Personal Impact

To me, personally, it's the people Iíve met, it's the connections Iíve made. My wife and I have had some great weekends at Banyan Tree Resorts, which I would not have been aware of had I not encountered KP. Thatís not exactly a flippant comment, but it shows that there are a number of different dimensions to what you draw. But it's primarily the people, primarily the networks that you manage to build up. And for me, it's not just coming in and sitting in the fourteenth floor board meeting. For example, Ean Kuok [Khoon Ean Kuok], trustee member is based at Hong Kong and his family runs and owns the Shangri-La Resorts. Thereís nothing like having dinner at a Shangri-La hotel in Hong Kong with Ean Kuok; Iíve never seen such service. So it extends to that. Itís getting to meet Victor Fung and then doing the whole Hong Kong University arrangement. The connection with Janice. At the time she called me, I had been president of the professional, international body. She is now the president of that same body. So those paths, connect and cross. I say that personally, thatís the biggest single thing I have taken away from being on the board of SMU. The second is, I amóin order to be interested in policy, strategy and change processóIím not interested in the world being the same when I go to bed as it was when I get up. SMU fits that drumbeat very nicely. It's in an area, itís in a region, itís in a country which pays respect to higher education. Coming from Australia, the funding constantly seems to be cut. The difference I find is this. In Australia I go into a meeting with ministers and you walk into the room knowingówell, youíre figuring you knowóthat theyíre trying to work out how to tell you no. You go into the room in Singaporeóthey certainly donít say, well, hereís the money you wantóbut you get the sense that theyíre trying to work out how to meet what it is that youíre putting up. So that was a refreshing experience, breaking away from what I was seeing in Australia to what I saw in Singapore. So itís been a really a really great experience.