Published by Focusweek
BY Rita Jong

Niho Khoo, 25, Executive Director of Chico Force (M) Sdn Bhd.

Niho Khoo, 25, is Executive Director of Chico Force (M) Sdn Bhd, a provider of security service. This young lady is on a mission to change the negative perception people have about security guards as being poorly educated and lowly paid.

She may be young, but this lass knows a thing or two about the security industry. After all, she grew up being shadowed by a bodyguard, and her father founded Chico Force in 1990, and helped to grow the business.

Her first challenge, she says, was to overcome the perception that she had come onto the job the “easy” way. Her father, Dato’ Seri Juniur Khoo Ghee Chong, had already built up the business and she was seen as “merely taking over”.

Being young and a woman to boot, industry players initially treated her with disdain. But Khoo is taking the challenge in her stride. “I am taking it a step at a time to learn the business and I believe that if I put my all in making this work, I will earn their respect,” she says.

Dealing with personal challenges is nothing new to Khoo. Despite being born into a wealthy family, she too had to struggle for something as personal as privacy. “I grew up with a personal bodyguard who was there all the time so there was no personal space,” she recalls.

Over and above that, there is the struggle to live up to her father’s expectations.

But with all the grooming over the years, Khoo thinks she is finally ready to run the show, and she hopes to make her mark not just by changing public perception about the security service but to also give security guards a sense of pride.