Jane Wong’s first money-making venture came at just eight years old. In the 1980s, bookstores sold Christmas cards in assorted boxes, and Jane wondered whether some people might only want certain designs. She saved up for a box, went door to door in her neighbourhood, and sold each card for twenty to thirty cents.
Her business instincts came from her late father. Alongside his day job, he bought large packs of snacks from wholesalers, and the family repacked them into smaller packets, each with a collectible sticker inside to encourage children to buy more. At 15, while her peers enjoyed their teenage years, Jane took a part-time job at a burger joint, picking up teamwork, resilience, and a positive attitude. By the time she began working full time, she already had more experience than most of her peers.
An Unexpected Path
Jane had always loved making art, especially crafts. Without Art at O-Level, though, she did not qualify for the arts diplomas she applied for and was offered her last choice instead: a Diploma in Construction. She was devastated. “What is there to even build in this tiny country?” she remembers asking. She did not yet know that the path she resented would shape her life’s work.
After graduating from Singapore Polytechnic, Jane joined the interior design sector, starting in marketing and sales for residential projects. Her boss at the time, the late Jeffrey Lam, patiently taught her the ins and outs of costing and pricing, a lesson she remains deeply grateful for.
When she moved into commercial and industrial projects, that knowledge set her apart. Jane could handle the work of a quantity surveyor while also managing the pricing, which was usually left to managers or directors. By her 30s, she was bidding for public tenders and managing entire projects, from fitting-out and alteration and addition works to closing the final accounts. Her projects included Yishun Library, Serangoon Library, and offices for tertiary institutions and polyclinics.
At 35, Jane chose to keep learning and took up a part-time degree, juggling it with work, a house move, and two young children. “Looking back, I seriously do not know how I pulled through that period,” she says. Her only regret is the time she missed with her children during those years.
Starting Over
Jane insists she never planned to become an entrepreneur. Her first business venture, begun when she was almost 40, ended painfully just three years in. Overnight, she lost her job, her clients, and the designs she had spent years developing for cage enclosures in data centres.
She told herself that, in the worst case, she would sell her car and return to employment. First, though, she needed to find her footing again. Jane took a year off and went on two religious pilgrimages to find peace. Her faith became her source of strength, and she chose to believe that everything happened for a reason.
In 2013, Jane founded Suntronic Design & Construction Pte Ltd. Starting again from scratch was a gargantuan task, so she reached out to the clients she had served before. To her immense gratitude, most of them were willing to give her another chance. She returned to her bread and butter, interior renovation works for industrial properties, and before long she was refining her ideas for data centre cage enclosures once more.
Riding the Wave
2026 marks 26 years since Jane handled her first data centre project. Back in 2000, few people even knew what a data centre was, and she would ask them to picture a gigantic server room.
Suntronic’s busiest years came during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many industries struggled, accelerating digitalisation drove a surge in new data centres. Having entered the field early, Jane was ready to ride the wave.
A Philosophy of Focus
Jane’s philosophy is simple. “We are here to solve the customer’s problem, and to focus on what we are good at doing.”
Customers have often asked Suntronic to expand into other services. Jane has always declined. Other providers already serve those needs well, she explains, and she respects their abilities. She has also seen companies lose their direction, and their soul, by chasing revenue in areas outside their specialty. Even when business associates questioned the model, she held firm on Suntronic’s focus on cage enclosures.
As competitors have entered the market, Jane reminds her team not to be discouraged. “Focus on doing your best and customers will see the difference.”
That focus helped her achieve a long-held dream: installing a cage enclosure overseas, which she did in 2024. The groundwork had been laid in 2018, when she set up a Malaysian company in anticipation of data centres expanding across the Causeway. Today, Suntronic has a small fabrication facility in Kuala Lumpur and a storage space in Johor Bahru supporting work in both countries.
Nurturing the Next Generation
Despite her own painful experience, Jane remains committed to mentoring young people. When an ITE lecturer friend asked whether she would take on Architecture interns at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when many companies had stopped hiring interns, she hesitated at first. After much reflection and prayer, she agreed, seeing the students as the future of Singapore. As a mother, she felt a responsibility to prepare them for the realities of working life.
On their last day, she always tells her interns, “If you walk out of my office door not having learnt anything, it means that I have failed.” Then she adds, with a laugh, “If you become famous one day, I hope you will still remember me.”
Jane also gives back through her Catholic faith, using her skills to repair and replace fittings at her church free of charge. It is her way of giving thanks for the strength she received during the toughest period of her life.
Repaying the Faith
Jane is clear-eyed about what entrepreneurship demands. “Many would think that being your own boss is a dream, but don’t forget that as your own boss you have to handle everything on your own.” Unlike an employee, a business owner cannot walk away from the business’s problems. She illustrates the point with a café: “You need to be able to cook. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of your chef who might just not turn up for work one day.”
One of her greatest joys is seeing professional associates become close friends, built on three decades of trust. For Jane, being named a Spirit of Enterprise honouree is not a sign that she has made it. Instead, it motivates her to do even better for her customers and her colleagues, and to repay the faith of everyone who encouraged her when she struggled to believe in herself.
Website: https://www.suntronicdc.com/
AUTHOR BIO
ALAN KOH
Alan Koh is the Founder and CEO of Impossible Marketing, a group of companies renowned for hyperlocal marketing strategies tailored to businesses in Singapore. His professional journey began in the banking sector, where he quickly rose through the ranks, garnering eight industry awards in just four years.
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