About

Violet is the Chief Cupid & Co-Founder of Lunch Actually Group, keynote speaker on Branding, Corporate Culture, Dating & Relationships, Leadership and a Best-Selling Author.

Like most people out there, I did not grow up dreaming of becoming a matchmaker. In fact, I was set to have the typical Asian lifestyle route of studying hard, going to an excellent university, and then getting a good job.

I read Law at the University of Manchester and did my Masters in Personnel Management at the London School of Economics. I did a summer internship at a law firm but soon realized that law was not my calling.

I then went to Citibank Singapore as a Management Associate. While working there, I was surprised that many of my eligible and attractive colleagues were single.

At the same time, many of my friends who were about the same age as my colleagues were getting engaged, married, or even having kids. I discovered that most of them met actually their future partners at school, or at university. I also met my husband Jamie at university as well.

It seemed to me that after graduation, the chances of meeting a partner while building up your career were getting slimmer and slimmer, especially when you worked long hours.

I had chanced upon the concept of lunch dating while I was traveling, and immediately saw the potential of this business. Lunch dates were short, sweet, and simple – long enough to know someone, yet not too long that it would become awkward. And after all, no matter how busy work gets, everyone needs to have lunch, right?

Together with my then-fiance, Jamie, we decided to quit our jobs and started a dating company – Lunch Actually in April 2004.

15 years later, Lunch Actually Group has expanded to a total of 10 dating products in 5 countries in Asia! We have arranged over 120,000 dates and created over 4,500 successful marriages and couples. We keep our commitment to be the most effective dating service, and we have diversified our services to online dating, dating apps, to date coaching consultancies to help singles be successful in their dating journey. My BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) is to create 1 million marriages, and although we are still far from that number, I wouldn’t trade this career for anything else!

Love,
Violet