Ep 17: Nichol Ng - The Traditional Futurist

Nichol Ng is CEO and Managing Director of X-Inc Pte Ltd, the parent of a group of companies that has been in the food business since the 1930s. She oversees about 200 employees, more than 5,000 products, over 4,500 customers, and an annual turnover exceeding S$65 million. Together, the companies bring to life dreams in the food ecosystem – from foodservice and retail to logistics and property.

It was her passion for food as well as a desire to deliver service with a heart that drove Nichol to take over the family business and she rebranded the company in May 2007.

Prior to this, Nichol was a Marketing Executive in MediaCorp Radio Pte Ltd where she was part of the team that was in charge of rebranding all the MediaCorp radio stations, including Class 95, Y.E.S 933 and Gold 90.

In 2012, Nichol co-founded The Food Bank Singapore, a charity which re-distributes excess foods to more than 370 non-profit organizations that reach out to more than 300,000 underprivileged.

For her effort in feeding the needy, Nichol was named as one of the 10 honourees in The Peak magazine’s The Peak Power List 2016, and listed in Forbes Asia’s 2017 Heroes of Philanthropy and Harper’s Bazaar’s The Power List 2018. In 2021, she was the Southeast Asia honouree of the YPO Global Impact Award Regional, which recognises young CEOs for their impact outside of YPO, celebrating CEO impact that is both sustainable and scalable.

Nichol has leadership roles in various local and global organizations, including President of ONE (Singapore), Executive Committee Member of Young Presidents Organisation – Singapore Chapter and she is a Board Member of Global Compact Network Singapore.

Nichol is happily married to her partner of 26 years and believes that the best legacy to leave her four children (ages 3-10) is not money but her values.

Key themes emerging out of our conversation:

• Loving oneself enough
• Having a startup mindset, reinventing
• Adverse situations an opportunity to recalibrate
• It is more of a blessing to be able to give than it is to take
• Developing teams to succession plan and giving the permission to fail
• Not giving up on oneself, because you are the only permanence in your own life
• Nurturing relationships, making do with each other's insecurities and imperfections
• Working with a family member, love each other as siblings, respect each other as individuals

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