Liyann Seet

Liyann Seet (薛莉燕) is a Singaporean investor, commercial model, beauty queen and philantrophist. Seet has been profiled for her finance, investments and fashion on television, magazines and newspapers. In 2013, The Business Times ran a cover story on Liyann Seet's secrets to growing a portfolio early (22 and a Savvy Investor). Seet began her commercial modeling career at 16 and later represented Singapore in international beauty pageants in Asia Pacific and United States. She won several international beauty pageant titles. Seet founded the International Children Foundation that advocates for equal educational opportunities for underprivileged children.

Liyann Seet was born on 9 April 1991 in Singapore. She is the second of three children. Her older sister, a banker, and younger sister who is a finance undergraduate. When she was 13 years old, Liyann played touch rugby for her high school team. She was later the president of the Red Wings Touch Rugby Union and ventured into contact rugby.

Liyann attended Singapore Management University (SMU) and graduated with a bachelor of business management degree (finance major) in Singapore. Seet studied at New York University Atlantic Acting School in New York City and pursued finance graduate program at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Young investor

Seet's investment story was featured on Singapore's newspaper on 8 July 2013. In the news report, 'Hit your target net worth', it reported that she had a stock portfolio with a 40 percent return. In the news report, Liyann attributed her success to joining the Singapore Management University Student Managed Investment Fund (SMU-SMIF). The article states that she squirrelled away cash from her internet businesses, modelling career and internships. It stated that her internships with Standard Chartered Investment Banking, Citibank and Century Properties Developer polished her investment skills.

Modelling

Seet signed on to commercial modelling agencies when she was 16 years old. She has modelled for labels such as Sony, Taka Jewellery, Mediacorp, TimeOut Magazine, Shiseido, Pure Yacht, etc. She was featured for her modelling, pageants, real estate, finance, investments on national television, radio shows, magazines, newspapers such as Millionaire Asia, The Business Times, The Sunday Times, The Straits Times, GMA Network, ABS-CBN Network, The New Paper, Shin Min Daily News, TV Petrol, etc.

Fashion

Seet is considered an internet influencer through her Instagram account. She was interviewed for the May 2018 issue of Tatler magazine, where she discussed her philosophy of fashion as an investment. On 24 October 2019, she was interviewed for CLEO Singapore magazine where she revealed that, contrary to the trend among other influencers, she is comfortable wearing the same apparel multiple times as there are many ways to create an entirely new style.

Miss Asia Pacific / MAPPW / MPW / Miss Asia Pacific Petite World

This pageant was created by Hollywood theatre actress, Kimberly White-Geremia, as a way to honour the accomplishments of women while celebrating their beauty, intelligence and community involvement.

The competition, held on 3 Aug in Connecticut, in the US and Miss Seet is the pageant's first Singapore contestant. Her answer impressed the judges enough to land her the first runner-up spot in the competition and win her the Miss Asia Pacific Petite World 2013 title.

She was crowned as Miss Asia Pacific Petite World 2013, and the first runner-up, Noeli Pérez, a law graduate from Puerto Rico, won the national pageant title. Kelly McIntosh, the previous queen of Miss America 2012, won the second runner-up.

International children foundation

Liyann founded the International Children Foundation that advocates for equal educational opportunities for underprivileged children. International Children Foundation (ICF) is a Christian humanitarian non-profit organisation on a mission to provide equal educational opportunities to underprivileged children. The foundation seeks to provide underprivileged children with an education, one that gives them a profound knowledge of the global issues confronting the world and the skills needed to address them. The beneficiary of International Children Foundation is the House of Refuge. The House of Refuge began when a group of fervent individuals encountered street children who had been abandoned, neglected or maltreated by their own families. Prodded by a heartfelt resolve, this auspicious event birthed a halfway house in 21 September 1986, which gave shelter and provided the basic needs for street children. Since its inception, House of Refuge has served more than 1000 children and currently cares for 37 children ages ranging from 4 to 17 years old.