Women's rights : Catherine Chan, « No shortcut to success »

Cambodia’s development has seen a gradual shift away from the stereotypical gender roles, but even for successful entrepreneurs, gender inequality remains a challenge. Catherine Chan earned her degree in Accounting and Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science, but since then has gone on to become a real estate mogul, currently serving as Urban Hub’s executive director. She sat down with Cambodianess to explain how the pandemic has affected Cambodia’s real estate and the challenges she faced due to gender stereotypes.

Catherine Chan

Him Imrorn: Born into wealth, you could have spent your time enjoying a relaxed career, but what made you decide to become an entrepreneur?

Catherine Chan: Growing up I was always inspired by my father's experience. He always told me fascinating stories in his business and I always wanted to be part of it and make it more successful and contribute more to society. Since I was young, I already knew that I wanted to follow my father’s path and want to build more for the world.

My family owns Goldfame Group, a multi-national company investing in various sectors including garment manufacturing and real estate. We have invested in Cambodia for the last 24 years. Back in 1996, Cambodia was not like what is now. When we did not have the auto-knitting machines, we had over 100,000 employees just in Cambodia. I see a lot of opportunities in this country and young talented people in Cambodia. We are now in the top five global sweaters manufacturers, supplying millions of sweaters for the world's biggest brands including Zara, Superdry, C&A, Marks & Spencer and Uniqlo, etc. 

We are also behind the award-winning modern condominium development, Urban Village which in the last two years has become the country’s best-selling project and the city’s biggest creative hub Factory Phnom Penh. Our project was the first Cambodian development project representing Cambodia to win the Best Condo Development in Asia.

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