Annie Chen was born in Fujian, China, in 1948. Her family moved to Hong Kong one year later upon the founding of the People's Republic of China. After graduating from an American college preparatory school, Annie Chen came to the University of Oregon as a sophomore majoring in mathematics and met her husband there. They moved to College Station to study at Texas A&M after obtaining their degrees, and Annie Chen enrolled in a master of engineering program on operations research. She obtained an Engineer in Training (EIT) Certification during her study. After getting her master's degree, Ms. Chen married her husband and moved to Houston with him. She started as a petroleum engineer in Cities Service Oil Company in 1973. After six years, she followed her boss, who left Cities Service with a few engineers, to join Longhorn Oil & Gas. She obtained a broker license and founded Lyn Realty in 1981. Two years later, Ms. Chen was laid off in the mid of the 1980s Oil Glut but quickly became a full-time realtor. Her company keeps a diversified business portfolio, specializing in residential & commercial sales, leasing, and property management. Her fluency in Mandarin, Amoy, Cantonese, and English also helped her develop a diversified clientele. Beyond doing regular businesses as a realtor, she helped her clients in various ways—filing tax return forms and insurance claims for new immigrants, sponsoring cultural Activities, arranging hospital visits, etc., which won her the friendly title of "Auntie Annie". Now, at the age of 65, she is still working full time but has been trying to gradually transfer Lyn Realty's businesses to her daughter, Julie Tam. In her spare time, she loves gardening in her backyard, challenging herself by growing all kinds of veggies and fruits.
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