Lucy Chen Lucy Chen

EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ Asia-Pacific Class of 2021

Co-CEO, Chen Foods, Australia

Lucy Chen is the Co-CEO of Chen Foods, a food brand in Australia that produces, imports and distributes Asian food products — currently, specializing in frozen foods and Asian groceries.

Since its founding in 1982, this family-owned business has launched several brands — including Mr Chen's, Sailing Boat and Sailing Boat Yum Cha at Home.

After giving birth to her first son, Lucy wanted to do something more than just staying at home. And so she joined the family business — Chen Foods — part time in 2011. Later, Lucy's parents handed the reins of the business over to Lucy and her sister. Inspired by her parents, sister and other successful women entrepreneurs in Australia, Lucy joined the business full time as the Co-CEO in 2015.

Lucy holds, with honors, a Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne. Prior to her role as the Co-CEO of Chen Foods, she worked as a programmer at National Australia Bank (NAB) and as a product manager at Telstra. Having had no prior fast-moving consumer goods experience, Lucy first learned and gained experience in all functions — from purchasing to sales and logistics. And after she started her role as the Co-CEO, she led the business with ambition — her team has introduced over 100 product lines since 2015.