| Danial Norjidi |
THE Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has announced a new Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer for Darussalam Enterprise (DARe).
“By command of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, the Prime Minister’s Office has announced that His Majesty has consented to the appointment of Loo Yau Soon (Soon Loo) as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Darussalam Enterprise (DARe),” said a press release from the PMO. “The date of appointment is effective from Tuesday, March 22, 2016.”
Soon Loo is Managing Director of Seri Venture Capital, a firm that invests in Bruneian companies that have ambitions of regional expansion. He has been serving on boards of directors of public and private companies in Brunei, China and Singapore, including being the chairman and board member of a public listed Asian company that went IPO for $2 billion of market capitalisation.
He also held the position of Regional Vice President for the AXA Group in Asia Pacific, where he worked on business development and strategy for the regional office that oversaw companies under the group in 11 Asia Pacific countries with a total business of US$9.5 billion. In addition, Soon was also entrusted with managing the $120 million retail-line general insurance business for the ACA Group in Singapore.
In an interview with the Bulletin yesterday, Soon said, “I thank His Majesty for giving me an opportunity to serve the country.”
Loo Yau Soon (Soon Loo), the new Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Darussalam Enterprise (DARe). – DANIAL NORJIDI
“As a Bruneian, it’s an honour to be able to leverage my entrepreneurial and international experience to help build the small and medium enterprises (SME) ecosystem at this time.”
Soon Loo holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School and started his career in technology, co-founding a tech company in Silicon Valley that raised over US$37 million of venture capital. The firm went on to be recognised as a top 20 leading emerging technology company for the Red Herring Magazine’s NDA conference.
He was awarded the prestigious ‘Ten Outstanding Young Persons of The World’ (TOYP) award organised by Junior Chamber International (JCI) and received the honour in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. The JCI TOYP award has been in its current form for over 30 years, and aims to recognise active world citizens who excel in their chosen fields and create positive change in society. Past recipients of the awards include Bill Clinton, John F Kennedy and Jackie Chan, all of whom won the accolade before the age of 40.
“The job of DARe is a job that belongs to all of us, the entire DARe team, the Energy and Industry Department, Prime Minister’s Office (EIDPMO) and all the different ministries that we need to work together with and the SMEs to make this happen,” he highlighted in the interview. “So I want to appreciate everyone in advance so that we can win together.”
He shared that there are three things DARe must do very well in the short and mid-term.
“The first thing is that we need to understand and help resolve the various issues that SMEs are facing, because we are on their side,” he said.
“The second thing is that we need to bring in the best practices that we have seen in the region and beyond and be able to work out with our people such that they can learn those, such as marketing, finance, sales or e-commerce, so we can at least be on par with what the region is doing right now.”
“The third thing is to start positioning part of our SMEs to be export-oriented and to be ready to venture overseas. If you don’t have this third thing, we’ll be in the same GDP and nothing will change.”
“It’s a great opportunity right now that we are in one of the biggest potential markets in the world, which is Asean, 600 million people, and being in the middle of it, we must capitalise on that.”
“So the first two are to make sure that the foundation is set here, and the next one is to go out.”
He was positive about the progress DARe has made so far, saying that, given that it was only formed in January, what the team has done was “phenomenal” under the leadership of the Minister of Energy and Industry at the Prime Minister’s Office, Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Haji Mohammad Yasmin bin Haji Umar; the Permanent Secretary (Industry) at the Prime Minister’s Office, Adi Shamsul bin Haji Sabli; and the Deputy Permanent Secretary (IT, E-Government and Industry) at the Prime Minister’s Office, Muhammad Norshafiee bin Dato Paduka Haji Abdul Jalil.
“I think the DARe team has done a phenomenal job of getting the ball rolling, integrating the various functions of all the ministries, reaching out to the SMEs, understanding what they’re about,” he said. “More can be done, and that’s the journey that we are going to go on,” Soon added.
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