Who is Singaporean Chew Shou Zi, the Former Facebook Intern Turned TikTok CEO?

Chew Shou Zi, a citizen of Singapore, once served as an intern at Facebook. He has now risen to the position of CEO at TikTok, a popular social media platform.

This Thursday, a man named Mr. Chew, who is 40 years old, is scheduled to provide his testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee of the United States.

He is about to encounter close examination regarding the way TikTok handles data and its alleged connections with the Chinese government. American legislators are evaluating whether TikTok poses a danger to national security.

This is the information we have gathered about him.

Where did he receive his education?

He was raised and brought up in Singapore and is proficient in both English and Chinese languages. According to reports, his dad was engaged in the construction industry while his mom used to manage bookkeeping.

Mr Chew attended Hwa Chong school in the past and served as an officer in the Singapore Armed Forces during his time in national service.

Following his national service, he enrolled in University College London and achieved a Bachelor's degree in Economics. He subsequently secured a position in London's Goldman Sachs Group as a banker, where he worked for a period of time.

He pursued a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at the prestigious Harvard Business School in 2010. While he was still studying, he worked at Facebook as an intern. This was during the early stages of the popular social media platform, before it became a publicly-traded company in mid-2012.

At what point did he become a member of TikTok?

The whole TikTok team wants to express their gratitude to the 150 million Americans in a special message delivered by our CEO, Shou Chew. This comes just in time for his congressional hearing later this week.

He took on the role of the inaugural chief financial officer (CFO) for ByteDance, TikTok's parent company in March of 2021. The organization is established in China.

He was selected as the CEO of TikTok in May of that same year.

Mr. Kevin Mayer, who previously worked at Walt Disney, was hired as the CEO for TikTok in May 2020. However, he resigned within three months due to the political pressure from US lawmakers over security concerns regarding TikTok.

During that period, Zhang Yiming, the founder and CEO of ByteDance, spoke highly of Mr Chew, commending his expertise and experience in the company and industry. Zhang acknowledged that Mr Chew's leadership of an early investor team and his decade-long involvement in the technology sector has enriched ByteDance as a whole.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Mr Chew manages TikTok from his Singapore offices but takes regular trips to the United States.

The multinational corporation possesses branches in urban areas like London, New York, and Tokyo.

Thanks to his direction, TikTok emerged as one of the most remarkable triumphs of Chinese technology globally.

What was his previous place of employment?

Mr. Chew has gained an extensive professional background in finance by serving as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in the UK for a couple of years. He also completed an internship program at Facebook in the United States. Recently, he has embarked on a new journey by joining DST Global, a venture capital enterprise established by the renowned Silicon Valley billionaire Yuri Milner.

In 2013, he guided a group at DST Global that were pioneers in investing in ByteDance.

He got fascinated by the technology industry and ended up joining Xiaomi. Finally, in 2015, he took on the role of CFO at the Chinese smartphone behemoth.

While he was employed, Xiaomi became a public company on the Hong Kong stock market in 2018. This caused the company to become the third most precious mobile phone maker in the stock market, following Samsung and Apple.

In 2019, Mr Chew took up the position of President of Xiaomi's international business.

During his time at Harvard Business School (HBS), he crossed paths with Vivian Kao, who is of Taiwanese-American descent. Eventually, the two of them tied the knot and they now have a pair of offspring. Presently, Kao holds the esteemed position of CEO in an investment company.

As per the alumni website of HBS, the pair came across each other through electronic mail in the year 2008 when they got admitted to the institution.

People have referred to them as “a pair who frequently complete one another’s phrases.”

After completing their studies, they have continuously shown support to their former school by donating money and time as volunteers. Additionally, they have been actively involved in various initiatives to raise funds for the school.

Mr Chew expressed his desire to provide assistance to a wide range of people.

We would like HBS's leadership to determine how our contributions should be distributed. We are confident that the school can enhance the impact of our contributions.

Following the completion of their MBAs, the couple resided in several urban areas such as London and Hong Kong. Despite the geographical distance, they maintained contact with their peers from school.

Does he possess an account on TikTok?

Mr Chew created his personal TikTok profile, @shou.time, in February of 2022. Currently, he has shared 22 videos and amassed over 18,000 individuals who follow his page.

On the platform, you can see hints of his private life. He was at the Super Bowl last February, enjoying Nashville hot chicken and even chatting with famous people like Bill Murray from Hollywood.

During The New York Times’ 2022 DealBook Summit, Mr Chew stated that his offspring (whose ages were unspecified) are not permitted to utilize the app because they are too juvenile.