INTHEBLACK March 2025 - Magazine - Page 32
MEMBER PROFILE
ONE PIECE OF ADVICE
Become a storyteller
“Finance leaders are in
a wonderful and unique position
of having a full view of how
business strategies and decisions
manifest into financial numbers.
Nevertheless, the role is not
just about assessing what has
happened to a business in the
past 12 months, but also
communicating with
stakeholders where the
business is heading over
the next 12 to 24 months
and beyond. To do that,
finance leaders need to have
a great storytelling ability.”
the promotion came just a year after his wife,
Merlin, passed away.
“I still remember that she would always
say, ‘Oh, how I wish that I could see you
make partner,’” Lee says. “There’s this
bittersweet feeling that, well, I had finally
made it professionally, yet she’s not around
to witness it.”
The personal setback has provided
even more motivation for Lee to succeed
professionally, and he has drawn on a
mix of talent and dedication to make
his mark. Despite the talk of artificial
intelligence easing the workload for modern
professionals, Lee’s advice for up-and-coming
accountants is clear: do not underestimate
the value of hard work.
“If you don’t put in the work, you are not
creating opportunities for success,” Lee says.
An advocate of being genuine and
authentic, Lee strives to practise what he
preaches every day as he oversees the
EY Singapore assurance practice, seeing
it as his role to lead a harmonious team that
can, in turn, deliver great results for clients.
32 INTHEBLACK March 2025
“What I do day-to-day is try to make
a positive impact on employees’ lives and
make their life a lot easier in order for them
to be able to focus on serving our clients
to the best of their ability.”
DEEPENING THE TALENT POOL
With a career-long commitment to
the assurance sector, Lee is committed
to nurturing the next generation of
accounting talent and shaping the future
of the profession. In addition to his role
at CPA Australia, he is an advisory board
member of Singapore Management
University’s School of Accountancy and
a member of the Institute of Singapore
Chartered Accountants (ISCA) Salary
and Career Review Taskforce.
Like many sectors, Lee believes the
greatest challenge facing the accounting
profession in Singapore is generating
sufficient talent. He believes the root
cause of the talent shortage is that “there
are a lot of misconceptions about the
accounting profession”.
