Vanilla Luxury’s Male Tastemakers - GPSS Edition

After the success of Vanilla luxury’s female tastemakers, our Editor-in-Chief, Gursheel, was asked “What about the males?” So, Vanilla Luxury decided to celebrate men of great taste who are leaders and creators in their field. These nine outstanding male entrepreneurs were awarded as male tastemakers on 13 September 2018 at Sky Grande Prix in partnership with dunhill CENTURY and The Macallan.

1. Dinos Demetriades, Director of Achilles Capital

Born on the little island of Cyprus, Dinos was the kind of kid in school that could get you anything, whether it was a phone, a car or a ticket. Fast forward a few decades, add some investment banking experience in the mix, and a move to Singapore 10 years ago, Dinos is now running Achilles Capital, which is a diversified group with multiple investments in healthcare, tech, logistics, commodities and real estate. Named in honour of the Greek legend Achilles, Dinos lives with the philosophy that a great captain, should first of all be the best soldier, and thus never shys from getting his hands dirty.

His big break came when commodity trading company Terra Resources, which he co-founded in 2011, was acquired by a PE firm in 2014 and continued to grow it to a $120m-a-year business.

2. Subaish Rajamanickam, Business Partnerships Manager at Zeemart

After a career spanning over 8 years in nightlife having been a promoter, photographer, DJ, marketing manager, general manager and owner, this ex-national 800m champion decided to venture into the F&B, e-commerce & Fintech space.

3. Dato Dr Nicholas Ho, Serial Investor

Dato’ Dr. Nicholas Ho is the Group CEO and Executive Director of Seristine Group of Companies, a regional business consortium focused on industries such as Real Estate, Agriculture, Hospitality and Natural Resources in the ASEAN region. A strong believer in ‘Giving Back’, Seristine Group also has an endowed scholarship with Singapore Management University (SMU) under its name. The group and its business entities have been featured on numerous news media in Singapore and in the region, such as CCTV News, Macau TV, Straits Times and Business Times.

Apart from business, he is also a huge fan of speed, which explains his undying passion for supercars and horse racing.

4. Lester Tan, CEO & Founder of Jio Technologies Limited

Lester Tan is helming the reigns of numerous companies in various industries like Interior Design, Redevelopments, Online Auctions Sites, Fashion Design, Electronic Gadgets, Consultancy and Investment Funds Management.

In 2010, after more than 4 years in the property industry, Lester made a significant move to follow his all-time dream of setting up his own company. Now he is the director of several companies like 3Media Pte Ltd, DEALcity.com.sg and SGBidding.com.

5. Jonathan Chew, Group CEO Absolute Collective

Jonathan is a notable Technologist in the space of EdTech, MarTech and Mix Reality with solutions such as AR Training experiences and VR sales kits. Absolute Collective’s AR marketplace product has been featured in Forbes, E27 and Business Times.

7. Robin Khoo, Senior Financial Services Manager at Aviva Financial Advisers (AFA)

At the age of 27, Robin is already holding a senior managerial position in the finance industry. Robin is also a model since his teenage years having appeared in several commercials and advertisements across Asia.

7. Ben Hatsuo Ittogi

Ben Hatsuo Ittogi has been in the logistics industry for almost 8 years. He has a passion for outdoor sports and trying new experiences.

8. Srinivas Naidu

Vas Naidu is heavily involved in marketing and DJ management as well as operations in the nightlife industry. He has taken bold moves in events moving out from the norm by making indoor events such as Splash Zone and pushing out Kandi rave culture. He is currently doing business development for a lifestyle branding company that embodies his style - breaking traditions and boundaries.