Diverse Mix of Business Leaders Elected to ISCA Council

- Council includes women leaders, representatives from Small Medium Practices, mid-tier and Big Four accounting firms, an entrepreneur and finance leaders   
- Women leaders make up 30% of ISCA Council
- 44% increase in votes in 2022 Council Election compared to 2019

23 April, 2022 — A diverse group of business leaders has been elected to the Council of the national accountancy body, the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA). Among the ISCA Council members are female finance leaders and accounting firm partners, representatives from the small and medium and mid-tier accounting practices, and an entrepreneur.

This is the first time the election was conducted via online voting. In previous years, the voting process was conducted using paper ballots. This year’s Council Election also had greater participation from ISCA members, with a 44% increase in votes compared to the 2019 Council Election. The Council Election closed on 18 April and the results were announced at ISCA’s virtual AGM on 23 April. This year, five newly-elected Council members and three re-elected Council members joined the Institute’s leadership team. They join seven business leaders who continue to serve their terms as ISCA Council Members.

Sharing her thoughts on her newly-elected roles as Council Member and ISCA Treasurer, Ms Jocelyn Goh, Audit & Assurance Partner, BDO LLP said, “There are dynamic changes happening in the accountancy sector and the business landscape. I am delighted to join the ISCA Council and make a difference to the profession at such an opportune time. In particular, I would like to contribute my ideas on developing the accountancy talent pool and attracting more talent to join the profession.”

Council Member and former ISCA Vice President Ms Yvonne Chan who is also Chief Financial Officer and Sustainability Officer of Enterprise Singapore said, “With new members on the ISCA Council, there will be fresh perspectives and new ideas. This is beneficial to the development of the profession. I look forward to working closely with my fellow Council members to ensure that the Institute continues to meet the needs of members and the profession.”

Newly-elected Council Member Mr Choo Eng Beng, Assurance Leader, PwC Singapore said: “I am delighted to join the ISCA Council. It is a privilege to be able to leverage my expertise to contribute to the advancement of the profession. I look forward to working with my fellow Council members on this important work, especially during such an exciting time for our profession.” 

At the Council meeting following the conclusion of ISCA’s virtual AGM, Mr Teo Ser Luck was elected ISCA President. He succeeds Mr Kon Yin Tong, who stepped down as ISCA President after having served a maximum of two terms of two years each (i.e. four years), in accordance with the Institute’s constitution. This is in line with the Institute’s leadership renewal process to regularly refresh the leadership team, inject new perspectives and involve more members of the profession in bringing the Institute to greater heights. 

Appreciation to Mr Kon Yin Tong

Mr Kon Yin Tong served as ISCA’s President from April 2018 to April 2022. Under his leadership, the Institute made significant progress in advancing the development of the accountancy profession.

Mr Kon helmed ISCA during one of the most challenging periods in the Institute’s recent history, amid a global pandemic. To adapt to the impact of COVID-19, ISCA had to quickly pivot to new ways of working, including shifting its operations and offerings to digital platforms. For the first time in the Institute’s history, ISCA drew on its reserves to provide support schemes to help members get through this difficult period.

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in early 2020, ISCA provided a slew of initiatives in Career Support, Resources and Virtual Learning Support in April 2020 to support members and the profession.  As the pandemic continued to evolve, ISCA increased its support in 2021 with the $8 million ISCA Support Fund, to help the accountancy profession build resilience and emerge stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Mr Kon’s contributions to ISCA and the profession, Mr Teo said: “I thank Yin Tong for his many contributions to ISCA and the profession. Yin Tong helmed the Institute during the crucial years when Singapore was going through the COVID-19 global pandemic.  Thanks to his astute leadership, the Institute was able to support our members and the profession through this unprecedented crisis. I aim to build on the strong foundation laid by Yin Tong and bring ISCA and the profession to a new level of growth and development.”

About ISCA Council

Following the election, the ISCA Council is composed of:

President: Mr Teo Ser Luck, Chairman, BRC Asia Ltd

Vice Presidents:

• Mr Mohammad Shariq Sayeed Barmaky, Audit & Assurance Leader, Deloitte & Touche LLP (Singapore) and Regional Managing Partner, Audit & Assurance, Deloitte Southeast Asia
• Ms Yiong Yim Ming, Group Chief Financial Officer, City Developments Limited 

Treasurer: Ms Jocelyn Goh Chern Ni, Audit & Assurance Partner, BDO LLP

Secretary: Ms Judy Ng, Chief Financial Officer, Institutional Banking Group, DBS Bank 

The following Council members are newly elected:

• Mr Choo Eng Beng, Assurance Leader, PwC Singapore
• Ms Jocelyn Goh Chern Ni, Audit & Assurance Partner, BDO LLP
• Mr Koh Wee Kwang, Director, Kreston ACA PAC
• Mr Lim Yeong Seng, Managing Partner, KLP LLP

The re-elected Council members are:

• Mr Mohammad Shariq Sayeed Barmaky, Audit & Assurance Leader, Deloitte & Touche LLP (Singapore) and Regional Managing Partner, Audit & Assurance, Deloitte Southeast Asia
• Ms Lai Chin Yee, Finance Director, Qian Hu Corporation Limited
• Ms Yiong Yim Ming, Group Chief Financial Officer, City Developments Limited

Besides the office bearers, the newly elected and re-elected Council members, the following business leaders continue to serve their terms as ISCA Council Members:

• Ms Yvonne Chan, Chief Financial Officer and Sustainability Officer, Enterprise Singapore
• Mr Darren Tan, Chief Financial Officer, OCBC Bank
• Mr Kelvin Tan, Adjunct Associate Professor, NUS Business School
• Mr Tan Kuang Hui, Chief Executive and Managing Partner, Crowe Singapore
• Mr Roger Tay, Head of Advisory (Deal Advisory) KPMG LLP
• Mr Don Wee, Member of Parliament
• Mr Christopher Wong Mun Yick, Head and Assurance Partner, EY

For the biographies of the elected office bearers, new and re-elected Council Members, please refer to the Annex below.

-Ends-

For more information, please contact:
Lin Daoyi
Communications Manager
Tel: 9850 8979
Email: daoyi.lin@isca.org.sg

Betsy Tan
Head of Communications
Tel: 9641 6920
Email: betsy.tan@isca.org.sg

Annex – Biographies of Elected ISCA Office Bearers, Newly-elected and Re-elected Council Members

Elected Office Bearers

President

Mr Teo Ser Luck, FCA (Singapore)
Chairman, BRC Asia Ltd

Mr Teo Ser Luck is a Fellow Chartered Accountant of Singapore. He was Advisor to ISCA from 2009 to March 2022 and championed the formation of the ISCA Young Finance Leaders Network in 2018. He also facilitated members’ engagement through dialogue sessions with government leaders to share challenges faced by the accountancy industry and profession in 2019 and 2020.

Mr Teo is an entrepreneur, investor and started his own companies in different sectors. He started his career as an auditor and spent 15 years in the private sector managing multi-national companies and operations in the Asia-Pacific region before being elected as a Member of the Parliament of Singapore and appointed as a full-time political office holder in the Singapore government for 11 years in 4 ministries. He returned to the private sector in July 2017 and remained as a Member of Parliament till June 2020.

Mr Teo was recognised as a young global leader by the World Economic Forum and was thrice conferred the Nanyang Alumni Awards - the Nanyang Outstanding Young Alumni Award, the Nanyang Alumni Achievement Award and the Nanyang Distinguished Alumni Award from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

Apart from having his own companies, Mr Teo is also the Chairman of two public-listed companies and board member of a few other companies listed on the main board of SGX. He is Advisor to the Singapore Fintech Association.

Mr Teo graduated with a Bachelor of Accountancy from NTU. He is an avid sportsman who trains daily and participates in races, and loves to read.

Vice President

Mr Mohammad Shariq Sayeed Barmaky, FCA (Singapore)
Audit & Assurance Leader, Deloitte & Touche LLP (Singapore) and Regional Managing Partner, Audit & Assurance, Deloitte Southeast Asia

A Fellow Chartered Accountant of Singapore, Mr Mohammad Shariq Sayeed Barmaky has served on the ISCA Council since 2018. He currently chairs ISCA’s Audit Committee and is a member of the Executive Committee. Prior to his current service, he served on the Auditing and Assurance Standards Committee and Financial Reporting Committee.

Mr Barmaky has more than 30 years of experience in public accounting in the United Kingdom and Singapore. He has extensive experience in the audits of multinationals and local companies in various industries, as well as due diligence and public listings of equities and commercial paper. Mr Barmaky acts as audit partner for entities in the pharmaceutical, trading and distribution, manufacturing, oil and gas, shipping, postal and e-commerce/logistics and telecommunications sectors.

Mr Barmaky is currently the Chairman of the Professional Education Council of the Singapore Chartered Accountant Qualification. He also serves on the Boards of ACRA, Civil Service College and Shared Services for Charities Limited, as well as various committees in these organisations.

Vice President

Ms Yiong Yim Ming, FCA (Singapore)
Group Chief Financial Officer, City Developments Limited

Ms Yiong Yim Ming is a Fellow Chartered Accountant of Singapore. She serves as a member of the ISCA Council and the Continuing Professional Education Committee. She was a mentor of the ISCA Mentoring Programme for Aspiring CFOs in 2017.

Ms Yiong is a member of the United Nations Global Compact’s CFO Taskforce for Sustainable Development Goals, as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

She joined City Developments Limited (CDL) in 2007 as an executive and was appointed as Chief Financial Officer in April 2016. She was re-designated as Group Chief Financial Officer on 1 February 2018. She has extensive knowledge of the Group's financial and operation matters, both domestically and overseas, covering the Group's operations in property development, investment properties and hotels. Ms Yiong has strong technical competencies, specialising in the real estate sector, harnessed through 12 years of audit experience. Prior to joining CDL, she served a 10-year stint in KPMG Singapore and was with Ernst & Young Singapore for 2 years.

Ms Yiong holds a Bachelor of Accountancy degree from NTU.

Treasurer

Ms Jocelyn Goh Chern Ni, FCA (Singapore)
Audit & Assurance Partner, BDO LLP

Ms Jocelyn Goh is a Fellow Chartered Accountant of Singapore. She served as a mentor to beneficiaries of the ISCA Cares bursary from 2017 to 2019. She was also a member of ISCA’s Accounting Technicians Learning and Development Board from 2016 to 2020 and member of the ISCA Young Professionals Group from 2009 to 2011.

Ms Goh has 27 years of experience in public accounting and commercial, including over 20 years with BDO LLP.  As an audit partner, she is involved in the Firm’s talent acquisition and development, quality management, and learning and development. As part of the leadership team in BDO, she is involved in the strategic development of the Firm. She is also involved in policy development, monitoring and evaluation of quality management in her position as the Head of the Practice’s Quality Management which includes quality reviews of audit engagements. As a talent partner, she facilitates the training and development of emerging leaders of the Firm and constantly engages accountancy undergraduates to share her experience about the profession.

Ms Goh currently serves as a member of ACRA’s Disciplinary Committee.

Secretary
Ms Judy Ng, CA (Singapore)
CFO, Institutional Banking Group, DBS Bank

Ms Judy Ng is the CFO for the Institutional Banking Business Group (IBG) at DBS Bank. As part of the core management team, she works closely with the IBG Group Business Head in providing strategic recommendations, leadership, direction and management of the financial goals, objectives and planning.

The role requires being at the forefront of managing the implications of changes arising from macro-economic, geopolitical, regulatory, business & human resource changes; and recommending re-pivots to the business.

Ms Ng is a Finance professional with 30 years of experience in Banking & Financial Services. She is a Chartered Accountant of Singapore and holds a Master’s in Applied Finance. Prior to joining DBS Bank, she worked for many years in a foreign bank and started her career at KPMG. Her experience spans coverage for banking, securities & insurance.

Newly-elected Council Members

Mr Choo Eng Beng, FCA (Singapore)
Assurance Leader, PwC Singapore

A Fellow Chartered Accountant of Singapore, Mr Choo Eng Beng is a member of ISCA’s Investigation and Disciplinary Panel.

Mr Choo is the Assurance Leader at PwC and has over 28 years of experience in public accounting. Prior to his current appointment, he was the Risk and Quality Leader in PwC Singapore and part of the leadership team.

Mr Choo spent two years in London in PwC Global accounting Consulting Services, which supports PwC Global on various matters concerning International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). His scope of support for IFRS included working with the International Accounting Standards Board on matters related to quality of application, training, marketing and communications.

He is also a director of Shared Services for Charities, director and audit committee member of St Luke’s Elder Care, audit committee chairman of the Church of Singapore, and audit committee member of the National Research Foundation.

Mr Choo graduated from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with a Bachelor of Accountancy (Honours).

Mr Koh Wee Kwang, CA (Singapore)
Director, Kreston ACA PAC

Mr Koh Wee Kwang is a Chartered Accountant of Singapore and a Certified Sustainability Reporting Specialist with the Institute of Certified Sustainability Practitioners.

Mr Koh has more than 20 years of experience in auditing and assurance. He was involved with the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley framework for American-related corporations during his three-year secondment in London with a Big 4 accounting firm. He has also undertaken and led engagements in internal audit, enterprise risk management and sustainability reporting for companies listed on the Singapore Exchange and Growth Enterprise Market board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong as well as charitable organisations. Mr Koh has also spoken on various platforms on the topic of sustainability reporting.

Mr Koh was treasurer of Yuhua Citizen’s Consultative Committee from 2013 to 2019. He holds a Bachelor of Accountancy from NTU.

Mr Lim Yeong Seng, CA (Singapore)
Managing Partner, KLP LLP

A Chartered Accountant of Singapore, Mr Lim Yeong Seng has been a member of ISCA’s Investigation and Disciplinary Panel since 2013 and sat on ISCA’s Public Accounting Practice Committee from 2009 to 2015. He is currently chairman of TASK International and Millet Holdings Pte Ltd and sits on the boards of Abacus Worldwide Advisory and The Rice Company Limited.

Mr Lim has more than 35 years of experience in audit, corporate recovery, tax, secretarial, finance and administration. He is the founder and Managing Partner of KLP LLP, which he started in 1999. Mr Lim has cross-functional skills which enable him to assist clients in various ways, and these include consultancy relating to financial management and enterprise risk management. Mr Lim is an ACRA-approved liquidator, with experience in judicial management, liquidation and litigation support.

Mr Lim graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a Bachelor of Accountancy.

Re-elected Council Member

Ms Lai Chin Yee, FCA (Singapore)
Finance Director, Qian Hu Corporation Limited

Ms Lai Chin Yee is a Fellow Chartered Accountant of Singapore. She is a member of the ISCA Council and Chairperson of the Continuing Professional Education Committee, as well as a member of the Membership Committee. She also served previously on ISCA’s CFO Committee and the Corporate Governance and Risk Management Committee. 

Ms Lai has been the Finance Director of Qian Hu Corporation Limited since 2004. She was an auditor with international accounting firms prior to joining Qian Hu as its Group Financial Controller in 2000. She has more than 30 years of experience in areas including auditing, finance & accounting, taxation and treasury.

Ms Lai is a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors. She is the Non-Executive Chairman of Singapore Paincare Holdings Limited and an independent director of Micro Mechanics (Holdings) Ltd.

She was appointed by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) as a member of the Tax Advisory Committee from 2004 to 2006 and served as a council member of the Council on Corporate Disclosure and Governance from 2006 to 2007. She has been a Board Member of ACRA since being appointed by MOF in 2019.

At the 2009 Singapore Corporate Awards, she was named CFO of the Year (for companies listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited with less than $300 million in market capitalisation).

Ms Lai graduated from NUS with a Bachelor of Accountancy.