#FridayFive from the Executive Director: 3 July 2026

My #FridayFive after a few weeks in the #UK. So much to update on, but here are the highlights from a rip-roaring trip, promoting the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore (BritCham) and Southeast Asia:

1. London Tech Week: The trip started with a London Tech Week reception at the Institute of Directors (IoD). Thank you to Thomas Tilley and Ross Hunter for the opportunity to meet so many good businesses from across SEA. It was good to see Damian Adams MBE, our UK Board rep in full flow too. I also attended a brilliant BCC Board meeting that week too. 

2.  Inward Investment and Exports: caught up with so many brilliant people doing their bit for international trade. Steven Lynch MBE, Nick Patrick (love the picture!), Gareth R., Mark Domitrak from CT Group, Susana Córdoba from the Growth Company, Lewis Crowe from the Greater Manchester Chamber, UK, Paul Lindley OBE from the Board of Trade, Nick Stace OBE from Howden, and Peter Thomas from Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. All hugely valuable meetings – thank you. Great also to meet Brett North from the Gatwick Diamond Business as we build plans for a Gatwick-Southeast Asia programme, together with Colin Tan. And… our North East Chamber of Commerce trade mission later in the year has gone live too – looking forward to continuing to work with Michael Dickinson and the team.

3.  Overseas Chambers: with the UK’s growth agenda being at the forefront of Chambers, it was a pleasure to sit on a panel at the Global Leaders Forum convening the domestic and international Chamber leaders. Wonderful to connect with friends again across the network, followed by the British Chambers of Commerce Global Annual Conference which is always a stellar event in the business calendar, this year seeing representation from five UK political parties. Caught up with the ChamberCustoms team (Moving on Up!), and the team from NatWest Group who were title sponsors of the GAC. 

4.  Network of Brilliance: too many people to name here, but Søren Nikolajsen of NatWest, David McCredie, Daniel Fairweather, Daniel Sawko, Damian Adams MBE, all spent time with me. Great to also see Emma Loynes in London at Lloyd’s as we met Cameron Murray together with Niall Ahern discussing the UK’s #insurance brilliance and the recently launched Innovation Hub in Singapore. Thank you to you all. 

5.  Standards and Education: nice to be back briefly in Birdcage Walk and to meet the super Naomi Taylor and the team from Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST). Lots of talk on Skills, accreditation, and the importance of the UK professional bodies which form the backbone of bridging  academic education and practical competency through rigorous curriculum design and lifelong Continuing Professional Development (CPD) frameworks.

That’s it for my update; see you next week, and… c’mon England! And a shout out to the BritCham five-a-side team – James Price, Louise Beazor, Udai Panicker and Max Gray. Great fun. ⚽