UL moves international HQ to Singapore to ride demand from Asia

WITH Asia continuing to be the fastest growing component of UL's business, putting it on the path to constituting the majority of both the group's business and employment, it was logical to move the international headquarters to Singapore, said CEO Keith Williams.

The office will serve as the international base for the global safety

science company's operations and activities outside of the United States. Its office in Illinois will remain its headquarters for servicing the US market.

"Half of our people and half of our business is in Asia. This is the fastest growing part of our business so it will be the majority of our business and of our employment. It's logical to have senior leadership here in Asia," said Mr Williams.

"Having all the geographies under a single leader gives us consistency which we like."

The Singapore office will be helmed by Sajeev Jesudas, president of UL International.

In addition to the expansion of its current Solaris facility at One-North, the expansion also added capabilities to UL's EMC-Wireless laboratory, located at Kian Teck Lane.

UL's EMC-Wireless laboratory is the only facility that can fulfil the Technical Specification for Internet of Things (TS IoT) standard of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

The newly expanded laboratory provides testing services in destination market regulatory compliance, safety, electromagnetic compatibility and radio frequency to support wireless products across multiple product categories such as medical devices, and information and communication technology equipment.

The Solaris facility, meanwhile, houses UL's Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence, which is able to perform on-site testing and evaluation services addressing secure payments, smart card, software applications, network-related devices and systems, and cybersecurity protocols for customers.

As the only EMVCo accredited facility in the Asia-Pacific region, the centre provides trusted payment expertise and security evaluation, including management of interoperability issues.

EMVCo's work is overseen by six member organisations - American Express, Discover, JCB, Mastercard,

UnionPay and Visa - and supported by many industry stakeholders. It exists to facilitate worldwide interoperability and acceptance of secure payment transactions.

"We don't make forecasts publicly in terms of revenue or employment. But I'm pretty confident that Singapore will grow significantly for UL," said Mr Williams. "It already has - we've already had the opening of an expanded laboratory here. More will come."