INTHEBLACK December - January 2022 - Magazine - Page 22
STRATEGIC CAREER MOVES
Member profile
AT A GLANCE
22
DEC 2022
JAN 2023
INTHEBLACK CAREER, ELEVATED SPECIAL EDITION
Len Jui FCPA is deputy chair
of the International Auditing
and Assurance Standards
Board (IAASB).
He is KPMG’s Asia-Pacific
lead on public policy and
regulatory affairs.
Before joining the IAASB, Jui
worked with the US Securities
and Exchange Commission’s
Office of the Chief Accountant.
STORY CHRIS SHEEDY
PHOTOGRAPHY STEFEN CHOW
A CAREER
LESS ORDINARY
Len Jui FCPA chose a career in audit to get out from behind a desk.
Fast-forward a few decades and he’s shaping international audit
standards – while pursuing his passion for travel and photography.
Len Jui FCPA’s life to date has rarely
involved staying in one place for long. The
deputy chair of the International Auditing
and Assurances Board (IAASB) and
KPMG’s Asia-Pacific lead on public policy
and regulatory affairs has known from a very
young age that diversity of experience is
typically a positive.
In the mid-1970s, when Jui was just
13 years old and living in Taiwan, his
parents decided that greater diversity of
life experience would be beneficial for their
son. He spent the following five years at a
boarding school in the UK.
It is easy to assume that such an experience
would be highly stressful, or perhaps even
emotionally devastating, for such a young
boy. Jui, however, took it all in his stride,
considering it a wondrous adventure.
“I guess I was too young – or too stupid –
to recognise the pressure,” Jui smiles. “I just
embraced the experience. I know people who
felt a lot of stress at a young age for various
reasons, but I didn’t feel any of that.
“I was in a small village in England, where
there was no diversity. I was probably the
only East Asian person there. While I knew
I was different, I didn’t feel any pressure.
“For my first year, I barely spoke a word of
English, so I couldn’t go to school. I ended
up living that year with a retired couple, both
over 75, who had lived through both world
wars and numerous economic recessions.”
The couple sat with Jui every morning to
teach him English. They put a book in his
hand and asked him to read by repeating
what they said. At first, there was no
emphasis on understanding the words, just
on pronunciation and tone of voice.
“They protected me,” he says. “They took
me out every day, but kept me sheltered.
They’d take me out to the countryside
to have a picnic and kept me away from
anything bad. So, maybe for that reason I
just didn’t know how different I was.
“They were such nice people, and I took
so much from their stories of hardship, of
world wars, of bombings, of food rationing