Family Matters

As Managing Director Of The Low Yat Group’s Property Division And Group Executive Director, Low Su Ming Is Proud To Continue Her Father’s Legacy, Yet She Knows Her Family’s Business Must Evolve With The Times.

- Jodie Darlington

When Low Su Ming is asked to describe her childhood, she recalls happy memories of travelling the world with her family. “It was a lot of fun,” she says. While many people love to buy souvenirs during their trips abroad, Su Ming reveals that her father preferred to make much bigger purchases. “My dad enjoyed travels with his family and along the way, he would snap up properties all over the world. It was very much his pastime to buy properties whenever we were on vacation,” she reflects.

Of course, it was far more than just a hobby for Su Ming’s father, Tan Sri Low Yow Chuan; it was his passion. The Malaysian property developer and hotelier was dedicated to growing his family business, the Low Yat Group, which was founded in 1947 by his own father, Tan Sri Low Yat.

In 2006, the business was passed down to the third generation and is now run by Su Ming and her three brothers. Today, the Low Yat Group is one of Malaysia’s largest privately-owned groups. After starting out as a construction business, it now has diversified interests across the property development, hospitality, retail and agriculture sectors.

Given that Su Ming was just 16 and still in high school when she was first given the responsibility of managing properties for her father, she can barely a remember a time when she wasn’t working in the family business. “I was entrusted with a duty to take care of these properties. I suppose this was my dad’s first business influence on me,” she says. Su Ming joined the Low Yat Group full time in 1986 after completing an architecture degree at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Soon after graduating, she was put in charge of the interior refurbishments and project procurement for three hotels: The Crown Princess and The Federal, both in Kuala Lumpur, and The Grace in Sydney.