A Career Built Across Continents, Industries, and Systems
I did not plan my career. Not really. What I did was follow a quiet instinct: go where the gap is, stay until you own it, then leave before you get comfortable.
That instinct has carried me across four industries, five geographies, and twenty‑odd years of relentless reinvention. Today, I sit as a Senior Director of Business Development for the Asia‑Pacific region at a US‑based technology company. But the road here was never a straight line — and that, I have come to believe, is precisely its value.
Chapter One: Tourism — The School of Hard Knocks (5 years, Singapore & Malaysia)
I started at 19. Not as an intern shadowing someone, but as the lowest rung in tourism and event operations. Within five years, I had climbed to Director of Market Development for Educational Tourism — a role that forced me to learn, at an age when most people are still in lecture halls, how to price a product, negotiate with schools, manage last‑minute cancellations, and deliver experiences that people would actually pay for.
Tourism taught me people. It taught me that every client has a hidden need, and every itinerary is a promise. It also taught me that chaos is not the exception — it is the default. And if you cannot think on your feet, you cannot survive.
I survived. More than that — I thrived. But by 24, I could feel the ceiling. I wanted to understand money, not just experiences. So I left.
Chapter Two: Finance — The Discipline of Risk (7.5 years, Citi & beyond)
I moved into insurance first — the hardest door‑to‑door school there is. Then trust investment management. Then commercial lending at a major bank, where I eventually led a five‑person team as Business Development Director for project and commercial loans.
Finance was a different universe. It was not about making people happy; it was about protecting the house. I learned to read balance sheets like a doctor reads vital signs. I learned compliance, credit risk, and the art of saying “no” without losing the relationship.
But even as I climbed, I saw something coming. Digital transformation was eating the old banking model from the inside. O2O, P2P platforms — they were not future trends; they were already in Singapore, already stealing market share. I knew that if I stayed only in finance, I would be automating myself out of relevance.
So I pivoted — again. But this time, I did not switch industries blindly. I switched into the engine that was driving the switch
Chapter Three: Enterprise Software — The Language of Systems (6 years, SAP / Microsoft / Salesforce)
A client introduced me to enterprise software, and I never looked back. I joined as a Business Development Manager, working with the giants — SAP, Microsoft, Salesforce — and promoted to department head level. I was no longer selling tours or loans. I was selling digital transformation: the backbone of how companies run their operations, their customer relationships, their entire data architecture.
This phase taught me infrastructure. I learned that technology is not magic — it is architecture. And architecture only works if you understand the business that sits on top of it. My tourism background taught me customer empathy; my finance background taught me risk and ROI. Now, enterprise software gave me the language to connect the two.
But I was still hungry. I knew that if I wanted to play at the global level, I needed both the credentials and the worldview. So I did something my younger self would have found impossible: I went back to school — while working full‑time — and completed my Global MBA at Queen Mary University of London.
Chapter Four: Telecommunications & Cloud — The Nervous System of the Global Economy (8 years, CITIC Telecom, HuaKe Cloud, China Telecom, Australian‑listed global cloud connector provider)
This was not a pivot. This was an expansion. I moved into telecommunications-carrier, ICT Solutions and cross‑border cloud connectivity — the invisible arteries that make modern business possible. I worked with Chinese state‑owned enterprises, Hong Kong‑based tech firms, and an Australian‑listed global cloud company, before finally landing at my current US‑based organisation.
This phase taught me scale. I was no longer serving one country or one sector. I was connecting Asia‑Pacific to the rest of the world — solving problems of latency, compliance, data sovereignty, and cross‑border trust. I learned that in telecoms, reliability is everything, and that the best technical solution means nothing without a business case that makes sense in three different time zones.
During these eight years, I never stopped learning. Certifications, executive reading, commercial networking, and countless late nights — not because I had to, but because I could feel the world changing faster than any single degree could keep up with. So I kept adding layers: technical, strategic, cultural.
Chapter Five: The Present — Senior Director, Asia‑Pacific (US technology firm)
Today, I lead business development for the entire Asia‑Pacific region. I sit at the intersection of everything I have ever learned:
- The customer instinct from tourism
- The risk discipline from finance
- The systems thinking from enterprise software
- The cross‑border complexity from telecoms and cloud
I speak to clients in their language — not just English or Mandarin, but the languages of P&L, operations, IT architecture, and boardroom politics. I can sit with a CFO and talk about cost optimisation, then turn to a CTO and talk about integration roadmaps, then turn to a regional GM and talk about market entry strategy — all in the same meeting.
And yet.
The Real Challenge — Not Skills, but Direction
I am not writing this to impress you. I am writing this because, for the first time in over two decades, I feel something unfamiliar: not burnout, but saturation.
Recruiters call every week. The offers are tempting — VP roles, regional heads, new industries knocking again. But I no longer ask, “Can I do this?” I know I can. The question that keeps me up now is: “Do I want to?”
So I have made a choice that surprises even me. In 2026–2027, I am stepping off the treadmill — not to retire, but to re‑calibrate. I have enrolled in the Senior Executive Leadership Programme at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. Nine months of structured reflection, global peer learning, and intellectual challenge — not because I need another line on my CV, but because I need the space to ask the bigger questions:
- What do I actually want to build next?
- Who do I want to become, not just in title, but in impact?
- And how do I want to spend the next 15 years — not chasing, but choosing?
What I Have Learned, in Retrospect
If I were to distil two decades into one lesson, it would be this:
Your career is not a ladder. It is a portfolio.
Every industry I left gave me something that the next industry could not have taught me. Tourism gave me humility and hustle. Finance gave me rigour and risk‑awareness. Enterprise software gave me structure and logic. Telecoms and cloud gave me global perspective and technical depth. And now, leadership is about holding all of these together — not as a patchwork, but as a coherent whole.
I am not the smartest person in any room. But I am often the one who has seen the most different rooms. And that, I have learned, is a superpower in its own right.
Looking Forward
I do not know exactly what comes after Oxford. And for the first time in my life, I am genuinely okay with that.
I know that I will not go back to working 80‑hour weeks just to prove a point. I know I will choose roles — or build projects — that let me use my full range of experience, not just one slice of it. And I know that I want to mentor the next generation of Asia‑Pacific leaders, because I remember what it felt like to be 19 and clueless, and how much a single encouraging voice could change everything.
So here I am. Not at the end of my journey, but at a deliberate pause — one that I have earned, and one that I intend to use well.
If there is one thing I would say to anyone reading this — especially those in the middle of their own reinvention — it is this:
You do not have to know the whole path. You just have to know the next step. And when that step stops feeling right, give yourself permission to take a different one.
That is not failure. That is strategy.
