My contribution to a board
What I would bring to a board is the operating view of a company whose products are made in several countries by people who are not all its citizens. Many listed industrial companies in the region now run plants in several countries, depend on migrant or contract labour and are audited by multinational customers. I have written papers on plant moves, labour practice and customer findings for Kelvorne's board since 2021, and before that I read the other side of them as a customer's auditor.
I can help a board test three things that are hard to see from the boardroom. The first is whether a relocation or ramp-up is really finished, or only signed off. The second is whether the company's labour practices hold true below its first-tier agencies, including what workers paid to reach it. The third is whether quality and safety measures describe every shift or only the average. In each case I know which records exist and which answers are only presentations.
I would be most useful on a risk committee, or the risk side of an audit and risk committee, and on a sustainability committee where labour practice is a standing item. I lack the accounting depth to chair an audit committee and would not claim it. Singapore's Code of Corporate Governance expects boards to have a strong independent element and committees led by people with relevant experience, and I would rather earn a chair after a year as a member than arrive in one.
I would also bring a habit that matters in founder-influenced companies: putting disagreement in writing, with evidence. I have argued against my chief executive on two matters the Kelvorne board decided, the Bac Ninh opening date and the Suzhou split, and our working relationship survived because each argument was a paper rather than a lobbying campaign.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
|---|
| Ready to chair | A board risk committee, or the risk side of an audit and risk committee, after a year as a member · Sustainability Committee, after a year as a member |
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| Ready to join | Audit and Risk Committee · Sustainability Committee · Nominating Committee |
|---|
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 25 days per year
- Current directorships
- 2
- Sectors
- Food and beverage manufacturing with plants in several countries · Medical consumables and disposables · Building materials and industrial products · Contract logistics and cold-chain warehousing
- Company type
- An industrial company listed in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, with plants in more than one Southeast Asian country, a substantial migrant or contract workforce and no commercial relationship with Kelvorne, its customers or its recruitment agencies
- Company stage
- An established manufacturer moving capacity between countries, or one answering a recent labour-practice or customer-audit finding
The seat I am pursuing
I am looking for one independent non-executive directorship at an industrial company listed in Singapore or Malaysia, with revenue of perhaps S$300 million to S$2 billion and plants in more than one country. Food and beverage manufacturers, makers of medical consumables, building-materials producers and contract logistics businesses interest me most, because they share the questions I know: migrant and contract labour, customer and certification audits, energy-hungry sites and capacity moving across borders.
I would like to join the risk or audit and risk committee and the sustainability committee, and after a year to chair one of them if the board wishes. I would want a board that discusses plants and people as seriously as acquisitions and dividends, and a chair who welcomes dissent set down in writing.
While I remain an executive at Kelvorne I would hold one listed directorship only, with about twenty-five days a year set aside for it, including plant visits.
Judgement in practice
01Telling the committee before we had a plan
When the customer's audit found recruitment fees at Johor in June 2021, some colleagues wanted to wait until we could present a costed remediation. I telephoned the chair of our Audit and Risk Committee within a week to tell her what we knew, what we did not and when we would know more, and I put the preliminary finding to the full committee at its next meeting. The committee asked a question I had not: how the amounts would be verified independently of management and of the agencies. Its answer, an outside firm interviewing workers in their own languages, became part of our method. As a director I would want the same early, incomplete account from management, and I would be wary of an executive who always waits for a finished plan.
02Withdrawing my own automation paper
In 2023 I submitted a S$11 million proposal for robotic bending and welding cells in Johor. After it reached the board pack, my team found that its payback assumed an increase in the foreign-worker levy that had been discussed publicly but not enacted. I withdrew the paper from that meeting, told the chair why, and resubmitted it a quarter later, built on labour exposure and with a slower payback. The board approved a S$6.5 million first phase. The lesson I would carry into a boardroom is to ask, for every capital paper, which assumptions rest on policy that is announced rather than law that is in force, and how the case looks without them.
03A donated machine with conditions attached
In 2022 a machine-tool supplier offered the Seberang Skills Centre three five-axis machining centres worth about RM 3 million, on condition that our courses would be taught on its brand alone and that its sales staff could present to trainees each term. Several governors wanted to accept at once, because the centre could not afford such machines. I argued that a training centre used by dozens of manufacturers had to stay neutral about equipment, and proposed accepting the machines without exclusivity or sales access. The supplier agreed after two months. The centre now teaches on three brands. On any board I would look for the conditions attached to a gift, a discount or a partnership before admiring its value.
My first year on a board
My first year would be organised around places before papers. Before my first committee meeting I would ask to see every plant the company operates in the region, including one night shift and one workers' dormitory, accompanied by the plant director rather than by investor relations. I would read two years of board and committee minutes, the risk register with its history of changes, and the latest customer and certification audit reports.
I would ask for two conversations without management present: one with the external auditor's engagement partner, and one with whoever leads internal audit or social compliance.
Throughout the year I would keep asking one question: for the company's largest operating risk, what does the board see that management does not already choose to show it? I would not expect to chair anything in that first year. At its end I would ask the chair which of my questions had been useful and which had only added work, and agree my second-year contribution on that basis.
Conflicts and their management
Three relationships determine where I can and cannot serve. The first is Kelvorne itself. I am a full-time executive, I hold its shares and unvested performance share awards, and I would not join any company that competes with Kelvorne, supplies it with more than incidental goods or buys from it. That rules out semiconductor-equipment makers and their contract manufacturers, precision machining and welding firms, and the larger agencies that recruit for our plants.
The second is Varunda Systems, where I worked for almost eleven years and which is now Kelvorne's largest customer. I hold no Varunda shares and no benefits that depend on its performance, but I would treat any company with a significant Varunda relationship as conflicted.
The third is the Seberang Skills Centre, where I am a governor. If a company whose board I joined used the centre, I would declare it and stay out of related decisions.
Before any appointment I would give the nominating committee this list in writing and seek my own board's consent. After appointment I would declare any new interest at the next meeting, leave the room for the item concerned, and resign if a conflict became structural rather than occasional.
My independence statement
I would come to a board as an employee of another listed company, and that is the first fact a nominating committee should weigh. I own Kelvorne shares and hold unvested performance share awards; I worked for almost eleven years at the company that is now Kelvorne's largest customer; and I govern a Penang training centre that many manufacturers use. I would set all of this out in writing before any appointment. Whether I can be regarded as independent of a particular company under the rules that apply to it is for that company's board to decide, and I would accept its conclusion.
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Kelvorne Precision Limited
Board of directors: quarterly operations reviews, capital expenditure, plant transfers and the Batu Kawan expansion
April 2021–present
Presents operations papers and capital requests at every scheduled board meeting; not a director of the company and has no vote.
Reported to a committee
Kelvorne Precision Limited
Audit and Risk Committee: operational risk register, customer-audit findings and the recruitment-fee remediation
June 2021–present
Reports each half-year on operational and supply risks, and reported on the fee programme at every meeting until its closure in 2022.
Reported to a committee
Kelvorne Precision Limited
Sustainability Committee: labour practice, dormitory standards, energy and emissions
January 2022–present
Reports twice a year on migrant-worker recruitment, working hours, grievances and energy use across the five plants.
Served as a director
Kelvorne Precision (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
Board of the wholly owned Malaysian subsidiary
July 2018–present
Director in an executive capacity, approving the subsidiary's accounts, capital spending within group limits and employment policies.
Served as a director
Seberang Skills Centre
Board of governors and its Finance Committee
March 2019–present
Non-executive governor of a not-for-profit technician-training centre; member of its Finance Committee, which reviews budgets, fees and donations.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
The IICA Independent Directors' Databank is an Indian register for people appointed as independent directors of Indian companies. It does not apply to the Singapore and Malaysian seats I am considering, so I have not registered, and the status shown here reflects that alone. If an Indian board ever approached me, I would look at the requirement then.
- Every Kelvorne board meeting since April 2021 as a presenter, and Audit and Risk and Sustainability Committee meetings as a reporting executive
- Seven years as a governor of the Seberang Skills Centre, including its Finance Committee
- A two-day course on directors' duties under Singapore company law and listing rules, completed in 2024
- Annual briefings from Kelvorne's company secretary and external auditors on changes to listing rules and the Code of Corporate Governance