About Us
Developing Lives For Greater Good
Built to Last is a mission-driven organisation with a vision to help individuals and organisations realise their individual and collective purpose to fulfil their call and responsibility for greater good.
What We Do
Our mission is to help individuals and organisations realise their individual and collective purpose to fulfil their call and responsibility for greater good. We hope to empower individuals and organisations to be catalyst for change in their communities, cities, nation and world at large.
Our Values
Sowing Seeds Of Change
Our value systems is the life and blood of who we are. We operate with a keen sense of purpose and intentionality to provide you services with excellence.
Meet Our Team
Our Founding Story
As we know it, life is an adventure. Just when we think the path is predictable, a junction or a U-turn presents itself. Such is life for Terence and Deborah, the founders of Built to Last. In 2013, just as they were expecting their first child, they felt a nudging to live life more. Not that they were not living – in fact, they loved everything about it – the opportunity to work with a booming start-up for Terence, and the dream job for Deborah, traveling the world writing about and consulting for hotels and resorts. On weekends they served at a local church and poured into youth through the Royal Rangers program. They had a great family and were married for a handful of years – but the nudging persisted.
So they did the unthinkable. With a baby in tow, Terence and Deb made one of the most significant decisions in their life. They left their jobs in Kuala Lumpur to spend a couple of years in rural Cambodia to raise funds, set up literacy centers and train local teachers. They did this in partnership with an international NGO. While living the village life, their instinctive city-nature was put to the test. You can read about their first-hand account in “Live to Last”, Deb’s book where she shares a handful of incredible stories with great learnings.
The unthinkable move was not coincidental…
Terence and Deborah have both grown up with a strong ingrain of servitude in their lives – their parents, both, serve as lay people in various ministries in the church. As a result of their insatiable desire to see the world and leave a lasting impact, Terence and Deb have both individually or together offered their skills, time and energy through missions and community development work in Aceh (after the tsunami hit), interiors of Indonesia, Thailand and even the ghettos of New York!
The adventure continues to this day with Built To Last as a vehicle to bring lasting transformation to the next generation. They are currently based in Sabah, Malaysia working amongst and for the native communities. Nothing is more fulfilling than sowing into lives and empowering them to see and live life more than for themselves.
Terence is passionate about developing people and seeing individuals rise to their God-given potential and purpose. Corporate wise, he was involved in the digital and media space for eight years and was the Head of Product at a well-known social media agency in Kuala Lumpur. He has more than a decade of experience in community development work where he has trained and empowered change makers in playing their role within their own communities. He was also a key leader in Royal Rangers, an auxiliary youth program where he mentored over 50 leaders and 200 children and youth. Terence holds a Bachelors in Marketing and Commerce from Monash University and is pursuing his Masters in Sustainable Development at SIT. He is a youth coach under Leaderonomics and also a holds credentials under the Assemblies of God, Malaysia. He speaks and facilitates regularly on topics of leadership, design thinking, community development, youth development and church and missions.
Terence Ooi
Deborah Chan has over 12 years experience in community development projects and missions work. She spearheaded a volunteering program called STORM, short for “Short Term Operation Relief Mission” where she had the privilege of hosting over 200 volunteers and raising awareness about effective international aid and community development. Her community development work spans across Asia and beyond, to the ghettos of New York.
Deb is also a freelance writer and sustainable tourism consultant. Her writing has appeared in national and international publications including Travel & Leisure, Asian Geographic and the Rough Guides. She has assessed over 70 sustainable tourism award applications and visited over 40 sustainable tourism operators across Asia using the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria developed by United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). Deborah holds a Bachelors in Mass Communication with double majors in Journalism and Cultural Studies.
Deborah authored “Live to Last” a heart-gripping memoir written to inspire youth and young adults to step up and step out to make a difference in this world. Her book can be found on this site.
Deborah Chan
Connect with us today!
If you’ve not checked out our other pages, you might want to do so. We work with organisations and individuals to design legacy programs that are purposeful, powerful and have lasting measurable impact. You may have also heard us speak or caught wind of one of our projects and would like to get in touch…
We are passionate about engaging and connecting with people in different settings, from large conferences, to camps, to small focus groups. We speak on a spectrum of topics such as leadership and social change, sustainable community development, corporate social responsibility and legacy creation.
Contact us and let us help you craft a robust session and get the conversations going.
Our Partners & Clients
