People connector

WHEN Leong Soo Yee turns up for the virtual interview over Microsoft Teams, the executive director (Markets) of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) "arrives" with her headphones on, attired for a real-life work meeting.

The mother of one has been separated from her child who is finishing her final year at a university in the United Kingdom during the Covid-19 pandemic. If there is any separation anxiety, none comes across as she shares her journey from an anxious young working mother to a confident one who has learnt to take risks and let go. "I am practical by nature. In the early days when my daughter was younger, I was very hands-on. When June, my daughter, became a teenager, I had to learn the art of letting go. That learning was accelerated when she left for the UK when she was 17-18. I had to learn to let go in a significant way. My role is still evolving," Ms Leong shares.

Inspired by her late father, who became an entrepreneur in his late 30s, dealing with construction materials and travelling to Europe to build up his network of contacts, the 51-year old found courage to embrace risks in her life. "Dad always said for one to be successful, one needs to be ambitious and try new things," Ms Leong tells The Business Times. That mantra from her childhood became the main force that drove her to study business at the National University of Singapore.