#FridayFive from the Executive Director: 29 August 2025

Its an admission of a blunder in this weeks #FridayFive theme across another busy week at the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore (BritCham); allow me to explain…

1. Sorrell’s Story: our Marketing and Communications business committee Co-Chair, Andrew Clark, interviewed the media mogul Sir Martin Sorrell, recognised for building WPP into the world's largest communications services group and for his ongoing influence with @S4 Capital. Hosted at the brilliant Poddster Singapore (thank you Borko and your amazing team), our live studio audience were able to hear directly from Martin about his career journey and views on the world. A fascinating session, and one to look out for on our podcast channel in the coming weeks.

2.  Overseas Network: Lucy and I welcomed CEO of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Singapore, on his way through to Australia. We talked about sharing opportunities for Londons business community to explore Singapore and Southeast Asia. Trade digitalisation, exports, Fintech, innovation, ecosystems… there wasn’t much we didn’t cover! Safe onward journey Karim Fatehi OBE and see you back in Singapore soon!

3.  Realising Opportunity in Japan: I had the absolute pleasure of hosting the brilliant Mitsuru Myochin, Director-General for Foreign Direct Investment Promotion, Cabinet Office of Japan for a recorded presentation (soon to be released). Did you know that Japan is ranked number 1 in Asia for FDI Confidence?

4.  Recounting Connections: So many connections this week. Thanks to Joaquin Lasso for the excellent sharing of notes, Chris Walters for reconnecting with the Chamber from Baringa, Emma Loynes for your counsel and support, Sarah Howard MBE for our master plan for your SEA trip, Jack Chuang from OC&C Strategy Consultants for visiting the office, the impressive Philip Johnson (ACII) and Jennifer Gray ACII from Price Forbes, and David Ashton from EY for your amazing brain and ideas. And, we launched our Student CEO Experience this week, giving students the opportunity to meet the best business leaders in our network.

5.   Yes to Networking: Following our August Board meeting, the Chamber hosted (in my view one of the BEST!) Back to Work networking receptions. So many new members, so many great friends and connections, and what a venue. Thank you to my team, and to Marcel NA Holman and his team at Artyzen Singapore who made it not just a fab evening socialising, but a truly brilliant super-connecting evening.

And to my faux pas... I meet a lot of people, and I made the mistake of confusing two awesome people with each other (oops!) which I seemed to have done a few times. So, "sorry" to the brilliant Karin Stenstam and Honor Puciato. You’re both awesome, and thank you Karin for actually letting me know!! Here’s a picture of the three of us, and it just goes to show, we are all human, and making the odd mistake can actually help you to make even better and stronger connections.

Have a good weekend all.