How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 8)

Wednesday, 7th October 2026

PART 8: THE CFO WHO WRAP MOUNTAIN WRAP SEA, DO COW DO HORSE

Let's continue this series of posts with the job I stayed the shortest at.  It was for a total of 7½ months to be exact.

Every salaried worker's dream is to become part of the C-Suite one day, ie. a Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), Chief Operating Officer ("COO"), etc. 

For accountants, that would be the Chief Financial Officer ("CFO"), and it was no different for me.  And if it was that of a public company, lagi better, the compensation package would include ESPPs (employee stock purchase plans) and/or ESOPs (employee stock option plans).

Following from earlier posts, after my tenure at Walton ended on 18 Oct 2019, I wanted to take a long, well-deserved break (after more than 30 years of corporate life).  I played golf practically every other day in the month of November, and planned to do so in December as well.

In fact, I even did an advanced booking to play at the Els Club, Desaru on Mon 2 Dec 2019.  More on this later.

Did I want to go back into the workforce?  Only if it involved being the CFO of a listed company, or a company with ambitions to go public.

Remember that Infineon colleague who attends New Creation Church called Victor Poh who first introduced me to the gospel of grace back in 2005?

Well, he sent me a Whatsapp message on 1 Nov 2019 (just 2 weeks after I left Walton), asking whether I was keen on a CFO role for a company that was planning to get itself listed.  Duh, of course I was! I wanted to ask him if the Pope was Catholic :p

He asked for my CV so that he could forward it to a Mr K, who was his ex-boss. 

On 4 Nov, I met up with Mr K for a 1st round interview, and then on 18 Nov, I met up with him and a Mr T for a 2nd round interview.

Mr K and Mr T were the co-owners of a coal-mine in Indonesia through a company called Kitty Hawk Natural Resources ("KHNR") and were looking for a way to monetise it.

It so happened that there was a listed company in Singapore called Resources Prima Group Limited ("RPG") that itself used to own a coal-mine, but had lost control of it, technically becoming what SGX terms a "cash company" and risked getting de-listed unless they could find a sustainable business to inject into it.

One common way to do so is via what is known as a reverse takeover ("RTO").  Let me explain how that works.

In a typical takeover of another company (for example when Facebook bought over WhatsApp, or when Google bought over YouTube), a bigger fish ("the acquirer") eats up a smaller fish ("the target").  After the acquisition, the target's employees end up being made redundant because of duplication of roles in the enlarged group (In the above example, Meta and Alphabet would get rid of WhatsApp's and YouTube's highly-paid staff.  There was no point in keeping, for example 2 CFOs, when 1 single Group CFO could do the job.

In an RTO, the reverse holds true in that the acquirer is the smaller fish, while the target is the bigger fish.  After such a takeover, the acquirer's employees are the ones ending up being made redundant, because the target company is the one calling the shots.

In the specific case of RPG, its shares were suspended since 22 Jun 2017, and SGX would only allow it to resume trading upon being satisfied that a legitimate business operation was injected into it.

KHNR, a company with an operational coal-mine, was an ideal RTO candidate. It would allow itself to be "taken over" by RPG, in exchange for the shares of the listco.  An RTO is also referred to as a "backdoor listing" because it is somewhat similar to an IPO (both require a prospectus), but it is a much quicker and less cumbersome way of going public.  

In summary, a successful RTO is a win-win for both the listed acquirer (because it avoids getting delisted), and also for the target (because it is a way to monetise its assets).

Mr K and Mr T told me that they would eventually make me the CFO of the newly-created KHNR group, but they first wanted me to join RPG itself, because their CFO had resigned.

This was an unusual arrangement because typically, the CFO of the target company becomes the Group CFO of the enlarged group, and the listco's CFO exits after the RTO.  In this particular case, the listco's CFO was leaving even before any RTO was to happen, and the target did not have its own CFO.

Nonetheless, I agreed to it because I had never worked in a listco before, and wanted to gain some hands-on experience.  They also gave me what I considered to be a very attractive salary package, made up of 60% in cash and 40% in shares.  RPG shares were last done at just 2.6 cents (what Mr T said was a "sweet spot" price), so there was a huge potential for it to double or even treble in value upon re-listing, effective doubling or trebling that 40% portion of my compensation.

They also wanted me to start work asap because the outgoing CFO's last day was 7 December, and time was running out for him to do a proper handover to his successor.

Remember how I mentioned about pre-booking a flight to play golf in Desaru?  Well, I had to cancel that game :-(

(10) Resources Prima Group Limited (2 Dec 2019 to 15 Jul 2020)

Upon joining RPG, I discovered from my predecessor (let's call him TTL) that I would be, as was he, the only full-time employee on the payroll.  RPG had to keep its costs down to the barebones minimum, so there was no physical office, no name card, no proper corporate email (I had to create and use a gmail account), etc.

I was expected to do what Hokkiens would describe as bao sua bao hai (包山包海) and Chinese describe as zuo niu zuo ma (做牛做马).  In other words, all and sundry, akin to laboriously working like a cow or horse.

TTL handed me the relevant documents, passed me a thumb drive with the relevant data, introduced me to the relevant contacts, and at the end of that very week, went on his merry way.

Every 2 weeks, I would make a trip to the registered office in Ocean Financial Centre to collect correspondences and open them up to file.

I would be the sole liaison person dealing with the sponsor, auditors, current and potential investors, directors of both the listco and the target, corporate secretaries, share registrars, printer for the annual report, etc etc.

In just 7½ months with RPG, I released more than 20 announcements on SGXNet.  These included monthly updates, the Group’s full-year results, annual report, AGM, significant transactions and various requests for extensions of time (including that relating to the submission of the proposal for resumption of trading). 

But I took everything in good spirits because it meant learning on the job.  I essentially had the best of both worlds, working in what was similar to a start-up company that had to watch its cashflow closely, yet also simultaneously having to fully comply with the regulatory requirements of an actual listed entity.  The workload was also manageable, with predictable peaks and troughs.

I also believed in 前苦后甜 (bitter at the start, sweet at the end), because if the RTO was successful, I would be duly rewarded in terms of great job satisfaction, and also owning shares with huge upside potential.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit shortly after I joined, and the operations of the target's coal-mine were even suspended till further notice.

My dad then suffered a stroke on 10 Jun 2020 (while I was on a weekly Board conference call).  I resigned just after the AGM was held, informing Mr K that I wanted to spend more time with him.  Once my dad's condition stabilised, and upon the mine resuming operations, he could count on me to re-join the company.

Sadly after I left, RPG got a couple of further extensions from SGX but received its final rejection on 5 Nov 2021, ultimately leading to its shares being delisted on 25 Apr 2022.

When that happened, I also had to say goodbye to that 40% portion of my package.

Recently, I logged into my CorpPass account and note that I am still the authorised user of RPG Logistics Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of RPG that was incorporated in 2019, so that the expanded group could go into nickel-mining too.

I also still owe Victor that golf game.  He has been so busy that we have not fixed a time for that yet.

How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 7)

Tuesday, 6th October 2026

PART 7: GOOD GRASS IS WORTH TURNING AROUND TO EAT AGAIN

There is this Chinese saying, "好马不吃回头草“ which literally translates into "A good horse does not turn its head to eat the grass behind it".  It is used as a form of friendly advice to people to leave their past (especially in the context of workplaces and relationships) behind them. There was a good reason for leaving, so there should be no good reason to return.

Well, there are always exceptions to the rule.  I know for a fact that PwC practices what is known as a "revolving door" policy where auditors go out to gain actual industrial experience (such as in a bank or an insurance company) and then return, better equipped to handle clients in those very industries.

I myself worked in legacy PW from 1990-1994, and returned to the merged PwC in 2000, albeit in a different department.

Going back to the above saying.  I would counter with "好草不如回头吃“，ie. good grass is worth turning around to eat again."  The best example of this is Steve Jobs, who although fired by Apple, returned to, not only have a second bite, but took it to even greater heights.

In my case, I had unfinished business, and thus went back to wrap things up.

I mentioned in the previous post about how I had joined my dad's friend's audit firm and re-familiarised myself with accounting (as well as auditing) standards.

While reading through FRS 27 on Consolidated Financial Statements and FRS103 on Business Combinations, God brought to my mind Walton Hong Kong, whose financials PwC HK had given an adverse opinion (which is the worst form of qualified accounts).  Here is an extract.

I put together the following email to my ex-boss, the CFO.  Take note of the ungodly hour that it was sent (yup, it kept me awake at night).

-----Original Message-----

From: Malcolm Loh
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 12:45 AM

To: S

Subject: walton hk, accounting matters

hi s

how's the going?

as a result of "going back to my roots", i have re-familiarised myself with the various frses, including frs27 and frs103 which deal with consolidation.

it has occurred to me that the consol for walton hk is extremely straightforward. walton sg and walton my were incorporated later than walton hk which means no pre-acquisition reserves to eliminate.

walton sg and walton my are 100% owned which means no noncontrolling interests.

the only issue is to obtain historical hkd/sgd rates going back to 1996 and hkd/myr rates going back to 2002 in order to translate the sgd and myr numbers into hkd, which will result in translation reserves being booked against other comprehensive income and translation differences being recorded in plant, property and equipment.

if you make the relevant fs available, i can turn them around within a week. no charges, i enjoy doing consolidation and the adreneline rush i get is reward enough :-)

and that will take care of one qualified item on the audit opinion...

can also understand why pwc hk kicked up a fuss about the puts. liquidity risk on derivative financial instruments is a disclosure requirement under frs107.

on a separate note, you may want to check if you have accounted adequately for reinstatement/restoration costs as prescribed by frs16 para16. i don't recall this being capitalised when the 34th floor had a major renovation in 2010.

regards

Sent from my iPhone

It was a pleasant surprise to receive the following reply from him...

From: S
To: Malcolm Loh
Sent: Thursday, 15 September 2011 11:11 AM
Subject: RE: walton hk, accounting matters

Hey Malcolm,

Thanks for your note below. Appreciate your consideration and comments below. How are things with you? Why don't we catch up over lunch if you have the time? Maybe you, me and G. I am travelling for the next week and a bit. How about last week of Sept or first week of October?

Regards,
S
Chief Financial Officer, Asia

And so on Thu 29 Sep 2011, I caught up with both my ex-bosses, G and S, over lunch at the outdoor section of Oasis@Padang, Singapore Recreational Club.  It was a time for reconciliation.  I apologised to both of them for letting them down, and they in turn also apologised for the abrupt way I was asked to leave.  They asked me how I was doing, and I politely replied that things were fine.

We then adjourned indoors for dessert.  From out of the blue, S suddenly asked me, "How would you like to come back to work in Walton?"  I was stunned.  G explained that S was going back to Canada HQ at the end of the year to become the CFO of Walton Development, and the FC who succeeded me was not up-to-par (I was aware of the latter because my ex-staff would regularly complain to me about him).  There was an urgent need for stability in the Finance function of Asia, and S was running out of time to assure HQ that all would be well after he left.

S was honest enough to tell me that he had first approached the FC of Malaysia, asking whether she was keen to relocate to Singapore, but she was not, having just given birth.  I also found out subsequently that he had interviewed dozens of candidates, but none gave him the assurance that they could hit the ground running.  G was the one who suggested to him to consider asking me to go back, and that email to him was the icebreaker.

It was time for me to be honest in return.  I told them that things were not exactly working out for me.  I had been with the firm for 7 months, and was not offered the partnership role, so I had started to send out job applications again.

My title was just "audit manager" -- effectively a demotion from FC -- and had also suffered a paycut back down to a four-figure monthly salary.

When I showed them my name card, I could tell they were amused and unimpressed, especially at the location (yup, the one that had the reputation of having "four floors of whores") :P

Now, what I have not yet mentioned is that sometime in May 2011, I heard the shocking news from my ex-staff that L, the one who was double-hatting as both COO and Sales DM, had suddenly left Walton.  Her division had accounted for the huge majority of sales, so it was something totally unexpected. G resumed his operational role for the Singapore office (he was re-designated as President, Singapore), and would be my boss again should I return.

Meanwhile, one of my ex-staff (she was given the nickname VFS = very favourite staff, and I even call her that till this very day haha) was getting unhappily restless working for my successor.  She had sent me a message asking me to be her referee for an upcoming interview.  I replied her, "All the worst", and hinted to her that she should stay on because things were about to get better.  She asked, "You coming back, ah?", and I responded with a winky emoji ;-)

To cut a long story short, while G and S had verbally offered me my previous job, they had to first sort out a compensation package for my successor to become my predecessor.  I was more than happy to go back, because it meant a restoration of the paycut back to a five-figure monthly salary yet again.  As someone recently said, "Pride cannot put food on the table.  Better to just swallow it, so you won't have to live on an empty stomach."

I re-joined Walton on 27 Dec 2011, just days before S returned to Canada.  I quickly got down to carrying out what I had promised him in that email of 15 Sep 2011, with the instrumental help from my VFS, who happily stayed on in the company (for a total of 16 years!), as I pushed for her promotion from Senior Accountant to Assistant Manager to Manager in quick succession.

Together, we managed to get PwC HK to issue a clean opinion from FY2012 onwards, as shown.  We also successfully took over the Finance function from Malaysia, when the office over there was physically closed in 2013.

Looking back, it was God who took me out of Walton during a very tumultuous time, put me in GBK to pick up the necessary accounting knowledge, and then sent me back, fully-equipped to help Walton HK get that clean audit opinion, and the 3 Walton Malaysian entities and its 6 interest schemes with their annual audits. Hallelujah!

Oh ya, back to how I received my 5-year LSA in 2017, and then my 10-year LSA just a year later, in 2018.

The person who was in charge of HR disregarded my earlier stint (from 1 Apr 2018 to 23 Aug 2010), and only counted my continuous years of service, viz:

27 Dec 2011 to 26 Dec 2012 = 1
27 Dec 2012 to 26 Dec 2013 = 2
27 Dec 2013 to 26 Dec 2014 = 3
27 Dec 2014 to 26 Dec 2015 = 4 
27 Dec 2015 to 26 Dec 2016 = 5

That person left subsequently, and I was put in charge of HR.  I had so much favour with my Asian regional boss that I managed to convince him to include even the intervening period when I was at GBK.  I told him that I was actively working on Walton accounting matters, and that was why I could get the clean opinion for Walton HK so quickly upon returning.

He agreed to INCLUDE everything since Day 1 of my initial stint, as though I was there all along, viz.

1 Apr 2008 to 31 March 2009 = 1

1 Apr 2009 to 31 March 2010 = 2

1 Apr 2010 to 31 March 2011 = 3

1 Apr 2011 to 31 March 2012 = 4

1 Apr 2012 to 31 March 2013 = 5

1 Apr 2013 to 31 March 2014 = 6

1 Apr 2014 to 31 March 2015 = 7

1 Apr 2015 to 31 March 2016 = 8

1 Apr 2016 to 31 March 2017 = 9

1 Apr 2017 to 31 March 2018 = 10

Just one instance of God's favour is worth many years of labour.  Amen?

In the next post, I will blog about my 7.5 month tenure as CFO-designate of a listed company, so stay tuned.  I will then round up this series with my current role as a business owner and conclude on what our true identity should be.

How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 6)

Monday, 5th October 2026

PART 6: FIRED ON A MONDAY, JOBLESS FOR 6 MONTHS

Readers who are sharp will note that I have listed Walton as my 7th and 9th job.  Just like how Donald Trump is both the 45th and 47th POTUS (with Joe Biden in between his 2 terms), I too took on an 8th job in between my 2 stints at Walton.

I am now going to share something publicly that only a handful of persons close to me have been aware of.  I am doing so because I want to testify to God's faithfulness, of how He remains in control of everything.  We, as His beloved children, must not lose hope, and continue to have a confident expectation of good, no matter how dark and negative the circumstances are, because He will always turn things around for our good.

My dad was turning 75 in August 2010 and we had plans to celebrate it in a very big way.  Preparations for the big day started in earnest as early as March that year.

Here is a photo that was taken with his immediate family on the night of the celebration, with what was actually two cakes: a number 7 and a number 5.

We will come back to this later, but let's talk about what was happening at my workplace.

A major organisational restructuring was announced at the tail-end of 2009, to take effect on 1 January 2010, which resulted in a change of boss for me.  

When I first joined, I was reporting to G, the MD, with a dotted-line functional line to S, the CFO.

My new reporting line was to L, the newly-appointed COO.  L was a Sales DM, and she would double-hat, taking on admin in additional to sales. G was re-designated to become Chairman, Asia.

L felt I should expand my role, and started to give me me non-finance work as well, such as 

• Chairing of the D&D organising committee in Feb 2010

• Exploring possible tie-ups with major travel agencies such as Chan Brothers, CTC and SA, asking them to put together customised packages that included a half-day tour of Walton land parcels as part of the itinerary.

• Co-Chairing the Team-building event held at Palm Resort in May 2010.

I was given excellent feedback from colleagues that the 2010 D&D was the best ever they had experienced in the history of the company.

Getting so actively involved and being hands-on in the 3 above-mentioned programs also came in handy for me in organising my dad's 75th celebration on 22 Aug 2010, so I have to give L credit where credit is due.

But the additional workload placed upon me came at the expense of my proper finance role as the FC, and to say that S, my CFO was upset with me is an understatement.  When he saw me doing the table seating arrangements for the D&D, he remarked "Why are you wasting time on that sh!t?"

The fact that S did not get along with L only made matters worse, and I found my prioritisation of work being severely put to the test.  I was caught in between and had to "take sides", as it were.  L happened to also be the top salesperson, so I figured it would be better for me to be in her good books, rather than his.  As long as I diligently carried out whatever she tasked me to do, I would be fine.  Or so I thought...

Well, something happened a couple of weeks leading up to my dad's birthday that made me realise that my days were numbered. L called me into her room and said, "What is this I hear about you being unhappy that I bought CNY hampers and claimed on them?  I am the person overall-in-charge of Singapore, and also bring in the most sales, so I can do whatever I want."  My face went pale, and I was left speechless.

What happened earlier that year was that she had given out numerous hampers in her own name to her staff, giving everyone the impression that she was a very generous person. She had however quietly submitted expense claims, effectively getting reimbursed for them.  As Finance, I was of course aware of this, and had remarked to one of my staff that this practice was not ethical.  If the company ultimately paid for those hampers, then she should not have indicated as though they were from her personally.

I did not expect L to get to know about it, and on her part, she did not see why she had to put up with a subordinate who dared to question her integrity.

Well, despite everything that happens on the earth, God is still in control, and I want to testify to His goodness and mercy.

Most, if not all, retrenchments and dismissals typically take place on a Friday, so that the staff who remain in employment have the entire weekend to wean off the negative effect.  I was terminated on a Monday.  Let me explain what happened.  

On Thu 19 Aug 2010, during my son's monthly check-up at NUH, the doctor noticed a small growth on his leg and said that it was best to have it removed.  He scheduled a day surgery to be done the next day.  I sent an urgent text message to my boss, L on my Blackberry requesting to take urgent leave to accompany my son.  There was a noticeable pause, and then came the reply, "Ok, take care of your son."

My Blackberry also experienced an unusual delay in receiving and sending emails the next day, and also over the weekend, which I subsequently understood was because IT was doing a complete backup of my files.

On Sun 22 Aug, we celebrated my dad's 75th birthday with me as the Master of Ceremonies.  It was a most joyous and momentous occasion, and I got feedback from guests that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Early on Mon 23 Aug 2010 (which was my dad's actual 75th birthday), I got a call from L to go up to her room.   There she was, seated together with D, the then-President of Asia.  D showed me a paragraph in my employment contract where they could dismiss me "without cause" by paying me the relevant compensation.  Rather than being terminated, I requested if I could resign instead, which they agreed, to their credit. I hand-wrote out my resignation letter, signed it and returned my staff pass and Blackberry.  By 8:45am, I had left the building, without even being able to say goodbye to my staff.

Coming back to God's perfect timing.  If not for my son's day surgery, I would have gone into the office on Fri 20 Aug and received my marching orders that same morning.  It would have severely dampened my mood, and also affected the celebration of my dad's birthday on Sun 22 Aug.  God, in His sovereignty, had orchestrated the timing of events such that the negative impact would be minimised.

My wife knew about the deteriorating situation in the office, so it came as no surprise when I told her about what had just happened.  It was more of how to break the news to our 14-year-old daughter and 13-year old son, who were then in Sec 2 and Sec 1 respectively.

That evening, we called the kids into our room, and my wife told them, "Kiddos, Daddy has something important to tell you."  My girl asked innocently, "Oh no, are you pregnant? Are we going to have another brother or sister?"  That remark actually helped lighten the mood, and reduce the tension that was building up.

"No lah!  We have closed factory already.  What has happened is that Daddy is no longer working in that company in the CBD area."  They actually looked relieved to hear this!  To them, having a younger sibling was of more concern than their dad being out of a job.  Again, I see God's mercy and even His sense of humour.

To Walton's credit, my separation package was rather generous, and it could last me for a good 6 months.  I was in-between jobs from 23 Aug 2010 until 28 Feb 2011.  I did send out applications and attended a handful of interviews, but there were no job offers.

(8) Goh Boon Kok & Co. (Mar to Nov 2011)

I joined my dad's Lions Club friend's audit firm Goh Boon Kok & Co ("GBK") on 1 March 2011.  For that I have to thank my mom, the string-pulling extraordinaire, who was the one to reach out to him.  I had told her to give me some time to find a job on my own.  If nothing materialised by CNY 2011, I would then agree to let her help me out.

Mr Goh was well into his 70s, and was looking for someone to hand over the business to, in due course.  He offered me a partner role in his firm, upon my obtaining the relevant clearance from ACRA.  That is his email to me shown on the right.

To cut a long story short, after 6 months into the job and clearing probation, that partnership offer did not materialise.  It turned out that Mrs Goh was the one wearing the pants in the office, and she did not consider me to be fit-for-purpose.

In retrospect, going back into audit was actually God's way of equipping me with the relevant domain knowledge, so that I could return to Walton to help the Hong Kong entity avoid getting any more adverse audit opinions. More details of that in the next post.

When I was in PW in the early 1990s, I recall auditing a client and ensuring that the shares it had bought were correctly carried at historical cost, except when there was a permanent diminution in the value of those shares, in compliance with Statement of Accounting Standard ("SAS") 25, Accounting for Investments. 

Well, twenty years later, while at GBK in 2011, I discovered that such investments had to be marked-to-market (ie. carried at fair value), in compliance with FRS 39, Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement .  It was only then I realised I had really lost touch with the proper accounting treatments, and so it was like going back to school and attending refresher lessons (while on the job, and being paid to do so, haha).

In the next post, I will share about how God caused the door at GBK to shut, and the door at Walton to miraculously re-open.  I re-joined Walton in December 2011, despite the conventional wisdom that a good horse should not turn back to eat the grass behind him.  If even Steve Jobs swallowed his pride and went back for a second bite of the Apple, despite being fired by them, so why not yours truly, right? :-)

How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 5)

Saturday, 3rd October 2026

PART 5: THE SERIAL JOB-HOPPER FINALLY STOPS HOPPING

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was kind of a serial job-hopper, never staying at a single job for long.  Shown below is the list of my employers:

• Price Waterhouse: 3 years and 5 months
• Singapore Island Country Club: 2 years and 8 months
• Solomon Software/Standard & Western Consultants: 1 year 7 months
• Automatic Identification Technology: 1 year
• PwC/OutsourceCentre/Tricor: 4 years and 10 months
• Infineon Technologies: 3 years and 2 months
• Walton Asia: 10 years and 4 months
• Goh Boon Kok & Co : 9 months
• Resources Prima Limited: 7.5 months
• Akeraios Phronesis: since July 2022

The only place I stayed at for more than 10 years was at Walton, and even then it was over 2 stints.

So why did I not stay long in the other organisations?

PW - Project Stepping Stone

Like 80% of my cohort, joining an audit firm is just a stepping stone for graduates to gain experience.  Those who stay on have a passion for the type of work and have the potential to make partnership.  From my batch of 60 who joined legacy PW in 1991, only 4 made it all the way to the top:  TBN, KML, KSE and RK.  I myself only stayed for only 3+ years, because my ambition was to get an MBA, specialising in IT.

SICC - Project MBA

Moving into internal audit was natural, but I was more interested in furthering my studies. Working in a country club meant not needing to do any overtime, and being able to attend evening classes regularly.  I left, after just 2+ years, armed with the MBA from NTU.

S&W / AIT - Project Y2K

I was at Standard & Western for 1 year and 7 months, and then got headhunted to join AIT.  S&W's biggest client took me a month to roll-out, solo.  AIT's client took a team of 6 of us a total of 8 months to roll-out.

PwC/OCPL/Tricor - Project Lousy Staff

I was 2 months shy of working there for 5 years, bur I had started my job search for a good six months before leaving, having sent more than 100 job applications and attending more than a dozen interviews. 

Infineon: Project Launching Pad

Infineon was the first job which involved handling an internal set of financials. Prior to that, it was either looking at the financials prepared by others, or dong the financials for others.  After 3 years, I was ready to take on the role of an FC ("Financial Controller").

Walton: Project Stop-The-Hop

(7) Walton SG and HK (Apr 2008 to Aug 2010 / (9) Walton Asia (Dec 2011 to Oct 2019)

It was at Walton when the hopping finally stopped. This was the only company I stayed long enough to receive any sort of long service award ("LSA").

In fact, I received 2 of them, in 2017 for serving 5 continuous years, and then again in following year in 2018, when a change in HR policy allowed for the TOTAL number of years of service to be recognised and counted altogether, rather than the need for it to be continuous. 

I joined the Canadian MNC on 1 April 2008 as the FC for Singapore.  There was an FC in Malaysia and an FC in Hong Kong too, and the 3 of us reported to the CFO Asia, based in Singapore.

It was at Walton that my monthly salary finally exceeded five figures a month.  At one point, it even exceeded what my dad was earning as a medical doctor.

In 2008, Singapore had nearly 100 admin staff, of which 19 of us were in Finance.  Here is a photo taken during Christmas that year.

Malaysia had 20 Finance staff and Hong Kong had about 10.  So the Asia finance team had a total headcount of around 50.

In 2010, the Hong Kong FC quit, and my role was expanded to become FC of Singapore AND Hong Kong.

In 2013, the Malaysia physical office was closed, but still had 3 live entities (Walton Berhad, Walton Property Holdings Sdn Bhd and Walton International Property Group Sdn Bhd), so my role was further expanded to become Regional FC, Asia.  That name card is the one shown here.

By the time I had left in October 2019, the Singapore office had less than 20 admin staff, with only 4 of us remaining in Finance.  I understand that the Finance function is now operating out of the Philippines.

I mentioned in earlier posts that I had the greatest boss in Tricor, and wonderful colleagues in Infineon. 

Well, it was at Walton that I had the most dedicated, self-motivated and reliable staff.  They did their work diligently and responsibly, so I could focus on just managing upwards.

Here is a photo of my department taken of us celebrating National Day in August 2013.

There were 10 of us left at that point in time, and I was the only thorn among the roses :-p

In subsequent posts, I will blog about the 2 jobs that I stayed at for less than a year each.  The first involved me being promised a job as an audit partner, but the decision-maker did not consider me suitable.  

The second involved me becoming the CFO of a listco, but my dad suffered a stroke, and I resigned to spend more time with him.

How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 4)

Thursday, 1st October 2026

PART 4: FROM EXTERNAL TO INTERNAL

In my previous post, I blogged about the period of time when I worked under a great boss.

Now let me move on to the time when I had the most wonderful of colleagues.

(6) Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific Pte Ltd (Jan 2005 to Feb 2008)

On 2 January 2005, I joined a German semiconductor company called Infineon Technologies on a one-year contract.  My salary was actually paid not by Infineon but via Recruit Express, a recruitment and placement agency.

My primary role as a Manager was to assist my boss with the documentation of processes, which was part of SOX-compliance requirements.  (Back then, Infineon was listed on NYSE and thus subjected to SOX audit).

I was to go around the office to interview various Finance colleagues on how they carried out their day-to-day work (fixed assets, accounts payable, general ledger, period-end closing, etc), document the work via flow charts and supporting narrations, identify and highlight what the key controls at each stage were, put everything together in a draft Word document, and then send the draft over to my boss for her review and refinements.

After several iterations, the finalised version would then be sent to the centralised SOX team to be "published" in PDF format, to be in time for KPMG, the external auditors, to look at and test as part of their SOX audit.

The above was thus supposed to be a one-off "project" and that was how my boss managed to get the approval of her boss, the CFO, for a 1-year contract headcount.  The email address given to me was malcolm.loh.external@infineon.com.  That "external" suffix was what IT used to distinguish internal employee headcount from those that were hired on a contractual basis.

But God, of course, had higher and greater plans for me.  The Head of Shared Accounting Services resigned some time in March 2005 after less than 6 months in the role.  The one before her had also resigned within a year of joining.  My boss had to find a replacement and it would take considerable time to recruit from outside the organisation.

I was called into the CFO's office and the vacancy was offered to me.  I recall the CFO telling me that it was a "hot seat" and to take some time to consider, afraid that I too would quit soon after.

Well, I did not need any form of hesitation.  My answer was an immediate "yes, thank you so very much!"  Not only was this a permanent position, it was a promotion, from Manager to Senior Manager.  The paycut I had taken when I left Tricor was not just restored, but much more -- there was even an increment to boot.  It was truly a miracle that only God could perform! Hallelujah!

And so on 15 April 2005, I moved from being an external of the organisation to an internal of it.  My email address was shortened to just malcolm.loh@infineon.com :-)

It was a win for Infineon too.  Their 1-year contractual arrangement with Recruit Express was shortened to just 3½ months, they found a stable replacement to sit in that "hot seat" for a good 3 years, paid the same amount to me as they did my predecessor, but with the additional bonus of me continuing with the SOX documentation I was initially hired to do.

I came across my Infineon name card while doing the recent decluttering, and I cannot but remember with gratitude how God orchestrated everything behind the scenes.

Truth be told, my wife and I had been praying in agreement together in the car on the way to work (something that we still do till this very day), calling for things that were not as though they were, that I had a good-paying, stable, permanent job and it came to pass in just 3 months.

It was also in Infineon that I was first introduced to the grace gospel by a colleague, Victor Poh, who attends New Creation Church, and would leave Ps Prince's CD sermons in the common pantry for anyone to borrow.   A shout-out to you, Victor!  Continue to be a vessel for His glory!

You can read more about that testimony here:

My Journey of Grace Through Faith

Ok, back to the point about having the best colleagues.  I had initially joined as a standalone staff and had to interact with colleagues from asset accounting, accounts payable, general ledger, etc.  After I took on the permanent job as Head of Shared Accounting Services, many of these "colleagues" became my "staff", but I treated them more like peers, and requested them to treat me likewise.

Our office was located in Kallang, parking was free for staff, so a good number of us drove to work.  I had upgraded from a Mitsubishi Lancer to a 7-seater Mitsubishi Grandis, so we would all go out to lunch together to nearby McPherson or Toa Payoh.  One time, we even travelled all the way to Changi Airport! Those were good times indeed :-)

The previous post was about a great boss.  This one is about wonderful colleagues. The next one will be about reliable and dependable staff, so stay tuned! 

How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 3)

Wednesday, 30th September 2026

PART 3: THE GREAT BOSS (AND THE NOT-SO-GREAT STAFF)

As I look back fondly upon my time in the corporate world, I have had various bosses, colleagues and staff.

Among my bosses, the one whom I admire the most has got to be Mr HLG.

He is a typical businessman who has this uncanny ability to see opportunity when everyone else sees adversity.  People see the problem, he sees the solution.  I will give you 2 very concrete examples, so read on.

(5) PricewaterhouseCoopers / Tricor Business Outsourcing (Mar 2000 to Dec 2004)

When I initially rejoined PwC in March 2000, we were operating as a department within the firm's structure.  Due to a series of regulatory changes that accounting firms worldwide had to comply with (as a result of Enron's collapse, and then SOX), we subsequently had to operate under separate legal entities, wholly-owned by the local PwC partnership, and finally had to be totally independent of PwC when the entire business was divested to Bank of East Asia, and rebranded as Tricor Singapore.

Mr HLG oversaw three lines of businesses: accounting/payroll outsourcing, corporate secretarial and share registration.  These became OutsourceCentre, Evatthouse and Barbinder respectively.

(He actually oversaw a fourth -- Global Human Resource Solutions, a fancy name for executive search -- but that is not relevant to my post).

I could not locate my PwC name card, but thankfully found one when we were operating as OutsourceCentre.  Notice how they retained the font and corporate colours of PwC.  

For the life of me, I cannot remember if I ever carried a Tricor name card. 

During my initial week, I recall being shocked by the fee numbers I saw: not at how high they were, but how low they were!  As an auditor in PW, I was used to seeing clients being billed five- (ie. $10K+) or even six-figure (ie. $100K+) amounts.

At SICC, the horizon stretched exponentially.  The Club had cash reserves that stood in the mid-nine figures (ie. $500M+), and had placed seven-figure (ie. $M+) funds each with a handful of asset management companies.

When working in Solomon's SW as a post-sales consultant, one of our customers was a major cigarette distributor.  During my training sessions with a particular user, he would perform daily transfers from the non-bonded warehouse to the bonded warehouse, and pay Singapore Customs the corresponding tobacco duty amounting to several million dollars each time.

Well, guess what the monthly accounting and payroll business processing outsourcing ("BPO") fees were like? Typically three, at most four figures!  Mr HLG then explained to me that it was a volume game, a classic case of "little drops of water making a mighty ocean".  

Unlike in audit, where each manager had maybe two dozen or so clients in his portfolio,  it was not unusual for BPO managers to handle close to a hundred clients, while those in corporate secretarial services had hundreds of them.  If each client's annual fees totalled say $10K, each manager would typically be handling an annual portfolio of $1M!

When meeting a potential or existing client, Mr HLG would park his 7-series BMW some distance away and walk to the entrance of the building.  Unlike real estate or insurance agents who had to show off to their clients how successful they were in order to gain their trust, Mr HLG said the reverse held true for clients who wanted to outsource their accounting or payroll function.  They tended to be cost-conscious to begin with, so had they seen that he could afford to drive a fancy car, they would have thought he was earning too much and would bargain down their fees!

I remember being told by a colleague how the PwC partners were very grateful to him because he had made the department the most profitable one for them.  When we became a separate legal entity, the dividends declared after tax were distributed to them individually without being subject to further tax.  And when we were subsequently sold off to Bank of East Asia, they each pocketed a tidy sum from the sale.

Audit may be a Big Four's core, high-profile business, while deals and advisory may be the one with the highest margins, but the former requires highly-qualified (and thus expensive) staff, while the latter is non-recurring in nature  It is the outsourcing business that has the best of both worlds: steady, repeated, volume-driven, low-risk, and scaleable income, requiring just a handful of qualified management staff but the rank-and-file work could be carried out by those with diplomas or less.

The firm also had a policy that partners had to retire at 57 (now increased to 60) to make way for younger blood.  While most of Mr HLG's peers had to leave their lucrative jobs, he remained gainfully (and gleefully) employed as the Managing Director of Tricor, and only recently retired, when he was well into his 70s.

OK, let's talk about the 2 cases which showed how shrewd, resourceful and enterprising Mr HLG was.

CLOBbered

Some of you out there may be aware that Malaysian shares used to be tradable over-the-counter in Singapore under what was known as "CLOB" (Central Limit Order Book).  The then-PM of Malaysia Dr Mahatir was unhappy that Singapore brokerages and Stock Exchange were earning the commissions and clearing fees on the trading of these shares, at the expense of those from his own country.  On 16 September 1998, he imposed a ban on the offshore trading of Malaysian shares, effectively causing 172,000 investors to be stuck with shares worth RM17 billion.

These investors were kept in limbo until March 2000, when a company called ECSB was appointed to carry out the "migration" of these shares from Singapore's Central Depository ("CDP") to Malaysia's Central Depository ("MCD").  ECSB charged investors an admin fee of 1.5%, effectively pocketing RM300 million.  Mr HLG, via PwC's then share registration arm Barbinder, assisted ECSB with the massive paperwork, for which I understand the fee involved was a cool seven-figure sum. 

What others saw as dogsbody "sai kang" work, having to deal with the forms of some 163,000 disgruntled investors who had to reluctantly part with 1.5% worth of their stock portfolio, Mr HLG saw as an opportunity to assist them in bringing their 18-month wait to an end. 

Oh ya, 163,000 of the 172,000 investors accepted ECSB's offer. Our $2.5M fee worked out to be about $15 per investor, which was definitely a bargain to them. But this fee was the equivalent of an entire year's worth of fees from several hundred other clients added together.

Monday Blues

The regulatory changes imposed upon audit firms post-Enron also required them to divest of their management consulting practice.  Prior to finding a buyer in IBM, PwC had wanted to spin it off via an IPO calling it Monday (I kid you not!).

When conducting a due diligence sometime in 2002, IBM discovered to its horror that the PwC Consulting ("PwCC") entities in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and the Philippines (collectively known as "EAMCS") had inadvertently omitted to withhold the relevant tax when billing each other for their staff who were performing regional work in one another's countries.

For example, let's say a PwCC Singapore staff who was implementing Oracle for client XYZ Group had to travel physically to XYZ Thailand to carry out work over there.  Whatever fees that were billed by PwCC Singapore to PwCC Thailand for work carried out in Thailand itself would be considered as Thailand-sourced income and thus subjected to Thailand's withholding tax, and vice versa.

To cut a long story short, everywhere else around the world, IBM acquired the entire PwCC entity lock, stock and barrel (ie via a "share sale"), but in this part of the world, they only bought over the individual balance sheet items that passed muster (ie. via a "net asset" sale), leaving behind the EAMCS entities and with it, the problematic balance sheet items such as tax liabilities.

Once again, what others saw as "sai kang", Mr HLG saw as an opportunity to do a proper clean up of the said entities, record the relevant withholding taxes, pay them together with whatever late penalties were imposed, and ultimately have them wound them, all at a reasonable fee, of course.  From the proceeds of the US$3.5B sale to IBM, PwC Global set aside a sufficient sum for this dogsbody work, and the said EAMCS entities took a good three to five years to be finally put to bed.  If one uses a conservative estimate of just S$20,000 per month for the work done, the total fee over the length of the project must have been quite substantial :p

I am very conversant with the above-mentioned cases because I had the awesome privilege of being personally involved in both of them.

While Mr HLG appears to be rather task-oriented to most people, he has a compassionate side to him as well.  When he learnt that my son had to start peritoneal dialysis in September 2000, he spoke with the partner of Baxter Healthcare (which was also a PwC client then) and through a series of connections, we were given the staff (ie. discounted) price on the monthly supply of bags of dialysate fluids.  This continued all the way for the next 8 years, until he got his transplanted kidney on 10 April 2008.

Mr HLG also confirmed me way ahead of my 6-month probation period, so that he could intentionally include me in the nominal roll of staff entitled to receive the bonus payout for the financial year ended 30 June 2000, and he did not even prorate the amount, even though I only joined in March that very year!

When he wanted to join SICC sometime in 2003, he got me to be one of his proposers.  A photo of the two of us was featured in the Club's magazine (the largest one, because my ex-colleague John, the graphic designer, made sure of that haha).

It was taken at Introduction Night, when new members are officially welcomed by the General Committee. 

Well, if he was such a great boss to you, why did you quit in December 2004 to join a German semiconductor company, on a one-year contract basis, some of you may ask.  

The short answer to that is I was not a great staff to him.  He must have aged 10 years during my 58-month tenure under him :-(

In particular, the PwCC project faced a lot of unnecessary hiccups.  We required the assistance of PwC-related colleagues from the other regional offices, but they were not in any hurry to complete their share of the work, to put it nicely.  Their fees were time-based, so it was to their ironical advantage to be inefficient and to continue dragging their feet.  I was not task-oriented enough of a project manager, to the chagrin of Mr HLG.  He had to resort to micro-managing me, insisting that I give him a daily status update in person every morning before heading out to the client's place in Ngee Ann City.

Although increasingly frustrated with me, to his credit, he did not sack me but allowed me sufficient time to look for another job, bless his heart.

Well, God causes all things to work out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  It was at that German MNC that I was first introduced to the gospel of grace.  More details in the next post :-)

How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 2)

Tuesday, 29th September 2026

PART 2: THE CON-JOB OF THE CENTURY

In the 1980s and 1990s, the world had started to move away from manual, handwritten or typewritten records and started to adopt increasing levels of computerisation.  As an undergraduate in the late 1980s, we learnt WordStar/WordPerfect for word-processing documents like articles and letters, Lotus 123 for spreadsheets and Harvard Graphics for storyboards and presentations. (Of course, Microsoft would come along with its suite of Office products Word, Excel and Powerpoint, effectively making obsolete the aforementioned).

But computers were then relatively expensive. I recall as a PW auditor in the early 1990s that we had to share portable Compaq laptops, which cost close to $5,000 each.  Data storage was also a premium.  A 100MB hard-disk drive was considered "high-end" back then!

To save on space, computer software programmers would store the calendar year as two digits, such as 85 or 92, rather than 1985 or 1992, the century being something that was understood and thus taken for granted.

But as the millennium approached, there was a fear that these legacy systems would crash if the year was stored as 00.  In conjunction with this, many small and medium-sized companies were using obsolete DOS-based, standalone, accounting software, and migrating to a Windows-based software where data could be imported from and exported to Excel spreadsheets made business sense.

At the higher-end of the spectrum, there were expensive enterprise-wide solutions like SAP and Oracle, which typically took more than a year to implement.  At the lower-end, there were AccPac and MYOB, which could be used practically off-the-shelf with no customisation.

In between these 2 extremes was what was known as mid-market software, which allowed for some level of customisation, and implementation would take perhaps a week up to several months.

Which leads me to the topic of today's post: the stage of my career when I became an accounting software consultant (or what cynics would refer to as a CON-sultant).

Armed with a fresh MBA from NTU specialising in Information Technology, I entered the world where both (accounting + IT) sets of skills were required.  It was an exciting (for me) and lucrative (for my bosses) time to be in that particular space because of the abovementioned doomsday bug.

(3) Solomon Software / Standard & Western Consultants (Aug 1997 to Feb 1999)

I joined a company in that mid-market space called Solomon Software and had to sit for and pass several exams (which was the requirement to pass probation).

By God's grace, I receiving the relevant certifications (Solomon Certified Professional and Microsoft Certified Professional) relatively quickly, and was seconded over to its sister company, Standard & Western Consultants (SW) to help with pre-sales demos and post-sales implementation of the said software.  

I cannot seem to locate my Solomon name card but thankfully managed to find my SW one.  I also found my MCP card.

I was initially recruited to join Solomon as a member of its back-end, after-sales, technical support team, but the big boss found me more suitable for a client-facing role.

That suited me fine because besides the fixed salary package that he paid me, he added a commission component on top of it: 5% of any add-on services that the client purchased to be rendered, such as implementation, training or the customisation of reports.  When the customer paid for the said service, 5% of it would be paid to me.

Besides Solomon Software, other players in the mid-market space then were Great Plains ("GP") , Navision ("NV") and Axapta ("AX").  What is interesting is that all these software companies were subsequently bought over by Microsoft and became part of Microsoft Dynamics (SL, GP, NV and AX respectively).

(4) Automatic Identification Technology (Mar 1999 to Feb 2000)

Another such software was Platinum (which then became Epicor).  Sometime in January 1999, I was head-hunted to join a Platinum-reseller called Automatic Identification Technology ("AIT").  I served a month's notice to S&W, and joined AIT on 1 March 1999.  

Just a day later, on 2 March 1999, Ngee Ann Poly ("NP") offered me to join them as a Lecturer in their Business Studies department!  While de-cluterring recently, I came across NP's offer letter.  Oh well...

Regrettably, I had to decline it, as I had to be fair to my boss, Adrian.  He had actually personally come all the way to my house on Hari Raya Puasa (19 January 1999) with the employment contract in hand.  

Adrian had specifically recruited me to be the principal consultant for (and to project manage) a customer who was about to sign a six-figure sum contract to have Platinum/Epicor implemented by the end of 1999.  I could not leave him in the lurch.  The project kicked off sometime in April 1999 and we had it successfully rolled out in November 1999.

To cut a long story short, I stayed on in AIT and even stood by on the night of 31 December 1999 into the wee hours of 1 January 2000 to ensure that the software did not crash :P

Well, the clock ticked into 2000 and it was very much business as usual all over the world.  In fact, many have termed Y2K to be the biggest non-event, the Y2K bug to be the biggest con-job of the century,  and we consultants, the biggest con-artists ever.

To be fair, it did not take long for businesses to realise this.  In the months leading up to the end of the millennium, our office phones were ringing off the hook, requesting software demos practically every other day.  In the month of January 2000, we were staring at one another across our desks, doing what Hokkiens would term as "catching mosquitoes".  By then, companies that had wanted to upgrade their software would have already done so,  while those who took the risk of not doing so, would continue not to do so.

I knew my days of being an accounting software consultant were numbered and it was time to move on, and so I did.  

On a Saturday in January 2020, I saw an ad in the Straits Times that the newly-merged PricewaterhouseCoopers was looking for a Manager to join their Accounting Services department, and quickly wrote in to apply for it.  And yup, I put Mrs Wendy Foo (who else) as my referee.

It also helped that Mr HLG, the one who interviewed me, knew of me back during my PW auditor days.  In particular, when I was seconded to PW's CIS audit department in 1993, I had done some documentation work on NOL's container/cargo tracking and management system that helped to provide assurance on its reliability, for which Mr HLG was very grateful for.

I found out subsequently that Mr HLG was on very good terms with Ron, Wendy's wife.  They were regular golfing kakis. 

Yup, all part of God's orchestration :-)

I came across the PwC offer letter while de-cluttering.

I left AIT on 28 February 2000 to join PwC the very next day.  I did not need to take a vacation in between; the lack of work to do in the office in the month of February 2000 was akin to one.

Oh ya, since we are on the topic of identity, I was told by a colleague that Adrian had started AIT by selling barcode-scanning solutions, ie. "technology" that could "automatically" perform "identification" haha. 

I also left with his blessings because he, more than anyone, could see that the consulting business had slowed down considerably, and I was helping him to save on payroll costs haha.

The software consulting chapter of my career had thus come to a natural end, and I was stepping into the world of another emerging trend, what was known as BPO (business process outsourcing).  Stay tuned for the next post!