Douglas Foo

Douglas Foo Peow Yong (; born 1969) is a Singaporean business executive and former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP). He is the founder and chairman of Sakae Holdings Ltd; as well as Singapore's Non Resident High Commissioner to Tanzania He is also the President of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF), vice-president of the Singapore National Employers’ Federation (SNEF) and vice-chairman of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF).

Early life and education Foo was born in Singapore in 1969 and has two younger sisters Lena and Lilian. His father, Foo Kia Hee, was an immigrant from Hainan, China and worked as a mechanical and electrical consultant.

Foo received his primary education at Red Swastika School, secondary education at Dunman High School and pre-university education at Victoria Junior College.

Foo had originally planned to study Engineering at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), but decided to switch course to Business administration. However, he did not qualify for NTU's business school, and thus travelled to Australia to study at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor's degree in business administration (finance).

Foo attended the Eisenhower Fellowships in 2013.

Career

Business career Before his National service enlistment, he worked various jobs including taking turbine readings for engineers at the Seraya Power Plant, relief teaching at Pin Yi Secondary School and as a baker at Délifrance. He was appointed as vice-chairman of SBF in June 2018.

Sakae Sushi Following the success of his company's venture, Foo was interested in expanding and diversifying the company. He recognised that Singaporeans were increasingly health conscious about their food. He saw a business opportunity in providing Japanese food at prices more affordable to the masses as Japanese food, although healthy, was rather expensive at the time. He travelled to Japan and Hong Kong to explore the concept of conveyor belt sushi, before opening the first outlet of Sakae Sushi at OUB Centre at Raffles Place in September 1997 during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The business was successful, and it allowed the company to open numerous Sakae Sushi outlets around the world. The company has since also developed various other Food and Beverage brands.

Foo served as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company

Dishwasher's salary incident In 2012, during an interview with radio station UFM100.3, Foo claimed that he was unable to fill 10 dishwasher positions at a salary of SGD$3,000 monthly. Foo initially claimed the dishwashers would work nine hours a day, six days a week and the salary is equivalent to their managers and supervisors. The salary was about three times the median pay of a dishwasher at that time accordingly to the Ministry of Manpower.

Political career Foo was selected as an NMP on 17 September 2018. He was sworn in during the following Parliament sitting on 1 October. He served during the second session of 13th Parliament of Singapore, which commenced on 7 May 2018. His term of NMP ended on 23 June 2020 when the Parliament was dissolved prior to the 2020 Singaporean general election.

Personal life Foo is married to Koh Yen Khoon, who he met in 1988 while working at a Délifrance cafe. He has 4 sons.

Indonesia: Seri Pangeran Temenggong Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin III (conferred by the Sultan of Palembang Darussalam Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin III, Prabu Diraja in 2016)