#FridayFive from the Executive Director: 4 April 2025

A milestone week personally, but another productive one across the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore (BritCham). Here’s what I’ve been up to in this weeks #FridayFive:

1.  Fond farewell: You meet great people on this journey, and my goodness, am I going to miss @Søren Nikolajsen. Massive supporter of the Chamber, connector, friend, tennis partner and one of the best sounding boards I’ve had. See you in London, Søren, and huge thanks for all you have done for the Chamber, and me. 👋 🙏

2.  OCBC’s investment into the UK: It was pleasing to see the news of OCBC committing to invest GBP10 Billion into the UK by 2030. Further positive news and great for UK industry. 📈🇬🇧

3.  Roundtable for Business: We co-hosted a session with Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and British Chamber members. EDB Chairman Cheong Boon Png, Vice President of Global Enterprises @Soon Haw Yun and the EDB team outlined the status of investments from the UK, and addressed topics impacting business decisions for further investment in Singapore such as geopolitical developments and fragmentation, talent mobility, decarbonisation, regional opportunities and innovation. Thank you to members from Prudential Assurance Company Singapore (Sumana Rajarethnam), Arup (Andrew Hodgson), Clifford Chance Asia Pacific (Valerie Kong), Deloitte (Jod Gill), Rolls-Royce (Giovanni Spadaro), Mott MacDonald (Naida S.), and Revolut (Raymond Ng), and welcome new connections from Aggreko (Chandran Jayabalan), Civica (Stanimira Koleva) and Checkout.com (Rajeev Radhakrishnan). 🗣️🇸🇬

4.  Talking Trade: I had the pleasure of meeting Morgan Stark and Shradha Borar from S-RM as we recorded a podcast discussing trade, business in asia, cyber security, fraud, and advice for businesses expanding into the APAC region. It’s a good one, so keep an eye out on our podcast channel over the next few weeks. Safe travels back to Hong Kong, Morgan and see you soon. 🎙️🌏

5.  You’ve been with us how long? Happy work anniversary to Lucy Haydon who has championed British business for 9 years (today!) with the British Chamber of Commerce. Lucy has been an outstanding colleague, championing members, and super-connecting the Chamber to the heart of key business discussions. Thank you Lucy (and here’s a picture of one of the many out of office hour discussions in a familiar haunt!) 👏 🙏

So as I step into another decade of my life, it’s been a week of reflection and yet one of progress. Thanks for supporting, look forward to seeing you soon, and happy Eid for those celebrating this week too.