Chan earned a B.Sc. in
physiology and an M.Sc. in
pharmacology from
Monash University in 1968 and 1971, and was a lecturer in both subjects at the
National University of Singapore. In 1979, she co-founded The Hour Glass Limited, a luxury watch retailer, with her husband, Henry Tay. , it had 41 stores in several countries; she was formerly executive vice-president and executive vice-chairman. She founded the holding company Save Our Planet Investments (Hypha Holdings, 2005) and the non-profit Save Our Planet Foundation (2007), which works for reforestation to
mitigate climate change. She is the first female president of the Singapore Retailers Association and of the ASEAN Business Forum, the first female executive board member of the
Commonwealth Business Council and founder chairman of the Commonwealth Business Women Leaders' Network. and was president of the Singapore chapter of WOW (Women for Other Women). On 20 June 2019, Chan was declared bankrupt by the Singapore court for owing a moneylender over S$4 million in unpaid debt. Chan began serving a two-week prison sentence for contempt of court on 9 September 2019, after losing her appeal against a 2017 sentence judgment. On 15 October 2019, the Singapore High Court rules that Chan's forced sale of $3.85m apartment to be paid to Official Assignee. ==Personal life==