Chris Frederick
Chris Frederick is a speaker, mental health advocate, and founder of Project Soul Stride, a platform created to amplify lived experiences and support others in rewriting their narr...
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Who are you?
My name is Chris Frederick, and I'm a twice suicide attempt survivor now, black mental health advocate, global citizen, and a huge Star Wars fan.
Can you tell us a bit about your personal and professional journey so far?
That's a big question. I'm 55 now, so the journey has been quite long going. I returned from living in Asia just before Covid, sort of in 2018, early 2019. Before then, I lived in Asia for 20 years, Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China. People often ask me, did you learn any Asian languages? Mandarin, absolutely not. Tried, failed, could not get my head around the language, but 20 years of my life, quite extraordinary. Before then, working from an early age in London, got kicked out of school, a couple of O levels, age 17 went straight into work. And then before then I grew up in suburbs of London, in Chisel, Hurston Kent, and I was born in not too far from where I live now in Wembley, Northwest London.
How was living abroad?
Asia was extraordinary. When I decided at age 29 that I wanted to leave London, I had two destinations in mind. One was Australia and one was Hong Kong because I had some buddies of mine who were in the same industry as me, which was the recruitment industry, specifically IT recruitment, and they were making a lot of money, having a great time in both locations. So I ended up getting picked up by a small local firm in Hong Kong, CEO, Phil Mana, sort of very good friend of mine. Now. He was the only expat in his own company and he wanted a number two. So I got the job, arrived on the eve of Chinese New Year, year 2000, and I'll never forget it because that was the beginning of the new chapter of my life. I remember flying in and it was the fireworks were coming up through the sky, and as the plane turned round to land a Hong Kong airport, I thought this is going to be a wicked adventure. Two, three years. I thought I'd be there. Ended up living in Asia for nearly 20 years. So no regrets at all.