How building and occupier responsibilities shaped my thirty-five-year career

Mandate

Make technology delivery, service ownership and supplier choices support the continuing life of the property portfolio.

Outcomes

• Established a usable disposition for sixty-eight digital handover packs, retaining four unresolved exceptions
• Kept assisted occupier service while examining what portal adoption did not establish
• Tested portability of 5,000 document references and preserved the remaining specialist-viewer dependency

Decisions in context

The CIO appointment brought the investment programme and the continuing technology service into one executive account. I lead ninety-two employees through four reports today, with twenty-four contractors separately and SGD28 million authority for 2026. I report to Maya Venorath and work with Darren Kelvane on the obligations property teams inherit after delivery. The current portfolio has thirty-eight properties, but my remit does not include deciding tenancy rights or certifying physical building conditions. Recent choices have made the unfinished handover, assisted service and supplier dependency visible beside the programme result. I present that account to directors without holding a board seat. The work requires me to connect the sponsor's proposed change with the people who will maintain its usefulness later, including the cost and ownership of any exception that remains after the project reaches an important milestone.

Reason for the move

Current CIO role; evaluating a limited external contribution that fits continuing executive responsibilities.

Mandate

Coordinate enterprise platforms and examine the obligations created by programme sequencing and supplier commitments.

Outcomes

• Widened platform responsibility beyond individual property and occupier applications
• Brought continuing support and supplier dependencies into investment explanations
• Developed the technology account through the 2015 ownership change

Decisions in context

As enterprise-platform director I became responsible for the arrangements connecting several operating teams, rather than one property-system subject. My team reached sixty-nine employees through five reports, with SGD17 million annual authority in the final period. The institutional investment in 2015 made it more important to explain the obligations created by a programme as well as its intended benefits. I examined the sequencing of changes, the people expected to support them and the implications of supplier choices after introduction. By the end of 2020 Velunara had thirty-one properties, 1,380 employees and SGD680 million company revenue. The scope did not make me a property investment or tenancy-policy owner. It prepared me for the CIO role because the recurring questions concerned the enterprise's continuing commitment: what it could use, what it would still depend on and who would carry the responsibility after the initial project ended.

Reason for the move

Promoted to CIO to own the broader technology service and its executive investment commitments.

Mandate

Support the service relationships between occupiers, agents and property teams through usable application routes.

Outcomes

• Connected service-account definitions to the relationships operating colleagues needed to explain
• Developed support arrangements for questions outside straightforward digital workflows
• Built cross-property experience of changing service routes without losing responsibility

Decisions in context

The occupier-systems appointment put the service conversation at the centre of my work. I led thirty-seven employees through four reports and reached SGD6.8 million annual authority by the closing period. A property account could involve several people whose roles were related but not identical. The applications needed to preserve those distinctions while helping colleagues answer ordinary requests. I worked closely with operations on the route for unresolved cases and on what users needed when the most common digital path did not fit. Velunara had twenty-two properties, 980 employees and SGD390 million company revenue by the end of 2012. I learnt to question whether a strong channel measure described the whole service obligation. The subsequent platform role widened that concern: a local improvement could depend on records, contracts and support teams elsewhere in the enterprise, and those relationships needed to be part of the investment decision.

Reason for the move

Moved to enterprise platforms as the dependencies extended across service, corporate and supplier arrangements.

Mandate

Manage property applications and the support responsibilities that continued after implementation.

Outcomes

• Took line responsibility for a property-systems team
• Established continuing support as part of the application commitment
• Brought receiving facilities colleagues into discussions about usable records

Decisions in context

My move to Velunara gave me responsibility for a team and for the way its work remained useful after introduction. I led eighteen colleagues through three reports, with authority reaching SGD2.4 million annually in the final period. Facilities users often inherited material created by a project group with different priorities. I wanted our applications and support route to help them find an answer without depending on the continued availability of the original author. The company reached twelve properties, 620 employees and SGD180 million revenue by December 2006. Those figures describe the enterprise around the appointment rather than a property operating remit I controlled. I moved into occupier systems in January 2007 because the service relationship required more attention across the portfolio. The new role would connect the lesson about usable handover with the person trying to obtain a clear response from the property team.

Reason for the move

Appointed to occupier-systems leadership as the portfolio's service relationships became more complex.

Mandate

Maintain service applications and investigate the unanswered questions around otherwise complete records.

Outcomes

• Built practical experience of property-service application support
• Learnt to connect a record problem with the colleague responsible for its meaning
• Developed the operating awareness needed for a first systems-management role

Decisions in context

I joined Orselin in July 1991 after completing my information-systems degree the previous month. I was one of six applications colleagues, with no direct reports or delegated budget. The role taught me to listen carefully when users said that a technically complete record still did not answer their question. Sometimes the missing piece was a reference; sometimes it was the person who could explain an exception. I learnt to distinguish an application repair from a responsibility that needed an operating owner. By the close of my appointment, Orselin employed 680 people and reported SGD120 million revenue. I was supporting part of that service business, not leading it. I accepted Velunara's offer because it would let me organise a team's continuing commitments and take responsibility for what happened after delivery, extending the lessons from individual support enquiries into a more deliberate management approach.

Reason for the move

Joined Velunara to manage a team and carry continuing responsibility for property-system support.