Board of Directors

Our Company    |   Board of Directors

Kelvin Tan Aik Pen
Chairman / Co-Founder
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Kelvin is the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Company. He has been a Director of TSH since 17 January 1986 and was re-designated as Executive Chairman on 1 September 2024. He also sits on the board of a number of private companies.

In 1977, Kelvin started the cocoa trading business in Bagan Datoh, Perak. Anticipating that national production of cocoa would be centered in the east coast of Sabah, he made a step to expand to Tawau in 1986. He pioneered the integrated concept of cocoa business with both upstream sourcing and downstream processing. In 1988, CocoaHouse Industries Sdn. Bhd., a joint venture with the Commonwealth Development Corporation of UK, set up a cocoa butter/powder processing plant in Port Klang.

Kelvin embarked on a similar approach with oil palm. In the 1990s, he established oil palm plantations and palm oil mills in Sabah. To enhance the economic and environmental sustainability of TSH’s oil palm business, a biomass cogeneration plant was built in 2004. In 2006, TSH-Wilmar Sdn. Bhd., a downstream palm oil refinery joint venture was set up with Wilmar as a partner.

Kelvin with business entrepreneur, Garibaldi Thohir, expanded TSH’s operations to Indonesia in 2003, which now has 36,000 Ha of oil palm and 4 palm oil mills, transforming TSH into a regional integrated oil palm plantation player with upstream and downstream activities. Garibaldi Thohir is the CEO and a significant shareholder of Adaro Energy.

TSH was listed on the Second Board of Bursa Malaysia in 1994, before being subsequently elevated to the Main Board in 2000. Kelvin was also the catalyst and spearheaded the secondary listing of TSH on the Main Board of Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited in September 2023.

He spearheaded the biodiversity conservation programme in the ultramafic forest of the Meliau Range in close collaboration with the Sabah Forestry Department. From 2010 to 2013, he was the trustee of the Borneo Conservation Trust Sabah.
 

  • Kelvin was appointed to the Board of Directors of University Malaysia Sabah from August 2017 to January 2020.
  • He also serves as an Honorary Director of Sabah Chinese High School since 2013.
  • On 3 September 2006, Universiti Malaysia Sabah conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy (Agroforestry) to Kelvin for his many contributions to environmental conservation and forestry.
  • Kelvin was first conferred Pingat Panglima Gemilang Darjah Kinabalu (PGDK) that carries the title Datuk by the Governor of Sabah, Tun Datuk Seri Panglima Hj Sakaran bin Hj Dandai on the 16 September 1998.
  • On 19 April 2009, he was also conferred Darjah Dato’ Paduka Mahkota Perak (DPMP) award that carries the title Dato’ by the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah.