He was born in 1934, and was educated at the Catholic High School and Anglo-Chinese School after World War II.
He then moved on to the University of Malaya in Singapore, where he graduated with an engineering degree in 1959.
Starting as a temporary trainee engineer with the Public Works Department/City Council in 1960, Mr Chen spent the next 23 years in the civil service where he worked in several ministries.
In 1966, he went to the United Kingdom under a World Health Organisation Fellowship, and was awarded the Diploma of Imperial College and Master of Science in public health engineering from the Imperial College and University of London.
Upon his return, he was appointed a Public Health Engineer with the Health Ministry.
In four years, he rose to become an Executive Public Health Engineer. A year after that, he became the Higher Executive Public Health Engineer in the Ministry of the Environment.
He then won another WHO fellowship in 1970, this time to the United States to study waste disposal.
In 1974, he was promoted to Senior Executive Engineer, and his skills in public administration were recognised when he was awarded the Public Administration Medal by the government in 1977.
Two years later, Mr Chen was promoted to Director of Environmental Engineering Division, Ministry of Environment.
During his postings to these ministries, Mr Chen attended WHO seminars in Europe in 1968 and 1971, Habitat: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in Vancouver in 1976, the sixth and eighth Malaysia-Singapore Border Health Conferences, and the Asean Experts Meeting on the Environment in 1978 and 1979.
Apart from his career in the civil service, he has also held several other public appointments.
Mr Chen has held at least seven other such appointments in the past 20 years. He is a member of the National Productivity Council, President of the Alumni Association of University of Malaya, and member of the Professional Engineers Board and was president of the Institution of Engineers Singapore from 1984 to 1986.
He is also active in community service. He is the Chairman of the River valley Citizens' Consultative Committee, and vice-chairman of the River Valley Community Centre Management Committee..
Ngee Ann Polytechnic has gained greatly since Mr Chen took over as Principal in 1983. His dynamic style has been instrumental in strengthening many ties with industries.
He has also personally promoted the WITS movement in Ngee Ann, which has resulted in its winning the Outstanding QCC Organisation Award this year.
Known to his subordinates as an action-oriented manager, he has succeeded in bringing academic and administrative divisions to work together, committed to achieving common goals.
He introduced fortnightly breakfast meetings with his heads of departments, to foster closer interactions between members of the top management, staff and to improve ... [faded words & cannot decipher].