The Hotel 81 chain has long been a staple of the shady type; a favoured place for those in need of a — ahem — quickie.
Yesterday, however, Hotel 81 carried out another kind of good service to the youth of Singapore. Its founder has made a $2-million donation to the Singapore Management University (SMU) to set up a new bursary for needy students.
According to an SMU news release, Hotel 81 founder and executive chairman Choo Chong Ngen hopes that the bursary will be able to motivate deserving students to go out and get a university education without worrying about financial burdens. What a champ.
The Hotel 81-Choo Chong Ngen Bursary was given out to the first batch of 24 recipients at SMU yesterday. The donation was matched by the government, bringing the total sum of the bursary to $4 million, which is open to all full-time local SMU undergraduates.
The 62-year-old Choo currently ranks on the 21st spot on Forbes‘ top 50 richest people of Singapore, with a net worth of $1 billion. The self-made billionaire had always set his philanthropic focus on community and education, and his donation to SMU is considered the single largest bursary gift made to the institution by an individual donor.
Just be sure not to touch that money with your hands; you don’t want to know where it’s been.
Photo: SMU newsroom
