News Americas, NEW YORK, NY: The love of her Caribbean man – Jedidiah Francis is worth more than the US $407 million she was set to inherit as the daughter of one of Malaysia’s richest men.
So who is the man that 34-year-old Angeline Francis Khoo is giving up all that money for while cutting ties with her father, Tan Sri Khoo Kay Peng, chairman of fashion and lifestyle company, Laura Ashley?
News Americas Now has found he was born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and is the holder of a DPhil degree in Statistics from Oxford University.
Jedidiah Francis, or “Jed,” as he is affectionately called, attended the St Mary’s RC School in Kingstown, and completed his secondary education at the St Vincent Grammar School.
According to a 2006 ad in the Searchlight by his family, he graduated from the St Vincent Community College as one of two ‘Students of the Year’ in 2000, receiving awards for being the best Biology and Mathematics student.”
In his search for opportunities for higher education, he joined the British army in February 2001 and was trained as a soldier and then as an Electronic Engineer. In July 2002 he received an honorable discharge from the army to pursue his personal academic goals.
Having received acceptance from Queen Mary University of London, Francis was granted a NCB scholarship to read for a BSc degree in Biology with Business Management in 2003, and graduated with first class honors in July 2006.
His interest in mathematics and biology converged in his BSc dissertation, where he developed a statistical model to describe the proliferation of transposons or “jumping genes” in mosquito populations.
His work on modeling jumping genes gained him entry into Oxford University where he worked alongside leading researchers to develop statistical models of HIV genetic evolution.
Asked about his motivation and drive in 2006, Francis ascribed all his success to the faithfulness of God, and highlighted the input of his parents, Mr & Mrs Eli and Vienna Francis and family.
At the time, his family also acknowledged the financial support of the Marriaqua Friendly Society (Bun Pan) during his Secondary School and A-level years, the National Commercial Bank for providing the finances to complete his BSc degree, and Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for their sterling support.
Francis reportedly met Khoo at Oxford. After her father expressed disapproval of the man she wanted to marry, she severed ties with him and married him anyway.
“I believed Dad’s stance was wrong, so there was no question about what was right,” she told the Daily Mail.
The couple now live in London. Francis, according to his Linked In profile is head of data science at online fashion retailer, ASOS.com. He lists his specialties as: Statistical Modelling, Probabilistic modelling, Computational Statistics, Data Analysis, Machine learning algorithms and data mining among others.
