Born in the year 1978 in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, Mac Chung Lynn is currently the CEO of Nando’s Malaysia.
She had her primary and secondary education in Methodist Primary School, the Garden School, and a boarding school in England. Afterwards, she moved to London to study architecture at the University of Wales, in Cardiff.
While studying at Wales, she was a customer of the Nando’s eatery; a South African food chain, she loved their menu and was always there to eat. On one occasion her father visited and they went to the Nando’s for their lunch. Having tasted their meal, he loved the hot peri-peri sauce and requested to speak with the manager.
A few months later Mac got a call from her dad with a proposal to run the Nando’s branch in her home country Malaysia. It sounded strange, she was an architect who just got certified with only two-year work experience in her field of study. The food business was not the family business line, her father was into constructions and he owned a construction company called Muhibbah Engineering (M) Bhd. Mac wondered what she would do with a food company, but after thinking about it, she decided to take the offer.
At the time in Malaysia, women were not given room for top executive positions coupled with the fact that Mac was 24 years old but she had her mind made up to strive and survive in the business.
She packed her stuff and headed home in 1998 to Malaysia in order to open her country’s version of Nando’s restaurant in Bangsar.
Back in Malaysia, the people loved it, consumers trooped in and out of Nando’s with the desire to eat a good meal. Asides every food they sold, their customers were totally in love with their well-spiced grilled chicken which was not gotten from anywhere else but Nando’s.
The joy of meeting people’s need by making them satisfied and having to add value in the society, filled Mac’s heart that she forgot about architecture and dwelled completely on the food business.
As the consumer demand increase with good testimonies about how they felt with the existence of the eatery, improvements were made in style and routine to meet customer needs.
At some point, the eatery changed from being a quick, self-service restaurant to a casual dining outlet that offers full table service.
Currently, Nando’s Malaysia has become a household name, best amongst others in the country. After gaining grounds in Malaysia with about 69 outlets scattered across the country, they moved to Singapore to start up Nando’s over there.
Becoming an entrepreneur has groomed her to stand in the face of any challenges and tackle it until there is a solution.
Mac is a happily married woman and a mother of three children, she and her family are based in Malaysia.
