Alexandra Chong is a Jamaican entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Jacana, a global cannabis company. Jacana cultivates, develops and distributes medical cannabis internationally and in a historic move, it was the first company to export Jamaican medical cannabis flower internationally. She was previously the founder and CEO of

Lulu Lulu may refer to: Companies * LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer * Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer * Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia * Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, a C ...

, a mobile app for dating intelligence. ''Business Insider'' and ''AdWeek'' have recognized her as one of the top entrepreneurs in New York. She launched Luluvise in 2011 and Lulu was released in the US by 2013. It was nominated as ''TechCrunchs 2013 "Fastest Rising Startup". Lulu was acquired in 2016 by

Badoo Badoo is an online dating-focused and social networking application. Founded by Andrey Andreev in 2006, Badoo originally launched as a web product. It has headquarters in London. In 2012, the app was launched in the United States and later beca ...

. Chong was born in

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

to a Canadian mother and Chinese-Jamaican father, who won the lottery and started a successful tourism company with the money. She grew up in

Ocho Rios Ocho Rios (Spanish for "Eight Rivers") () is a town in the parish of Saint Ann on the north coast of Jamaica, and is more widely referred to as ''Ochi'' by locals. Beginning as a sleepy fishing village, Ocho Rios has seen explosive growth ...

. In the 1990s, she played tennis in the women-only Federation Cup. She attended Florida International University on a sports scholarship, and Florida was one of the main sites for Lulu's launch in the US. She is a former member of the Jamaica Fed Cup tennis team and has a law degree from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. After graduation, she worked in the legal department of a music licensing start-up. Before founding Lulu, Chong had a position in Upstream, a London-based mobile marketing firm. Lulu was a highly controversial app, with its functionalities frequently described negatively in the popular press as "sexist and objectifying", "nonconsensual", and "shallow and mean". The release of Lulu caused notable social "recoil" and received significant negative coverage in the press for its violation of Facebook's policies on the use of user data. In February 2016, it was reported that Lulu had been bought by Badoo, which is the biggest dating company in the world. Chong had known Badoo's CEO, Andrey Andreev, since 2011, which is before Lulu had launched. Chong became Badoo's president as part of the deal and moved back to London. The app was subsequently shut down, and she left Badoo in July 2016.

Personal life

Chong married Jack Brockway, the nephew of the British businessman

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

, in June 2015 in Jamaica. Brockway is the brother of

Ned Rocknroll Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Primarily known for her roles as headstrong and complicated women in independent films, particularly period dramas, she has received numerous accolades, including an Acad ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chong, Alexandra Women chief executives Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of the London School of Economics Jamaican people of Chinese descent Jamaican people of Canadian descent Jamaican female tennis players Jamaican expatriates in England Jamaican businesspeople Chief executives in the technology industry Technology company founders