UP TO THE AGE OF 15, investment veteran Tan Min Lan didn’t remember studying very much. Instead, her days were packed with endless choir and basketball practice.

She vividly recalls not being able to solve half the maths questions in the syllabus on the eve of a mid-year exam in Secondary Three. “That totally freaked me out,” Tan reveals. “Thereafter, I left no stone unturned… I was a real mugger!”

And it’s a good thing that happened too. Today, Tan heads the chief investment office, Asia-Pacific, at UBS Global Wealth Management.

A career in finance takes off

Always inclined towards deep thinking, Tan pursued accounting at the National University of Singapore, as the wide syllabus gave her the bandwidth “to do a lot of other things” upon graduation.

Her first “real job” was with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which she credits for providing a very robust training programme whose foundational principles still drive a lot of her thinking.

When she joined UBS Securities Singapore as head of research and strategist in 2002, her task was to secure top ranking for her team across institutional investor surveys. She rose to the challenge, and achieved the goal in just a year, including being named the number one analyst in Singapore by Asiamoney for the entire decade she held the role.

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“That was a very satisfying experience,” she says. “Peter Drucker (the father of modern management) said the role of a leader is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make weaknesses irrelevant. Indeed for me, that’s critical. I think people also really enjoy the process because they realise they are able to dig deep and deliver things they didn’t know they could.”

In 2006, she added another feather to her cap when she was concurrently appointed as head of equities for Singapore. That made her the first research person in UBS to also run the trading floor.

The demands of leadership

Six years later, Tan rose to become the global head of macro strategy research overseeing a global team covering global asset allocation, global equity, fixed income, emerging markets and currency strategies around the world. She was also the first Singaporean to become a member of UBS’ Securities Research Executive Committee.

But shortly after her appointment came another challenge – UBS announced a major repositioning of the investment bank. So for the next 18 months, Tan was flying to Stamford, New York, London, Zurich and Hong Kong, working on restructuring the team.

“That experience was really important because I learnt that even as you restructure, it’s vital to do so in a manner that’s compassionate, and keeps your own and the bank’s reputation intact,” she says.

Still, having to halve headcount was a tough decision, she admits.

“Which is why I always believe that in your job, you should seek respect and not love,” she says with steely resolve. “If you are respected, it gives you the courage to make very difficult decisions and that’s what leaders are there for. It’s never, ever going to be easy.”

Having been with UBS for nearly 22 years, Tan has gone through three divisions and five different roles in the Swiss bank. “My guiding principle has always been that you need to be there, you need to lead by example, and you need to be able to inspire your team to rally around a common goal.”

While she has not faced gender discrimination in her career, unconscious bias exists, with “very well-meaning peers or senior people” thinking that perhaps she didn’t want certain positions.

“And that requires women to lean in, to communicate that actually, ‘I do want the job, I’m happy to be travelling’ and so on. So you have to articulate it if that’s what you want.”

That said, because women juggle many roles in life, young working mothers ought to be supported with career management that is different from that of young men, because their life experiences and goals are different, Tan asserts.

“There may be a certain period in women’s lives when they have to take a job that requires less travelling, or gives them the flexibility to manage their home life, but they have to be encouraged to believe that they’re not stuck on that career path,” says Tan. “The option has to be there – in fact, they have to be proactively encouraged – to move back into a high-intensity career path if they so choose.”

Not rocket science

The importance of women planning for their retirement is one issue close to Tan’s heart.

Women invest a lot less than men, with over 80 per cent of women saying their spouses should be the ones investing as they are more knowledgeable. And close to 70 per cent of the women that UBS looked at said they have other priorities in life.

“That smacks of complacency because it’s not fit for purpose as women face much higher longevity risk compared to men,” she says. “Today, on average, we live about five years longer than men. The median lifespan of a man in Singapore is about 81 years. For women, it’s almost 86 years. And people in our generation are likely to live to 100.”

Assuming women work till 65, they have another 35 years in retirement. This reality means it’s critical that women build financial confidence. And that confidence comes from knowledge – beginning with awareness about where sources of income or wealth are derived and how much money they need.

They must also take action, first by knowing what the return is on a risk-free asset and then how much risk they’re willing to take to earn a return. And since money takes time to grow, it should not be “sitting around doing nothing” but put to work to reap the benefits of compounding.

“So you don’t need to be a rocket scientist, you don’t need deep financial knowledge,” Tan emphasises. “You’re not trying to beat the market. That’s a job for people like us who do it for a living.”

Personal space

You get the sense that Tan is a private sort of person. And indeed, she admits to being an introvert who eschews hosting parties for quiet “me” time with a coffee and something to read. She also exercises daily by hitting the gym or taking very long walks. Once recharged, she is ready for intense days because she likes to get a lot done.

“I’m very focused when I’m at work,” says Tan with a laugh. “That’s my superpower.”

She also appreciates that her husband – an ex-military man who used to command the first Apache squadron in Singapore and now works for a defence-related company – has a very different career path from her.

“We’ll never have the opportunity to bore each other with the minute details of work,” explains the mother of a 23-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter. “His colleagues and peers are so different from mine, we add diversity and perspective to our lives.”

But what if she weren’t in finance? What would she be doing?

“Honestly, I have no idea,” she says. “I love so much of what I do today, I really don’t know what else I’d want. And the thing about investing is that the market gives you constant feedback. You know when you’re right and you know when you’re wrong. And that’s very thrilling and rewarding.”

Photography: Ivanho Harlim & Shysi Novita

Styling & art direction: CK

Hair: Grego Oh, using Keune

Make-up: Nicole Ang of The Suburbs Studio, using Makeup Forever; Victoria Hwang & Sophia Soh of The Suburbs Studio, using Dior Beauty