SINGAPORE – When Mr Forrest Li first arrived in Singapore more than 15 years ago, the then 28-year-old was deep in student loan debt to the tune of $100,000, had next to nothing in the bank and made only enough to rent a room in a flat in Braddell.

Today, Mr Li, 43, is the billionaire founder and group chief executive of tech giant Sea, which owns e-commerce platform Shopee and also operates businesses in gaming and digital finance.

Mr Li was on Tuesday night (Nov 24) named Businessman of the Year 2019/2020, in recognition of his efforts in building Sea into a New York-listed global Internet company with the mission of improving the lives of consumers and small businesses through technology.