CEO Conversations 2017

TECHNOLOGY is rapidly changing the way people live, work and play, and thus how real estate is designed and managed. CapitaLand Limited is already taking the digital bull by the horns, with its sights trained on future-proofing its business.

FROM expanding overseas, setting up of a full real estate investment trust (Reit) platform for all its asset classes, to pioneering the suburban mall concept in Singapore, innovation is at the heart of how Frasers Centrepoint Limited (FCL) approaches its business.

MALAYSIAN developer Gamuda Land created a stir in Singapore in 2016 when it successfully launched GEM Residences, a condo in Toa Payoh with an innovative club condo concept.

THERE are contractors, and there are developers - few companies are both. Greatearth, though, has always pushed the envelope. An engineering and construction group with a storied history, it successfully transformed itself into a developer as well, with significant projects that have left its mark on Singapore's cityscape.

​TOWERING over Singapore's central business district, the 290-metre tall Tanjong Pagar Centre - Singapore's tallest building - has clearly become a landmark development redefining Singapore's skyline.

KEMMY Tan, chief executive officer of M+S Pte Ltd, stands in a garden at the heart of Marina One as construction workers in hard hats bustle around.

IF YOU want to have a general feel of how Singapore's residential property market has been developing in recent years, just look at Santorini and The Alps.

OXLEY Holdings is already going places as a young vibrant company, flexing its muscles on the global stage with complex development projects and entering new markets where no Singaporean firm has trodden.

THE astronomic growth and expansion of PropNex Realty is so much driven by the discipline and core values of its leadership that its chief executive and co-founder Ismail Gafoor says there really is "no middle ground" in the company.

QINGJIAN Realty wants to use the most cutting edge technology in the apartments that it builds so as to bring an age-old Chinese adage about neighbourliness to life. It wants to introduce digital platforms, so that residents who are living in estates built by Qingjian Realty can secure a time slot to use facilities such as gyms or tennis courts, or even find neighbours to play sports with.

WONG Heang Fine, group chief executive officer of Surbana Jurong Private Limited, is keeping a tight schedule, and it is not difficult to see why. Mr Wong is busy deploying the Singapore consultancy's expertise in urban, industrial and infrastructure projects across the world. In two short years since the company was formed after the merger of Surbana International and Jurong International in 2015, Surbana Jurong has transformed into an industry giant.

BORDEN Company, known for its emerald green Eagle Brand medicated oil, is on the cusp of a new phase. For over 80 years since it started, the group has always been run by family members of the founding partners.

THYE Kim Meng, chief executive and founder of Darco Water Technologies, is one used to rolling up his sleeves for hard work. And at 64, when many of his peers are thinking of enjoying a good retirement, Mr Thye remains as involved in steering the company as when he first started it 18 years ago.

PHILIP Yuen joined Deloitte way back in 1985, when the firm was a general practice in the midst of transforming into an audit and advisory giant. Today, the profession has changed dramatically - and Deloitte with it, says Mr Yuen, chief executive officer of Deloitte Southeast Asia and Deloitte Singapore.

THE Asean region presents immense opportunities for Kuala Lumpur-based premier lifestyle property development group Eastern & Oriental Berhad (E&O), as populations in the region become increasingly affluent and the emerging middle class continues to burgeon.

AS ASEAN marks its 50th anniversary, CEOs of companies that operate in the region share their stories with us.

THE old adage about how it's not where you end up, but how you get there? It is true, especially for Chin Wei Jia, the group chief executive officer (CEO) of Health Management International (HMI), a healthcare provider listed on the Singapore Exchange mainboard.

GOH Kee Nguan, chief executive officer of real estate broker Huttons, strikes a bullish note about the local property market.

SUNWAY Group is a corporate behemoth in Malaysia with three companies listed on Bursa Malaysia. Across the Causeway, it might be best known for its water theme park Sunway Lagoon, a favourite destination of many Singaporeans in their childhood.

SINCE 2011, ZACD has structured and managed 25 real estate projects with a portfolio of over S$290 million equity currently invested in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

WHILE megatrends such as globalisation, technological advances and demographic shifts are presenting opportunities to many businesses, they have also brought about significant challenges, which have emerged even as companies cope with a changing regulatory environment.

DR CHEN Jau-Fei, the founder of E. Excel International, makes an unusual company founder. She avoids talking about her company's products if possible, preferring to focus on getting her main message of prevention out to the public.

IT IS an increasingly tough world out there for e-commerce players. From Amazon to Taobao, the competition has become cutthroat for a local player like Giosis Pte Ltd which runs e-commerce platform Qoo10.

IT IS not often that the company you rented your truck from can offer you a business loan too. But Goldbell Group's latest undertaking in financial services, says chief operating officer Alex Chua, is a natural step in a long journey of growing with its customers.

AS ASEAN marks its 50th anniversary, CEOs of companies that operate in the region share their stories with us.

ALONG a row of shophouses in Bukit Pasoh sits a newly renovated three-storey house richly decorated with traditional Chinese paintings, porcelain and jade collections, antique chairs and family photos.

OCBC Group chief executive officer Samuel Tsien is thinking aloud, running through the permutations of the next big thing. Computing has transformed from the desktop computer to laptops and now mobile phones. Will the smartphone be rendered obsolete next?

ASK Cheah Bee Choo for precise numbers about her business, and she will happily tell you she doesn't know. The unassuming and chatty founder of homegrown herbal hair care firm Bee Choo Origin is not driven by dollars and cents.

TALKING to Sundara Raj, chief executive officer and markets leader of PwC's South East Asian consulting services, allows one to peek at the latest forces driving the region's largest corporates.

DEREK Goh, chief executive officer of Serial System, who turned a one-man operation into an electronics behemoth listed on the Singapore Exchange mainboard, has spent his career bucking the norm with remarkable results.