BDO International NEWS & EVENTS - bdo singapore

Meet our people….Lim Ai Leen, Audit PartnerLIM AI LEEN joined the BDOfamily in October 2002 asSenior Audit Manager and atthe beginning of this year wecongratulated her promotionto Audit Partner.As a CPA with over 10 yearsexperience in auditing andproviding business assuranceservices to a diversified portfolio of clients including listedcompanies and MNCs, Ai Leen has climbed up the ranksto Partner in comparatively record time. BDO Connectmanaged to drag her away from her team for 20 minutesto have a chat about the promotion and what makes hertick.What does the promotion mean to you?It provides me with an elevated platform, throughpartners’ meetings, to have the voices and good ideas ofthe professionals on the ground heard and implementedmore quickly.How has the promotion changed your life,professionally and personally?Nothing has really changed professionally. If I had to nameone change, it would be the bigger pool of talents I cantap into. I used to manage an audit group and work witha dedicated team of auditors. With the promotion, I cannow work with the entire audit practice and even crosspractices. I look forward to that.My personal life has not changed at all. I am still a down-toearthdaughter, mother, wife, friend, colleague and mentor.Buy me coffee and you can have my time for free!What are your plans for BDO Raffles in 2006 and thefuture?In the short-term, we have to focus on building up a criticalmass of professional resources to help us manage risks andserve our growing portfolio of clients. The other missionis to equip all our professionals with the relevant tools tocomfortably embrace changes and thrive. Such “tools”include technical knowledge and relevant skill sets, amongothers. In this fast changing accounting environment,our professionals need more sophisticated tools to helpclients manage risks. Gone are the days where auditing isjust about meeting statutory requirements.BDO CONNECTLim Ai Leen Bio-dataQualifications: CPA AustraliaInstitute of Certified PublicAccountants of SingaporeProfessionalAffiliations: Practising member of the Instituteof Certified Public Accountants ofSingaporeMember of CPA AustraliaMaritalStatus: Married to wonderful husband,Sean, with beautiful son, Marcus.Hobbies/Interests: Reading, movies, outings with sonOur counterpart in the UK, BDO Stoy Hayward, has beenvoted “Employer of the Year” and “One of the 100 BestCompanies to work for in the UK”. So our long-term plan isfor BDO Raffles to replicate this achievement in Singapore.We have started on some initiatives and I am optimisticthat we can do it.What traits would you like to see more of in the peoplewho work with you?I hope to see more of our people think out of the boxand dare to try new methods and approaches to work.Don’t misunderstand me…I am not referring to “windowdressing”! It could simply be new approaches to recruitingand retaining people, managing resources, improvingservice quality or internal work flows. If we do not leaveour comfort zone, we will forever be in the status quo andreacting to changes.Companies locally are all starting to realize the impacton their accounting and financial reporting throughthe FRS changes. How do you think BDO Raffles cancome in to help them (the businesses)?We can definitely help the companies but they have to helpthemselves first. Companies do not have to be “experts”in those FRSs changes but they definitely need to knowenough to identify potential issues arising and the impacton their financial statements. They can then seek advicefrom their professionals to address them. Sad to say, somecompanies did not even realise that there were issues thatneed to be resolved.We will assist by conducting a workshop this comingSeptember to highlight the practical issues arising from theapplication of the revised/new FRSs. For my major clients,