere age of 17 in the 1890s and grew to become Penang's richest man of his time and one of the State's greatest philanthropists. Yeap died in 1952 at the age of 85. By then, he was known as The Grand Old Man of Penang, well loved for his old world courtesy, humility, generosity and integrity.

He had arrived in Penang, Malaysia, from China, virtually penniless, but left a vast empire after his death. As a result of hard work he rose to become one of the richest men in Penang. He married a local girl, Lee Cheng Kin, by whom he had two sons, Datuk Yeap Hock Hoe and Yeap Hock Hin. They lived in a mansion called ‘Homestead’ at No 54 Northam Road which was their family house. He founded the Ban Hin Lee Bank and many other companies. Therefore his life epitomizes the true rags to riches story.

Over a course of thirty years, he built an empire with real banking, real estate and commodities trading activities. Yeap Chor Ee remained the only individual who single-handedly funded the establishment of a bank in that era, His record still holds-to-date.

With the fortune he made, he turned to philanthropy with particular interest in education. His elegant mansion, Homestead, was donated to the Wawasan Education Foundation in 2006.