At Women in Art Exhibition with Dominika.
I was literally born on the streets of rural Guangdong Province to peasant parents in communist China. My family moved to Canada when I was four years old with little more than the clothes on our back and an electric rice cooker. I spent the next 20 years in Toronto, which were formidable as my family was poor and we had little cultural or social capital to guide us in our new country. (Neither of my parents studied beyond primary school and were mostly absent from my upbringing.)
Before my eighteenth birthday, I was arrested twice and had dropped out of high school. Nevertheless, I eventually gained admission into one of Canada’s elite universities (University of Toronto (Trinity College)) and then went on to receive a PhD in economics at Princeton University, where my supervisor was (future Nobel laureate) Paul Krugman.
My path from poverty to a Princeton PhD is an almost unreal story about luck, talent and unusual circumstances. ((i) I graduated from a high school where earlier in my teenage years I was told by the vice principal responsible for my file: “The day you get back inside this school is the day I quit!”… He was on sick leave the year I returned. (ii) My entire preparation for the GRE graduate school admission test consisted of $10 spent on a used copy of a GRE study guide bought one week before the exam.)
At the nadir of my life (young adult) I ate rotten vegetables tossed away by local food wholesalers and discarded chicken bones that I collected from a fried chicken shop. I am now an economics / finance / policy professional having lived and worked in East Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America, and enjoy a comfortable lifestyle where I mingle with the Ivy League crowd. My life has been one of contrasts, breaking stereotypes about education, ethnicity / race and socioeconomic status.
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Early years: Born on the streets of rural China (literally) to peasant parents and immigrated to Canada at age four. Raised in a working-class neighbourhood of Toronto (South Riverdale).
Teen years: Bounced around five high schools, finally graduating from Riverdale Collegiate Institute in Toronto. Worked as a busboy-cum-waiter at the Organ Grinder (a family restaurant noted for having a working theatre organ inside it). Was arrested twice as a young offender. (No criminal record by grace of the Young Offenders’ Act.)
University years: Attended the University of Toronto (Hon BSc in economics & mathematics) and Princeton University (MA, PhD in economics). Worked as part of the stock crew (midnight shift) at a national supermarket, and as a bartender at the Harbourfront Centre while attending the U of T.
Internships: Consulting internships at LECG (Toronto and Washington DC). Banking internships at Sal. Oppenheim (Cologne and Frankfurt). All of my internships came after I had graduated from the U of T.
Teaching & academics: INSEAD (Abu Dhabi), Princeton University, University of Toronto, Concordia University.
Professional years: Oliver Wyman (Singapore); FG Companies (New York); Prime Minister’s Office / Minister of State Office (Dubai); Cloud / Aiowala (Montréal); Whiteshield Partners (Dubai); ADDED (Abu Dhabi); ECZA (Riyadh).
Affiliations: Canada-Meets-Germany, Princeton Association of New York City, University of Toronto Alumni Association.
Activities and interests: Gastronomy, (ice) hockey, horology, languages, MMA (BJJ purple belt and 10+ years of Muay Thai), running (ran cross-country OFSAA in high school), travelling, trekking (summited Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895m), Mount Toubkal (4,167m), and Mount Fuji (3,776m)).
Languages: English (native), Cantonese (mother tongue), French (B2), Mandarin Chinese (L4), German (B1), Russian (A1).
Immersion language programmes: French (Paris, Quebec City and Villefranche); German (Berlin and Frankfurt); Russian (Saint Petersburg); Mandarin Chinese (Shanghai).
Places lived (legal resident status) as an adult: Toronto, Princeton, Cologne, Frankfurt, Singapore, New York, Dubai, Montréal, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh.
Contact me: To send me an e-mail / Pour m’envoyer un email / 給我發送電郵 / So senden Sie mir eine E-Mail / Чтобы отправить мне письмо <<>>
Kai L. Chan,
Abu Dhabi, 2025
Dubai Mighty Camels men’s league champions.
