Leadership Perspectives
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Ang Wan Ching:
Diverse perspectives spark solutions
A year into her board appointment at blue-chip Keppel Ltd., the veteran investment manager, who built a career in Europe, talks about pursuing opportunities where one can learn and contribute.
For Singaporean Ang Wan Ching, joining the board of one of the nation’s biggest corporations was not a difficult decision, even if it meant commuting from Munich, where she and her family are based.
With over 25 years of experience in alternative private fund investments, Ang was appointed independent director at Keppel in July 2023. Once one of the world’s largest rig builders, Keppel is a long-standing blue-chip listed on the Singapore Exchange.
That was the same year Keppel completed its restructuring from a diversified conglomerate into a global asset manager and operator focused on infrastructure, real estate and connectivity solutions, following divestment of its offshore and marine business. Besides posting record earnings on the back of disposal gain for FY2023, Keppel was conferred the Gold Award at the Singapore Corporate Awards for ‘Best Managed Board’. Keppel was also listed by TIME magazine as one of the world’s 750 best companies in 2023.
“What attracted me was precisely this transformation. Its mission of being an operator and an asset manager with sustainability at its core is something that I can contribute to, and I’m interested in following and supporting this transformation journey. I am very fortunate to have joined at a time that I did.”
In pursuit of growth
Indeed, constant learning and evolution is what drives Ang.
After graduating from Oxford with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, she started her career in corporate banking at Singapore’s DBS Bank. Eager for new experiences, she pursued an INSEAD MBA in France then relocated to the UK where she worked in corporate finance for UBS Warburg, and thereafter, private equity firm Apax Partners. She later joined German insurer Allianz Group in Munich, eventually becoming CEO of its fund-of-funds unit Allianz Private Equity Partners.
With the birth of her fourth child, she took a step back from full-time work in 2007. But she soon found another way to contribute and grow professionally – by taking on a portfolio of non-executive roles in the investment industry. She serves on the Supervisory Boards of investment firms Bavaria Industries Group and HQ Capital, both in Germany. In addition, she sits on the investment committee of Swiss private equity firm Montana Capital Partners.
Until recently, she also served on the investment committee of the UK development finance institution (DFI) British International Investment (BII). The DFI’s focus on financing climate initiatives, infrastructure and jobs growth in Africa and South Asia appealed to her. “I learnt a lot about the challenges of investing in difficult geographies, but it was also hugely rewarding personally because it was an opportunity to give back and contribute.
“When somebody proposes for me to do something. I just have three criteria. First, can I contribute? Second, I want to be able to learn something. I want to grow from the experience. And third, I want to work with people I admire and like.”
Fresh perspectives in play
Reflecting on her corporate board experience, she speaks of a board’s role as one that makes management “as successful as it can be” – a function that goes beyond holding management to account on risk and strategy.
“As a director, you lend your expertise, your experience, your network, to make them more successful,” she says.
As such, a board must be composed of a mix of competencies and experiences that match the firm’s needs and strategic ambitions. “For example, depending on the situation, somebody who has gone through a crisis, or turnaround situation, or a case of activism on the board. Or someone with startup experience, because they have the try-and-fail mentality, a sense of urgency, a can-do attitude.”
It may also be the case that what is needed is a younger perspective, she adds, pointing to how the younger generation relates to media and consumes information. “And in general, in terms of having a fresh perspective, length of tenure is important.”
Ang likens diversity of thought to a game of billiards, where each shot scatters the balls in different configurations. “When somebody comes in with a completely different perspective, it sparks a different level of commentary or discussion from people who’ve been discussing the same thing in the same way.”
“I’ve seen that happen. It’s not that the single diverse member has the solution, but just by throwing something in which people have not considered before, it sparks their thinking and their openness. I have benefited from my colleagues’ very diverse and different approaches and experiences, which then makes me reconsider.”
Translating expertise to impact
In 2019, inspired and informed by her professional roles through the years, Ang and her husband started making grants to social organisations in Africa that are active in communities with little to no access to infrastructure and services. “I look at it like I do an investment portfolio,” she shares.
One of the ventures they have been supporting is Kidogo, a Kenya-based social enterprise that focuses on early childhood development services in East Africa. Kidogo helps bridge the striking gap in childcare in communities where working mothers often had to leave infants and young children at informal, unlicensed and congested creches. Without proper care, the children could enter school later with physical and learning difficulties, and be trapped in the intergenerational cycle of poverty.
“We’ve been lucky and successful in what we do, we wanted to start giving back. I was familiar with Africa because of my work with BII, so I had a bit of a network.”
“Once a year, I visit some of these organisations which are in healthcare, livelihoods, education, and nutrition. It can be a tough journey, but it’s important to see the reality on the ground so that you understand the challenges that these organisations face.”
Every moment is a teachable moment – learning from diversity