PATTAYA – We interrupted former Leo Burnett Singapore CEO and Chief Creative Officer, Chris Chiu’s afternoon (iced) coffee with the other Malaysian creatives present at ADFEST 2016 to chat about the things that most people probably don’t know about him. As we sat with him by the pool, under the scorching Pattaya heat, these are the things that we managed to find out:
1. He had not had any job other than advertising since graduating from the university.
2. He did a bit of marketing “for about 6 minutes.”
3. His childhood dream was to become an astronaut, and then when he got a little older, to be a professional football player but he realized that he “wasn’t good enough”.
4. He uses almost all his leaves to play golf and spend time with his family.
5. He considers himself as an ultra tiger dad. “I’m all about the balance. When I look at books and grades, the competitive side comes out.”
6. He considers golf as his yoga, keeping him sane since he joined advertising 24 years ago.
7. Other than golf, Chris also likes to go skiing with his family.
8. Chris also likes to run, he thinks of it as a distraction that is enough to let him think.
9. As a young creative, he was eligible to join the Singapore Creative Circle Awards but his boss forbade him to join for fear of losing him to another company. As a result, he stayed in the company for five years.
10. His first judging experience was also for the same competition, Singapore Creative Circle Awards. “I was obviously just a regular juror at that stage. I was excited!”
Watch out for a video version of Chris Chiu’s interview on adobomagazine.com.
