Driven to Win
After the football and wrestling teams were eliminated, in 2000, Chan got into rugby — “football plus wrestling usually equals ‘really good at rugby,’ so that was kind of my thing for the next couple of years.” Chan also was a Phoenix editor — “I actually got my dorm room on the fourth floor in Parrish the last two years so I could literally pop over” — and worked as a freelance sports writer, including for ESPN.
Chan, who makes his home in the greater Boston area with his wife and three children, also has more than a decade of consulting experience, and since 2018 has taught marketing analytics part time to students at Boston University.
Now, after almost four years as chief strategy and innovation officer at the Better Business Bureau, Chan is chief executive officer of Guide-a-Guest, which works with hotels to offer print and digital directories of local attractions and services. The role, he says is about connecting.
“It builds on what I was doing at the BBB, which is about helping small businesses grow and making connections in local communities,” he says.
Chan’s passion for helping small businesses stems from his parents, immigrants who owned an “old-school” Chinese restaurant in Wellesley, Mass.
What drives Chan is upward mobility, he says. “My family came to America as immigrants,” he says, “and business growth is the engine that creates opportunities for all.”