Our Founder

As a young boy, Edison is adventurous and yearns to travel the world, so he became a Marine Engineer, thinking it was his ‘free ticket’ to travel. Instead of the ‘romances’ as portrayed in the movie ‘Love Boat’…It turned out to be a journey of character building, resilience training and tons of dirty works instead.

Whilst serving his National Service, he was selected to be an Instructor in the Officer Cadet School of the Singapore Armed Forces. He enjoyed the discipline and camaraderie of the military and upon finishing his stint in the Army, he careered on as a Naval Officer in the Republic of Singapore Navy.

Edison was born in 1963, into a poor family of 11 siblings, his father, a shipyard worker, died when he was young. His mother raised the entire family singlehandedly, working as a cleaner in a shipyard.

In 1980, Edison met Juliette while they were both studying and after 7 years of courtship, they married in 1988. They have 3 children, Shawn, Eunice and Samuel.

Though deaf in his right ear (hence the name ‘Edison’), Edison enjoy music and plays the guitar. He is naturally inquisitive and loves to take things apart before reassembling them. He enjoys photography, golf, reading and occasionally cooking crabs for his friends and staff.

In 1990, Edison took his 1st step into a long career in footwear business, he helped his brother start up a company trading in shoes. The company managed to secure the distributions rights of Dr Martens and business boomed, and the rest was history.

Fueled by his indefatigable drive to innovate and create values, Edison stepped out of his comfort zone and started Nautical Concept in 1995 and set on a fulfilling journey to ‘Innovate products and Inspire Lives’.