RISE & SHINE

In an intense sharing session with the high-flying women from SCCCI's Career Women's Group, Prestige uncovers the hidden levers of success.

-  JENNIFER CHEN

“I came to be in SCCCI's Career Women's Group for the wrong reasons," confides Dr Hwang Yee Cheau, the chief executive officer of TP Dental Surgeons and current chairperson of the group. Not that those reasons were nefarious. When Yee Cheau was asked to join the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) in 2011, she immediately said "yes", despite not knowing anything about the organisation. It was a "forbidden fruit" she could not resist. She had grown up with a father and a grandfather who had belonged to the Malaysian Chinese Chamber of Commerce and they had forbade her, a girl, from accompanying them to the group's meetings. Entering SCCCI, therefore, was like hacking into an all boys club. The Chamber, despite having been established in 1906, created CWG only in 1994 and admitted two women into its council only in 1995. Today, CWG has more than 900 members ranging from upper echelon executives to those at the start of their careers.

Prestige sits down with the inimitable sexagenarian and her fellow committee members, 30-something Rachel Sim, director of V3 Group that owns homegrown brands such as Osim and LAC as well as V3 Gourmet, and Chin Wei Jia, the 40-something group chief executive officer of regional healthcare group, HMI Medical, to tap into the collective experiences and wisdom of the network.

Jennifer Chen: How have challenges for women leaders changed in the past 10 years and how does a network like CWG help women leaders overcome these challenges?