In our current tight labour market, this could be the single biggest challenge most entrepreneurs face in Singapore and Hong Kong. Finding the right staff is not easy, and then ensuring that they are engaged, loyal and thrive personally and professionally with your business is really the holy grail. We also have legal challenges with work permits, LOCs, EPs, foreigner passes – the regulations are constantly changing (and continuously challenging!). We ask three successful entrepreneurs and business leaders to share their journey and experiences and give us the inside tips on how to hire and retain staff, when to outsource and when to hire.
Michael De Wolf
HR Business Partner, JAPAC, Google
Michael joins us from Google, where he’s an HR Business Partner for the JAPAC Sales Org. He’s had the opportunity to lead HR teams in APAC, UK and Australia in organisations such as HubSpot, Bloomberg, Channel 4 News, MSD and Accenture. Overall, he has 18 years of experience as a strategic HR Business Partner with experience at working small, medium and large scale organisations.
Sima Saadat
Head Of Marketing, APAC, General Assembly
Sima is the Head of Marketing, APAC for General Assembly. She joins the team with over 10 years of experience in the tech industry, creating marketing strategies, building go-to-market campaigns, nurturing relationships, and hosting events.
Before she moved to Singapore Sima worked at an edtech company in the Silicon Valley, where she helped grow their brand awareness and customer base through Digital Marketing, Events, Email Campaigns, Social Media, Project Management and Sales Support. Prior to that, she worked at a variety of adtech start ups in San Francisco as their Marketing Manager.
Sima is excited about using her marketing experience, along with her passion for education and sustainability, to create networks that will help us all work together towards building a better future.
Angela Neo
Head of People and Culture, Honeycombers
Angela is a Human Capital Business Partner whose career has spanned professional services, construction and media companies in Asia, Australia and the Caribbean. Angela believes a values-led approach is the key to a successful talent attraction and retention strategy, a strategy she has embedded in her current position as Head of People and Culture at Honeycombers.