Ms Julie Tan’s sharing about Siong Guan

For our second sharing, we feature an interview with Ms Julie Tan, who was Siong Guan’s secretary for all the years that Siong Guan served at GIC, Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund.

This interview was first published in Siong Guan’s memoirs “Lim Siong Guan: The Best is Yet to Be”. 

We hope that you will enjoy reading it!

The best is yet to be!

Interview with Ms Julie Tan

Ms Julie Tan was Siong Guan’s secretary for all the years that Siong Guan served at GIC from 2007 to 2019.

“I later told Mr Lim:

‘You were the toughest boss,

but the best teacher.’”

This is the photo referenced by Ms Julie Tan towards the end of the interview, depicting Siong Guan patching up his granddaughter’s uniform.

“Horror Stories”

Before Ms Tan started working with Siong Guan, she had heard “horror stories” about his exacting standards and uprightness.

Friends from the Ministry of Defence told her of how Siong Guan would go to the canteen in the afternoon to see if anyone was slacking off from work.

One of her contacts who was good in English and who had previously worked with Siong Guan also warned her of the “tough” and “hands-on” boss that she would be working for.

“I am not sure you can meet his extremely high standards, Julie. Do you know what he did to me? He put the dictionary on the table and asked me to read out loud what a word meant. Everything had to be so correct and precise. I would be surprised if you survive one year!”

As things turned out, Ms Tan survived not one year, but close to 12 years, till Siong Guan retired from GIC. The years of service were by no means a breeze, and the initial years were rough.

“I ‘freaked out’ the first day I served Siong Guan. He called me into his office and told me that he wasn’t like other bosses. He wouldn’t have much time to talk to me, so everything had to be written to him.”

Ms Tan thought that such a working style would be less efficient, but she realised that Siong Guan would always reply to her, no matter how busy he was. In addition, his response time was extremely quick — even when he was overseas, Siong Guan would typically reply within 10 minutes if he was in Beijing, and within one hour if he was in the United States.

Growing Respect

As each day and month passed, Ms Tan learned to work well with Siong Guan and her respect for him grew.

He was indeed tough and detailed, and always demanded minutes to be produced within 24 hours, but he was also very hands-on and would take the minutes himself if the officer was not around. Siong Guan would also prepare his own speeches and produce his own PowerPoint presentations; when he gave speeches, he delivered them without reference notes.

Humility

Over the years, Ms Tan also got to know Siong Guan’s humility.

Members of the public would try their luck and get in touch with Siong Guan for help with their school theses; Siong Guan would make time to meet with them during his lunch hour to see how he could help, even though he always had a packed schedule with many back-to-back meetings planned.

Ms Tan also learned that Siong Guan preferred to keep a low profile. When GIC raised funds for the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, Siong Guan wanted to make a donation quietly, so he told Ms Tan that he would make a donation in her name. However, Ms Tan declined and told him that she would speak with the audit head to list his donation as anonymous.

Trust

It was also clear to Ms Tan that trust was very important to Siong Guan. Siong Guan once told Ms Tan that the word “secretary” came from the word “secret”, hence her job was to ensure that certain information was not to be shared with others.

“Once you earned his trust, you would be able to work well with him. I knew of staff who cried after meetings because of his harsh tone. But I assured them that he was not unkind and meant no harm. His expectations of the quality of work were just so high and he was just speaking his mind.

“To be fair, Mr Lim was precise and communicated clearly what he wanted. He would not say much, but every single word he said meant something. Years later, officers were very grateful to have learned under his leadership.

“I have learnt so much from Mr Lim. After working with him, I have become a much better worker and person. I have also improved in my writing and communication skills. With him, you learn to be more efficient and to be more precise.”

Integrity

When asked to describe Siong Guan in one word, Ms Tan replied without hesitation: “Integrity.”

While some people might have avoided him because they feared him, everyone respected him for his strength of character and integrity.

“Mr Lim once said to me: ‘I am not here to be popular and to please people; I am here to draw up policies that would benefit people.’ So, he did not care if people liked him. He was always busy, yet when someone wanted to see him, he would make time to see how he could help them.”

During his time at GIC, Siong Guan made a point of regularly visiting staff at GIC overseas offices, and he was famous for making his round-the-world trips, at times without checking into any hotels! He would fly to the destination, shower at the office, meet with staff then fly off to his next destination. His schedule was so intense that he could be in three Asian cities within a day!

“During one of Mr Lim’s final round-the-world trips before he retired as GIC’s Group President, he travelled from Singapore to London, Sao Paulo, and San Francisco without checking into any hotel. I was amazed at his stamina, and how down-to-earth he was! When he was in London, for example, he always took the Heathrow Express train into the city from the airport.”

While the Group President of GIC was entitled to travel first class, Siong Guan changed the travel policy for himself to business class when he took over the leadership. Ms Tan shared that people were surprised by the change.

“They saw a man who was all business and no nonsense. The perks were not important, the work was. Style wasn’t important, substance was. He was strict, but that was how he got things done.

“In fact, Mr Lim even wanted to travel on budget airlines, but I reminded him that while he was used to travelling budget for his personal trips, it would not reflect well on GIC if a business contact got to know that he travels budget. Mr Lim was very receptive to my feedback and agreed to stick with business class, but he still travelled economy when business class tickets were not available.”

Siong Guan was also very careful in accepting anything from anyone, and people soon learned not to give him gifts, wines, or hampers because he would always decline. If it was not easy to return gifts, Siong Guan would tell Ms Tan to share them with the relevant departments.

When Ms Tan once handed him a small piece of peanut cake, he immediately asked who gave the cake and offered to pay for it. When anyone gave him food, Siong Guan would ask which department gave it to him, and whether they were paying from their own pocket.

Leadership with Heart

As Ms Tan got to know more and more about her boss, she discovered that the serious, harsh, and disciplined exterior masked a caring and kind interior.

“Mr Lim always gave his officers opportunity to grow. He never judged anyone based on their qualifications, and always wanted everyone to do better and to build into their strengths.

“Mr Lim suggested that I further my studies so that he could help me move forward in my career after I achieved better qualifications. However, I declined and explained that I could not do anything out of the ordinary – my husband had left his job to take care of our kids who needed 24/7 attention due to their medical conditions.

“From then on, Mr Lim did not press me to further my studies, but he always gave me opportunities to stretch myself. He tested and trained my writing skills by asking me to rewrite portions of papers he thought could be improved.

“On one occasion, Mr Lim saw that I was in tears and asked me what happened. I felt that it was inappropriate to share with such an important and busy man that my child had been hospitalised, so I declined his kind gesture.

“Even though he did not know what the issue was, Mr Lim sent me a video link to the song The Prayer, which is sung by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli, when he returned to his desk. That touched me deeply because I knew how busy he was. He is a man of few words, but with great compassion.”

Time Management

Ms Tan also marvelled at how Siong Guan would pack so many things into a day and rearrange his schedule so that he could meet his various duties, whether it be work-related or family-related.

One day during lunch, Ms Tan received a call from a day care centre asking for Siong Guan: “The staff said: ‘If Mr Lim does not come, Mrs Law is not going to eat her meal.’

I later found out that Mrs Law was Mr Lim’s mother-in-law who was suffering from dementia. The staff told me that Mr Lim had been spending his lunch time to feed, talk to, and clean Mrs Law. The staff and many others at the centre did not know who Mr Lim was, but they saw the purest kind of love from a kind gentleman.

“Through the many years, even though Mr Lim did not talk much, he taught me a lot, and he showed his care in small ways. I was moved, and respected him for his strong moral values.”

“During my years working with Mr Lim, a few job opportunities came along, but I felt I should not jump ship before Mr Lim retired. When he finally retired, I was offered yet another job by a certain company and I asked Mr Lim for his advice. Mr Lim told me to stay on as he knew that the company was in the red.”

Priorities

When asked: “Which is most important to Mr Lim: Singapore? Family? God?”

Ms Tan replied: “All are of equal importance. To me, he will always be a humble servant of God. He could be the head of a company, but he wouldn’t think twice of ushering you to your seat in church.

“When it comes to family, someone showed me a photo of Mr Lim patching up his grand-daughter’s uniform. I couldn’t believe my eyes!

“And when it comes to Singapore, he is a great admirer of the late Dr Goh Keng Swee who founded GIC. Mr Lim would often talk about Dr Goh when he gave speeches at GIC. Dr Goh was a doer, and so is Mr Lim.

“Mr Lim loves Singapore. When any minister sought his advice, he always made time and followed protocol – even when they wanted to come to him, he always insisted on going over to their office instead.

“Mr Lim also took time to draw Singaporeans living and working abroad back to Singapore. When he was travelling overseas, he would make the time to join in events involving overseas Singaporeans. He would try his best to persuade them to think of coming back. To him, every Singaporean is valuable!”

“Toughest Boss, Best Teacher”

When Siong Guan retired, Ms Tan bought him a travel pouch. “I told him: ‘I know that you do not accept gifts, but this is just a small token for you.’

“He said, ‘I don’t know what you are going through, but I will share God’s love with you.’ He knows that I am also a Christian so he prayed over me. I felt so small. Besides being my boss, I saw a good human being.

 “I later told Mr Lim: ‘You were the toughest boss, but the best teacher.’”

Prepared by Joanne H. Lim

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