The story
18 years. Three countries. Every role chosen deliberately.
Soldering iron, not spreadsheet
I started with a Diploma in Mechatronics. My final-year project was a working PEM fuel cell test station — built for A*STAR, Singapore's national research agency. National Instruments published it as a case study. I was 20. It was the first time I understood the difference between being capable and being responsible for something that actually works.
Right tool, wrong room
My first job after the diploma was production engineering at Celestica — HP printer cartridges, automated lines, PLC fault analysis. The work was fine. The factory floor was not. Relentlessly loud. Every shift. I'm an introvert, and that mismatch answered a question I hadn't thought to ask yet: what kind of environment do I actually need to function? I sat two ACCA papers over three months to test whether accounting was the answer. It was.
They gave me more each time I finished the last thing
I joined Han's as an accounts assistant — assigned to handle receivables across all 21 outlets. I reconciled to zero every day and stacked receipts in a way the office hadn't seen before. They gave me AP, then fixed assets, then the implementation of a fixed asset module across all 21 outlets — supervising two interns, coordinating with IT, going outlet to outlet. Then the full set for a subsidiary. The General Manager told me I was capable of more and should find a bigger room. I left after ten months.
Building a finance function from scratch — the first time
The advice was: find a bigger room. AXA was it — the startup division of AXA Global Health Insurance, small team, direct access to leadership, a blank slate. My manager held the standard so high that monthly close was exhausting and formative in equal measure. She taught me how to work. I built a finance function there from scratch — accounting software, chart of accounts, everything. I didn't know I'd do it again.
HP: the best team I ever worked in
Five years in project accounting at Hewlett-Packard. EMEA operations. M&A support during the HPE/CSC merger. My journal entries were flagged internally as examples of good internal control documentation — the quietly satisfying kind of recognition. When the function was wound down and roles moved to India, I was the last one standing. I chose what came next.
Confidential deals, five entities, and a CFO standard I've carried since
I immigrated to Canada. Two months later I was in a basement, under NDA, supporting a CFO on a confidential acquisition by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. Three more acquisitions followed. Five-entity consolidation. The business reached 150 to 180 people — the financial model and the consolidation model were the architecture everyone depended on when the numbers had to be right. I learned what it looks like when a CFO understands the business deeply enough that a wrong number just looks wrong — before anyone checks the source.
Employee #2. Built everything from scratch. Again.
I joined Audi RED as the second employee. Implemented the accounting system, built the chart of accounts, designed the financial model, hired and mentored an accountant now doing their CPA. We grew from 2 people to 31. In March 2026 I was promoted to Director of Finance. And somewhere in the middle of that, I started building something of my own.