CPAs got talent - Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants

Work-life balance
22 September 2012
CPAs
GOT
TALENT
The Institute’s versatile young members
are not only starring in the profession,
they are excelling outside it too with their
various talents. Akua Achampong and
Jemelyn Yadao report

PHOTO: CRYSTAL FUNG
Calvin Tse,
CPA and restaurateur
September 2012 23

Work-life balance
PHOTO: CRYSTAL FUNG
hen Calvin
Tse decided
to open a restaurant,
he was
prompted by his
love of authentic
tacos and tortillas.
“I have a passion for food – Mexican food.
But there was no good, reasonably priced
Mexican food in Hong Kong,” says Tse, cofounder
of Mr. Taco Truck.
Since the opening of his first restaurant,
Tse, who is a member of the Hong Kong Institute
of CPAs, has been planning to drive Mr.
Taco Truck all over Hong Kong and China by
setting up more branches. “My dream is to
make it a household brand in Asia,” he says.
With CPAs in Hong Kong working such
long hours, achieving a good work-life balance
can be difficult. But Tse, like many other
CPAs, is finding that when he makes the
time to pursue outside interests – with the diverse
skills and can-do attitude he develops
as a CPA – he is excelling.
Tse has even turned his interests into a
24 September 2012
Maria Tsang
Audit partner
RSM Nelson Wheeler
business venture.
“I started from zero and learned everything
myself. I worked in all areas of the
kitchen and got used to everything after almost
a year,” says Tse.
“ I started from
zero and learned
everything myself.
I worked in all
areas of the kitchen
and got used to
everything after
almost a year.”
Tse, who used to be an assistant manager
at KPMG, has no qualms about eschewing
the clear career path offered by a Big Four
firm.
“I quite enjoyed working in KPMG and
I’m still young. Even if I fail in my new business,
I think I still have time to catch up in
Jonathan Chow,
CPA and guitarist
my profession... I’m just 29,” Tse says, who
is also director of his own accounting firm,
Hammerway Accounting Services.
After setting up his firm, Tse and his restaurant
partners, Vivian Wong and Eligio
Escobedo, opened up the first Mr. Taco Truck
in Quarry Bay in 2010. This year they opened
their second branch in Lan Kwai Fong.
Tse’s transition from working with financial
services clients to working in the kitchen
was not without obstacles.
“It’s quite risky to start a business and give
up a steady Big Four job. I was new to this
area and worried about my background and
expertise,” says Tse.
He encountered a list of problems during
the restaurant’s first year, including the
minimum wage, food inflation and rent,
which rose by 50 percent after the first contract.
“It’s been interesting and challenging,”
he says.
He is unfazed with having to juggle two
eateries as well as his accounting practice.
His accounting firm, he explains, is manageable,
allowing him to focus mainly on the

estaurants. “The business in Quarry Bay is
stable. For the one in Central, we still need
to put a lot of effort in the area of marketing,
sales, recruitment and everything.”
The difficult task, he says, is choosing
which job he likes the most. “I enjoy being
in both,” he says. The key to good juggling,
he adds, is timing. “I think the amount of responsibility
is the same in both businesses, so
having good time management helps.”
Musically linked
Jonathan Chow spends weekdays after work
with his bandmates, thrumming the guitars
he owns.
His band, the United Zhejiang New Voice,
was founded by the United Zhejiang Residents
Association, a community group. The
musicians, all association members, perform
live, with Chow as the guitarist, and play
mainly Cantonese and Mandarin pop songs.
“ We played a lot of
rock songs until a
new member joined
us in sixth form as
a drummer, whose
dad is Stewart
Copeland, the
drummer of The
Police.”
“A month before the show, we will practise
on Saturdays and Sundays for three
hours. The week before our performance,
we will practice during the weekdays after
work,” says Chow, an assurance manager at
PricewaterhouseCoopers and an Institute
member. “Sometimes I go back to my office
after practice and then work until after midnight.”
Chow has been strumming since he was
a 13-year-old student studying in the United
Kingdom. It was there he formed his previous
band, meeting a well-connected drummer
along the way.
“We played a lot of rock songs until a
new member joined us in sixth form as a
drummer, whose dad is Stewart Copeland,
the drummer of The Police [the rock band
formed in London in the 1970s].
“He gave us some new inspiration, based
not purely on rock or pop; there were also
some jazz elements in there. Our music
changed substantially from then on,” he says.
Chow’s interest in performing in a band
remains solid despite his full time job. His
band, which has performed at celebration
dinners run by the association, plan to play at
homes for the elderly during Christmas and
Chinese New Year.
“Elderly people have made valuable contributions
to Hong Kong, I think they deserve
more attention.”
Chow, who aims to become a partner at
PHOTO: CRYSTAL FUNG
PwC, intends to keep his role at the accounting
firm as his priority. “The music industry
in Hong Kong is quite tough, you need to
have luck and the right connections. I’m happy
to be focused on my current profession as
an accountant.”
But the perks of being in a band, and his
appreciation of swooning audiences, keep
him playing. “I get satisfaction from positive
comments of the audience and making their
night a memorable and enjoyable one.”
Shirley Cheng,
CPA and painter
September 2012 25

Work-life balance
Brushing off stress
For Shirley Cheng, finance manager of the
Hong Kong Arts Development Council and
an Institute member, being able to maintain
“ It’s like practising
qi gong. When I
concentrate my
attention, all other
things are out of
mind and I become
peaceful.”
a hobby while having a demanding job is
down to personality.
“I’m the type of person who, after work,
has to put work out of my mind completely.
I really concentrate on my leisure time so I
can feel relaxed and I enjoy it,” she says. “You
can’t go out and have fun and still have work
in your mind.”
Cheng practised drawing and watercolour
painting until the age of 16. She then
reacquainted herself with paintbrushes after
obtaining her CPA qualification and a
26 September 2012
master’s degree in business administration.
Working with the Hong Kong-born international
painter and writer Chui Tze-hung,
who she met through a family friend, she
has been practising Chinese ink painting for
more than five years.
“Chui is so different from any other traditional
Chinese ink painting masters,” she
says of her teacher. “He doesn’t just teach me
all brush methods, he also teaches me how to
take photos. He took me out to Yunnan and
Tibet. After coming back from Tibet, I was
inspired.”
Cheng has built a portfolio of ink paintings
based on the scenic views of Tibet and its
mountains. Intent on cutting out work stress,
she compares painting to a form of meditation.
“It’s like practising qi gong. When I
concentrate my attention [on painting], all
other things are out of my mind and I become
peaceful. It is very helpful in releasing the
pressures of work,” she says.
Cheng says that her role at the council and
seeing the work of other artists has played a
significant part in inspiring her to pursue her
artistic talent.
“ I want to be a professional artist after my
retirement. I am working hard to practise the
Simon Yeung
CPA and wedding photographer
techniques so that I can one day sell my artwork,”
she says.
Weekend shutterbug
Like Cheng, Simon Yeung is a fan of nature’s
beauty – it is what inspired him to take up
photography. “The views I saw while hiking
were very beautiful so I bought a camera. I
then started buying better quality models,”
he says.
“ One of my friends
invited me to
be a wedding
photographer for
his wedding…
Since then it’s
been, ‘Hi Simon,
I want you as my
photographer.’ ”
But it was at a wedding that he discovered
a second job. “One of my friends invited me
to be a wedding photographer for his wed-

Work-life balance
Rio Lam,
CPA and adventure sportsman
28 September 2012
PHOTO: ACTION ASIA FOUNDATION

ding… Since then it’s been, ‘Hi Simon, I want
you as my photographer.’ ”
As finance manager at a Hong Kong-listed
company, Yeung works up to 12 hours on a
weekday. With his wedding photography
requiring him to manage two to three other
photographers and videographers, as well
as wedding couples, the weekends look just
as full. “Now it’s peak season, I’ve got eight
[photography] jobs and I’m very busy during
weekends meeting couples. I think I will go
crazy soon,” Yeung says with a laugh.
Yeung, an Institute member, admits that
juggling his role as an accountant with his
role as a photographer can be hard. “My wife
always complains that I don’t spend enough
time with her. I will go home after dinner, but
during the whole week it seems like I can’t
stop,” he says.
However, he says he enjoys both roles too
much to quit the double life. “I really love
being a photographer. The couples love my
pictures. Since I’m a married man, I know the
details of a wedding, which the couples who
are getting married find helpful.
“I don’t want to turn my hobby into a career
though. As a freelance photographer,
if the couples want me to do a non-stop job
from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., I can turn it down,”
he adds.
Iron man
Rio Lam finds his hobby – and the in-it-towin-it
attitude it demands – to be beneficial
to his role as a principal at BDO. “With
a healthy lifestyle you can perform better at
Connecting young members
Some of the most active Institute members — inside and
outside working hours — are young CPAs. And since
2011, they have had their own group.
The Institute’s 25.35 group provides activities and services
for young members from 25 to 35 years of age. It aims to
establish a network of younger members to exchange views,
share experiences and discuss common topics, as well as
organize projects and events to cultivate a sense of belonging
to the Institute.
“I think nowadays society really values the opinions of
young people,” says Calvin Tse, who, as a young entrepreneur,
combines accounting with restaurant ownership.
The 29-year-old Tse joined the 25.35 group in June through
social media. “My main connection with the group is through
its Facebook page and my former university classmate who is
an active committee member of this group,” he says. The 25.35
group’s Facebook page has more than 1,000 members.
Through the group, the Institute communicates regularly
“ You need to cross roads and mountains.
I participated once and it took me 21
hours. Both of my legs cramped seriously
and I couldn’t sleep.”
work,” he says.
But it is by no means the only driving
force behind his dedication to adventure
sports. “When you overcome challenges, you
feel satisfied. And people like me want to
participate in things like training and competitions
to keep motivated,” he says.
Lam, an Institute member, remembers a
time when teachers at school would fuel his
competitiveness by paying him particular
attention. “They would pick students who
seemed more athletic than others and put
them into different teams. I participated in
both swimming and running,” he recalls.
“When I started high school, it became a little
bit more serious.”
Out of all the competitions he’s taken part
in, including triathlon, Lam’s favourite is adventure
racing, a test of endurance in which
racers are challenged to complete a series of
activities against the clock.
“Usually, within four to eight hours, you
need to do sports like rock climbing, hiking,
swimming and so on and during the process,
you also need to answer some questions or
do some puzzles.”
When Lam is not adventure racing, he
is often running, climbing, hiking and biking
– usually in the name of charity. Such
activities pose threats to even the most avid
sportsman. “There were times when my bike
crashed and luckily I survived. We were biking
up a mountain, 3,000 metres above sea
level,” he recalls.
“The hardest thing I’ve ever done is Trailwalker,”
says Lam, referring to Oxfam’s fundraising
event that requires participants to
complete the 100-kilometre MacLehose Trail
in the New Territories within 48 hours. “You
need to cross roads and mountains. I participated
once and it took me 21 hours. Both of my
legs cramped seriously and I couldn’t sleep.”
Lam encourages fellow accountants to get
active and break out of comfort zones.
“It’s exciting to participate in things like
adventure races and Trailwalker. On the one
side you will get yourself fit and healthy; on
the other side it will help the less privileged,”
he says. “It’s a good alternative to hanging
out in Lan Kwai Fong after work.”
While mountain bike crashes and
cramped limbs might not appeal to everyone,
a good way to get started is taking part
in the Hong Kong Marathon each February.
Lam ran it this year, along with 1,126 other
Institute members.
“It was painful, I wish I had trained better.
I will perform better if I do it again.”
with young members and offers mentorship to up-and-coming
CPAs, who will be the future leaders of the Institute.
Past activities include workshops on interpersonal and
management skills, professional development seminars and
presentations from distinguished speakers such as Carlson
Tong, former chairman of KPMG China, and Anthony Wu,
chairman of the Hospital Authority.
There is also an important social component. Events have
ranged from networking cocktail parties to coffee-making
classes. This year, more than 105 members took part in the
group’s “meet the professionals” networking party and 112
members attended the Christmas party.
“I joined because, of course, my age falls within this group and
I think it’s good to have a group of people who are of similar age
to share opinions about the profession or this society,” Tse adds.
Young members – or those just young at heart – interested
in becoming involved can join the 25.35 group via Facebook:
www.facebook.com/groups/hkicpa25.35
September 2012 29