Tan Sri Dato’ Lim Guan Teik (ancestry: Puning, Guangdong) was born in 1935 in one of the small villages along Muda River in Kedah. Under the careful grooming of his father, Lim was accepted into Nanyang University for his Bachelor of Business Administration.
In 1967, Nanyang University founder Tan Lark Sye recruited Lim into one of his paper making affiliate companies, thus started Lim’s journey in the paper making business. At that time, the company was poorly managed and Tan was looking to sell the business. Lim’s brothers helped him take over the business and left the running of the company fully to him. After a series of drastic restructuring, the company was revived and in 1982 renamed Muda Holdings which later became the first paper product company to be listed in Malaysia.
In 1998, Lim was invited by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to become one of the members on the Economic Advisory Council established by the government. Lim made numerous visits to China under this capacity and actively promoted Sino-Malaysian trade relations. During his stint as the ACCCIM President, Lim successfully led the association in organising the 7th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention, the Malaysian SMIs Cambodia Exhibition 2000, as well as published the photo-journal Memoirs of History: A Photographic Journey of the ACCCIM and Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Lim also set up a committee to combat the Nipah virus outbreak and set up a relief fund to help pig farmers vaccinate and clean up the outbreak.
