Chandler "has a reputation for buying struggling companies and successfully rebuilding them," according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation News.

[6] Marija and Robert co-founded the luxury department store Chandler House in 1972[7] in Hamilton, New Zealand.

After selling the company he moved to Monaco, where[7] in 1986, Richard and his brother Christopher founded Sovereign Asset Management, their own investment firm.

With US$10 million in starting capital[4] and Richard as CEO,[2][11] by in the late 1980s the company focused on Hong Kong real estate.

They ultimately sold their stake in 2005 after the board rebuffed their efforts to replace SK Corp. chairman and CEO Chey Tae-won, who had been convicted of accounting fraud for illegal stock trades.

[12][4] Originally based in Singapore, Dubai, and London,[4] Orient Global changed its name to Richard Chandler Corporation in April 2010.

[20][21] In the Forbes Rich List of 2014, Chandler was only one of two billionaires with New Zealand nationality, with a net worth of US$3.8 billion.

[13] In 2017, Chandler fully acquired the company magniX,[22] a startup developing an electric propulsion system for aircraft.

[25] Through the Clermont Group, Chandler agreed to pay $US76 million for a 70% stake in Eviation, an Israeli startup developing electric aircraft,[23] in 2019.

[29] Other core partners at the time included Bill and Melinda Gates, Jeffrey Skoll, Kathy Wadhwani, and The Rockefeller Foundation.