After spending many years as the face of luxury watch retailer The Hour Glass, Mrs Jannie Tay has turned her attention to another mission where time is even more precious – global warming.

Last year, Mrs Tay, 63, set up a private firm called Save Our Planet Investments, which has established a foundation with the aim of planting a billion trees around the world over the next 10 years.

Some might say a target like this is just too lofty, but the Save Our Planet Foundation has already planted one million trees in China.

“For every tree that has been cut down, there should be a replacement of 20 trees to maintain the oxygen level,” said Mrs Tay, who has been president of the Singapore Retail Association for many years.

She is also keen to use the fortune accumulated through The Hour Glass to help thousands of farmers in Indonesia and Timor Leste plant super-growth seedlings that will grow into timber-producing teak in 20 years – about half the usual growth time. The seedlings were the result of a joint venture with a research partner in China.

In the meantime, she wants to teach these farmers to grow peanuts, a short-term crop that can be harvested every four months. Another project is to equip them and their children with language and computer skills so as to break the poverty cycle.

Mrs Tay is married to The Hour Glass executive chairman Henry Tay. They have three children: Sabrina, 28; Michael, 33, the family firm’s executive director; and Audrey, 35. Audrey is a keen environmentalist and helps her mother at the foundation.

A Singaporean now, Mrs Tay grew up in Ipoh, Malaysia. She has a master’s degree in pharmacology from Melbourne’s Monash University. She taught physiology and pharmacology at the then-University of Singapore when she and her doctor husband returned in 1971 to his native Singapore.

The couple began The Hour Glass chain with a store in Lucky Plaza in 1979, after moving on from helping out at Dr Tay’s family watch business.

Q: How did you make your first $1 million?

I have always wanted to build a company to be listed on the Singapore Exchange. Henry and I set up Orchard Watch in 1975. In 1979, we had a joint venture with Metro.

The firm was renamed The Hour Glass in 1980. In 1982, we exchanged our 49 per cent stake in The Hour Glass for a 10 per cent stake, or two million shares, in Singapore listed-Transmarco, valued at $2 million.

In August 1987, we sold the two million Transmarco shares at $5 per share. That was how we made our first million. In October 1987, we did a management buyback of The Hour Glass from Transmarco for $11 million together with Pama Prudential Asset Management (Pama), with Pama owning 40 per cent. A year later, The Hour Glass shares were listed on Sesdaq at 88 cents and the market capitalisation was $42 million. The family still owns 62 per cent of The Hour Glass.

Q: Now that your business is doing well, what do you look forward to?

My daughter Audrey and I will continue to raise global consciousness regarding climate change through Save Our Planet Foundation.

Global warming is an expensive, close-to-irreversible devastation that our planet is facing. Our ultimate mission is planting a billion trees. This foundation is co-chaired by Dr Ashok Khosla, who taught the first course on environment at Harvard University, a course that inspired former United States vice-president Al Gore, a Nobel laureate, to become an environmentalist.

Through a literacy programme, we are also helping people in Timor Leste to improve their rural livelihoods.

Q: What advice would you give aspiring entrepreneurs?

Believe in yourself and your product sources, be passionate and learn every day, share your knowledge and information, be an inspiring team leader and grow and make your team members successful individuals.

Q: What’s your investment philosophy?

At 60, I started a new business, Hypha Holdings, under Save Our Planet Investments, which focuses on biotechnology, wellness and the environment. Marketed under the Scientific Tradition brand which marries ancient cures and modern science, we grow our own lingzhi – the elixir of life – and it is bottled in Vital Energy capsules, coffee and tea.

Q: What money lessons did you learn when you were growing up?

I believe in building my wealth for the future, for my kids. It stems from the fact that my father passed on when I was 17, and the family had to depend on an uncle for sustenance.

Q: What has been a bad investment?

When I was speculating in shares in the early 1980s and had no time to manage them, I lost $2 million and have never bought shares since.

Q: Your best investment to date?

The Hour Glass, so far. That has been over 30 years of my husband’s and my work and in the last eight years, with my son and my brother as executive director and group managing director respectively. For the year ended March 31 this year, the group achieved an after-tax net profit of $31.5 million on a turnover of $487.6 million.

Q: How do you relax?

Playing with my three grandchildren, leisure and competitive dancing, sleeping and making sure my family is happy and connected.

Q: What’s your retirement plan?

No retirement. I would like to work till I am 90. My work is my hobby. Retirement is not in my vocabulary.

Q: And your home now is...?

In Nassim Road. We have three houses in the same compound. Audrey and Michael each have their own and Sabrina lives with us. If Henry and I are in town, we get a chance to eat together daily and play with our grandchildren.

Q: And your car is...?

A blue Mercedes 300S.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Nov 23, 2008.