January 2008 - Keppel Corporation

32 People
Keppelites Abroad
Fresh start in Tianjin
At 26, Yeo Hwee Pey is
perhaps among the youngest
Keppelites to venture on an
overseas posting.
After a little over three
years with Keppel Land’s
Regional Investments team in
Singapore, the gutsy young
lady decided to uproot
herself to take on new
challenges in the belly of
China’s rising second-tier city,
Tianjin.
“Having accumulated some
work experience at
headquarters (Keppel Land),
I hoped to gain more handson
experience and exposure
from an overseas posting, so
when William Tan, my
mentor under the Regional
Investments Young Managers’
Programme mentioned that
he was looking for additional
manpower for the North
China team, I grabbed the
opportunity!” she says.
Just a month into her
posting, Hwee Pey is slowly
settling into her new role
in business development,
which includes identifying
and evaluating new real
estate opportunities as well
as securing new deals,
among others.
New as she is to the City, she
observes that there are many
people, Singaporeans for
that matter, who have yet to
hear of Tianjin.
“Compared to the big cities
like Shanghai and Beijing,
Tianjin seems more ‘ulu’
(rural) so they wonder if there
are modern amenities here.
“In reality, there is a lot of
buzz about Tianjin. It receives
significant political and
media attention and is
geared to be the next hot
spot following Shenzhen and
Shanghai,” she explains
passionately.
Yet, Hwee Pey readily admits
that it was tough at first to
leave behind the comfort of
home. “In Singapore, we are
used to a certain way of
doing things, there’s a sense
of familiarity; you know what
to expect and how to react.
“One could afford to be
passive in such an insulated
environment, but once in a
new place, I had to stop
making comparisons to
home and take the extra step
to start asking questions and
figuring out how things work
here in Tianjin,” she says.
But thanks to her warm,
understanding colleagues,
including those from
Keppel Corporation’s
Tianjin representative office
and Keppel Integrated
Yeo Hwee Pey makes bold strides into Tianjin
Engineering who are just
around the bend, Hwee Pey
is never alone.
“Interacting with them has
been fun. Many of them
have never visited Singapore
and are eager to find out
more. They find it strange
that we don’t have the four
seasons back home!” she
muses.
To Hwee Pey, her China
posting is a natural
progression from her previous
work at Keppel Land’s
headquarters. She reckons
that she will be able to put
what she has learnt over the
past few years into good use.
During her two-year stint
in Tianjin, Hwee Pey also
hopes to embark on greater
adventures, seeing a chance
to discover more about
herself.
“I want to be right here in
the thick of action to build
up my business development
skills. Before my commitments
grow as I get older, I wanted
to have a taste of life out there
on my own and to stretch my
limits, to see how far I can go,”
she says. keppelite
Keppelite I January 2008