Kah Peng has clocked up almost 17 years at EDB, rising from her entry-level role as an officer in the Chemicals Industry division to Assistant Managing Director. During her time at EDB, she spent more than six years abroad, heading up the Chicago office and subsequently EDB’s entire European operations. She was also awarded an EDB scholarship to pursue the Sloan Fellows Programme at MIT in the US. Kah Peng, who has a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the National University of Singapore, returned to Singapore in mid 2001 to take on the post of Deputy Director of EDB’s Chemicals division. In January 2009, Kah Peng will head up the Singapore Tourism Board as Chief Executive.

The Chicago posting would be one of those. I had never been to Chicago before that. And the geographical responsibility was large, extending from the Mid West down to Texas in the south. I was on a plane very often! It was quite an adventure. Cities like Houston, for example, were very strong in oil and chemicals, and oil & gas equipment, while its biotechnology sector was also growing rapidly. During that time, we played a part in drawing quite a few large projects to Singapore such as Exxon’s first chemical cracker on Jurong Island. Shell also made a big investment in Jurong Island during the late 1990s. However, I must stress that a lot of these projects take a long time to develop. They also take the collective effort of a team. Our success was really the success of the EDB system. I was lucky that those investments came to fruition during my time.

When you’re out there, the offices are often very small in size. It’s no more than two or three people. At the maximum, five to seven people. So you have to be very independent and resourceful. You have to figure things out by yourself. You also learn to run a small office. You’ve got to deal with small things like installing a new printer and paying bills for overheads to bigger things like liaising with banks.

Again, there was a lot of flying around. I was based in London but handled the European portfolio. I had a much bigger team to manage and I had to cover different countries. There were also different business practices in Europe, compared to the North America.

Working at EDB gives you an understanding of what makes businesses tick. At the same time, it also gives you an insight into the concerns of a country and what makes good government – how do you keep the economy going, how do you create jobs? It exposes you to the private sector dimension as well as the public sector’s goals.

You don’t know what you’re missing! Honestly, how many jobs give you diversity, engagement at an operational level, and exposure to perspectives from the top level as well as that of government? There are not many jobs out there that will give you all that.