Intan Teo · Chief Technology Officer · Singapore / Southeast Asia
A board overseeing physical infrastructure needs someone who can test management's account of technical risk without taking over management's job. That is what I would offer. For twenty-five years I have worked on equipment that must keep running far from help: substations, battery rooms, remote towers and island plants. I know how such systems usually fail, which is quietly, through a changed setting, an untested update, a supplier connection nobody listed or a monitoring screen that treats silence as health. I can help directors ask questions that reveal those weaknesses before an incident does. I am also used to reporting bad news in plain terms. I have told our risk and safety committee about a battery overheating, a firmware release that would have breached interconnection settings and a migration that ran diesel longer than planned. I would expect the same candour from management, and I would help a board distinguish an honest near miss from a pattern. My limits matter too. I am not a financial expert, I have not served as a director, and I would need time to understand a new company's regulation, contracts and capital structure.
| Capacity | Committees |
|---|---|
| Ready to join | Risk and safety · Technology and cyber risk |
The seat I would value most is on the board of a Southeast Asian company whose assets are spread out and whose safety, reliability or cyber exposure matters to the communities it serves. That could be a power or water operator, a port or a manufacturer with critical plant, listed or privately held. I would like to join a risk and safety or a technology committee, working under a chair who expects members to visit operations and challenge management on evidence. I am not seeking a role as the board's technology adviser, and I would be uncomfortable if directors expected me to answer technical questions on management's behalf. I want to share responsibility for the whole company, learn its finances and stakeholders, and contribute a habit of asking what happens when things fail.
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
The Indian independent directors' databank does not apply to my Singapore and Southeast Asian board interests, and I am not registered with it.
Presented to the Board or a committee
Risk and safety committee of the board
March 2021–present
Presents technology, battery safety and operational-technology security reports each quarter, including incidents, near misses and derating decisions; attends board meetings for technical items. Not a director.
Reported to a committee
Audit committee
2014–2016
Reported findings on site security, fuel loss and monitoring gaps across remote tower sites on several occasions as head of remote site engineering.
When one container overheated, the strongest argument for limiting our response was that the other identical containers had never misbehaved. As a director, I would listen for that argument whenever management proposes to treat a shared design weakness site by site. I would ask whether the hazard comes from how equipment is built or from how one unit was used, who has authority to restrict operation, and whether that person can act without commercial approval. I would also want to know what the restriction costs and who outside the company bears it, since in our case cooperatives and households paid part of the price. A board should support management in accepting that cost when the hazard is real, and should ask to see the evidence that removes the restriction rather than allowing it to fade quietly.
The inverter link showed me that the most important connections into a plant may arrive inside a warranty package. On another board, I would ask management for a complete list of external parties able to change settings or firmware on operational equipment, how that access is approved and recorded, and what testing happens before an update reaches the field. I would not expect every link to be closed. Supplier help has real value, and slower repairs are a real cost that a committee should see alongside the reduction in exposure. What I would resist is the assumption that because a large manufacturer is reputable, its access needs no oversight. The question for directors is whether the company knows its own equipment well enough to say who can alter its behaviour.
I would spend my first months learning the company before offering views on it. I would ask to visit at least two operating sites, including one of the most remote, and to spend a shift in whatever room monitors them. I would read the last two years of incident reports, safety audits and internal audit findings, and ask management which three technical risks worry them most and which they think the board underrates. With the chair's agreement, I would meet the external auditor and any independent engineer appointed by lenders. In committee, I would begin by asking how risks are measured and reported rather than proposing new measures. By the second half of the year, I would hope to suggest one or two improvements to how the board sees operational and cyber risk, agreed with management. I would ask the chair for direct feedback at the end of the year on where my questions helped and where I should be more restrained.
My conflicts are mostly commercial and close at hand. Lautaneri buys inverters, batteries, controllers and cooling equipment from a small number of manufacturers, sells energy to electric cooperatives and the Indonesian state utility, and is majority-owned by an infrastructure fund with other energy holdings in the region. A board that buys from the same suppliers, sells to the same customers or sits in that fund's portfolio could place me in a conflict. Before accepting any seat, I would list these relationships for the prospective chair and for Lautaneri's chief executive, and I would decline a company that competes with us for island or factory storage projects. Where a conflict arises later, I would declare it, leave the discussion and record that I had done so. I would never pass technical or commercial information between the two companies, including supplier pricing, test results or incident details.
I hold no shares in suppliers, cooperatives or competitors of Lautaneri, and I would not regard myself as independent of any company that sells to us, buys from us or shares our shareholder's portfolio until that link had been examined with its chair. Independence is for that board to judge, using my full disclosure.