Singaporean mum-of-4 quits civil service, now runs multimillion dollar biz

Every store I open is like my baby, says Gan. She now wants to take her brand to London and eventually, the rest of the European market.— ANN

Cheryl Gan, founder and managing director of Singaporean aromatherapy company Hysses, does not let anything stand in the way of achieving her dreams. As a teenager, she was adamant about going to university after visiting the National University of Singapore because she fell in love with how modern and big the campus was as it had lifts.

She worked hard and snagged a place in the computer engineering faculty at Nanyang Technological University, thinking it would lead her to design computer games. But she realised it was not her cup of tea. She struggled through the three-year course with the help of a friend, if only to become a university graduate.