#FridayFive from the Executive Director: 18 July 2025

This week I celebrated my 6th year as Executive Director at the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore (BritCham) 🙌 - From Team UK to Quiz Teams in this weeks #FridayFive – here is my week and hope I’m not going to wibble on…

1. Supporting Team UK; It was an absolute pleasure to welcome the Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon David Lammy MP for an exclusive evening event, as we talked about the Chamber and UK Gov’t relationship and what more we can do as part of team UK to support the growth agenda following his speech in March at the British Chambers of Commerce International Trade Conference. Thank you to Nikesh Mehta and Steve Firstbrook and the UK in Singapore team for the opportunity. I have some actions to support Chambers across the international network. Particular thanks to those who joined on Saturday evening (James Nesbitt Preeti Arora Razdan John Laws Suzy Goulding Emma Loynes Kai Yea Soh Giovanni Spadaro Michael Buchanan)

2. Killing the Quiz: Great to host our 3rd Annual Big Pub Quiz. Thanks to all the teams and well done to Virtus Law LLP (Stephenson Harwood (Singapore) Alliance) as the winning team. Brilliant to host at The Lion Brewery and further thanks to Pan Pacific Hotels Group and Amici for sponsoring the prizes. A special Happy Birthday to Andrew Clark too! Amazing team, and thanks to all, and especially Caitrin Moh and Lydia Rigby.

3. Inward investment: It was good to meet Franky T. from Standard Chartered Singapore as we talked about opportunities for partnership between the Chamber, and generally share about both of our worlds and how we can support the market here and in the UK.

4. Looking forward: thank you to James Price for his help and discussions on the engagement of hashtag#AI within the Chamber. As a committee chair (and winner of our small business award last year), its great to share notes and thank you James for you time this week.

5. Leaving and a Welcome: Thank you to Christian Nesbitt who has been working with us for a few months. Christian, you’ve been a brilliant addition to the team and we all wish you all the best; you have a very bright future ahead. Welcome to Hana Baker to the team. A huge warm welcome, and we look forward to working with you.

It was International World Youth Skills Day earlier this week, something I am particularly passionate about. Have a good weekend when you get there and see you soon :)