From tech exec to hospitality leader, Shen Loh-Lim finds himself slowing down and appreciating the beauty of heritage buildings and storytelling.
When one fateful message landed in my LinkedIn inbox with the caption, “Hey I remembered you from Catcha days!” I knew my interviewee and I are going to have a great conversation. Former tech executive Shen Loh-Lim, whom I reached out to for this interview, used to work at iProperty, which was invested in by online investment firm Catcha Group. Yours truly, on the other hand, was at Microsoft’s msn, which ran for five years as a partnership. Almost a decade later, Shen moved into hospitality, taking on his family’s conservation projects in Penang.
How did you pivot from iProperty to managing Penang’s beloved heritage sites Cheong Fatt Tze (CFT) and Qing Suites?
It wasn’t so much a pivot as much as it was a gradual pull. I had spent many years in technology and digital marketplaces, which played a role in shaping how I think about market strategy, scale, processes, growth and consumer lifecycles. But Cheong Fatt Tze (CFT) was always in the background. It was something my parents had poured decades of blood and sweat into as a cultural and conservation effort.
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In 2015, it felt less like a career decision and more like a responsibility when my father asked me to help. While the initial task was to rebuild CFT into a sustainable, profitable business, it has since evolved into a deeper responsibility to steward something now deeply engrained in Penang’s cultural fabric, and to ensure it remains relevant for the next generation.
There are actually more overlaps than one might expect. A large part of the consumer journey in hospitality now happens online, so the experience from iProperty and Frontier helped significantly.
The challenge has never really been how to scale or grow, but how to do so without losing its soul.
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Did your college/university degree help you in any way with your career journey?
Not directly in terms of technical skills, but like most people, I think it helped shape how I think. I think university does well in teaching you how to approach problems, analyse them, and find solutions, but everything else tends to come from real world experiences!
Most of what I’ve learnt during my career has been through experience on ground and in the weeds.
What were some of your initial challenges when you agreed to take on the role? Did you ever doubt any of your decisions?
Almost everything was a challenge at the start! Not just from a heritage perspective, but because the business hadn’t fully kept pace with how the travel industry had evolved. Many of the fundamentals weren’t where they needed to be, from revenue management and digital presence to the right systems and tools, and there was limited data-driven understanding of our guests. The customer base was quite niche, so one of the early priorities was learning how to both deepen that connection, while also broadening our relevance to a new generation of travellers. At the same time, we had to rebuild operational discipline forecasting demand, managing distribution channels like OTAs more strategically, and really understanding our competitors and customers.
On top of that, I quickly realised I wasn’t just stepping into one business, but three. There was the hotel itself, the F&B operations, and the tours; each with very different dynamics, guest expectations, and business models. The real complexity came in how they overlapped, especially within a heritage space. Running active F&B outlets and high-volume tours while preserving the comfort and experience of staying guests became a constant balancing act. That tension, between access and privacy, commercial activity and guest experience, is something you never fully solve but you just learn to manage it better over time.
Did this project gave you a sense of nostalgia since your parents revived it back to its glory days, and perhaps even more?
There is definitely a sense of continuity… I wouldn’t call it nostalgia in a sentimental way, but more of a gradual awareness that you’re part of a longer story.
What my parents did was bring the mansion back from near ruin. What we’re trying to do now is extend that story to make it feel alive, relevant, and evolving, rather than preserved in time. In many ways, our whole family grew up in the Blue Mansion. It was the backdrop to everything: weddings, tea ceremonies, celebrations, even moments of tension like protests against nearby development. We saw firsthand how it shaped my father’s career trajectory, but also how it gradually brought the history of Cheong Fatt Tze back into the consciousness of the general public, where his legacy is now the subject of international interest and study.
That sense of history makes it feel less like something you own, and more like something you’re temporarily responsible for carrying forward.
Did you think perhaps, your vast background in banking, tech and growth mindset help shape your strategy plan for these heritage sites?
Yes, absolutely. Coming from tech, you get used to thinking about marketing, distribution, demand generation, scalability, and user experience.
In hospitality, that translates into how you design journeys, build consistency without losing character, and think about retention and growth beyond a single property.
At the same time, brick and mortar businesses and heritage buildings force you to slow down. You can’t apply a purely growth-driven mindset, I’ve discovered over time. it has to be balanced with a certain level of restraint and more importantly, patience.
