SWITCHING LANES

What a second retirement taught me about service and impact

A former business leader reflects on his hardest and most rewarding work after corporate life

    • The writer (front row, centre), with board members of SGTraDex, a Singaporean public-private partnership operating a ‘highway’ for digital data exchange.
    • The writer (front row, centre), with board members of SGTraDex, a Singaporean public-private partnership operating a ‘highway’ for digital data exchange. PHOTO: TAN CHIN HWEE
    Published Fri, Aug 14, 2026 · 12:00 PM

    “I WANT to be like you.”

    The comment caught me completely by surprise. It came from my old boss and mentor, Marc Rowan, co-founder of Apollo Global Management, when we caught up to mark my entry into the 2024 Yale Donaldson Fellowship.

    Apollo is among the world’s most successful alternative investment firms, and during my tenure there, I had never encountered a greater concentration of intellectual firepower under one roof.