regard the two countries as one. What that
means is that we send the good Myanmar
engineers to Singapore and let them work
there for a period of time (a few years) to
gain engineering knowledge and skills. These
engineers get involved in projects in
Singapore working alongside their Singapore
colleagues. We let them learn skills and equip
them with knowledge, so when they return
to their own land with their families, they
can make an impact on the technical
development of the Myanmar office to
elevate the level of capabilities. We called this
a staff transfer scheme to help us do that
effectively and successfully.
In Beca, we share work within our offices
around the world. Take our Thailand office as
an example. They don’t report to me directly,
but we collaborate and work with our Thai
counterparts very closely on a project in
Sri Lanka – the Singapore–Thailand Beca
offices work as a team to deliver the project
there successfully.
What has your journey been like rising
through the engineering ranks?
I graduated from the Singapore Polytechnic
with a Diploma in Electrical Engineering.
This was in 1988. Then I went on to the
National University of Ireland where
I completed a Bachelor of Science
(Honours) in Management.
After that, I started working for a
local mechanical and electrical engineering
consulting firm in Singapore, which was
about 30-people strong. I was there for three
and a half years. Then I switched to become
a resident engineer on a project for a
contract of 10 months.
The Consulting Engineer of that project,
Beca, offered me a position as an engineer in
1993 after my contract ended, and I’ve been
with them ever since. Four years ago, I was
appointed Managing Director of the Beca
Asia hub operations. But last year, there was
a change in our group structure, which
transitioned our business from a hub-basedHalf page advert
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