Michelle Lau - Taking The Bull By Its Horns
The PEAK Singapore|May 2021
Michelle Lau has never shied away from challenges, but the new CEO of IPG Howden Singapore is facing her toughest one yet as she bravely leads the organisation into an uncertain but exciting future.
Farhan Shah
Michelle Lau - Taking The Bull By Its Horns

It wasn’t the best day to dive. The waters were choppy and the skies were a menacing shade of grey, but Michelle Lau and her friends were confident that nothing could go wrong.

They took the boat out, dropped anchor and went overboard with their tanks and wetsuits. Halfway through the dive, Lau realized her diving buddy was no longer by her side. She stayed calm and ascended to the surface. That’s when panic set in.

The boat was nowhere to be seen and the sea had transformed into one tempestuous beast. “I was paddling in different directions, but I couldn’t see anything at all. I could have died then,” Lau reflects. The boat and her friends did finally find her a few excruciating minutes later. The 51-year-old tells me they can laugh about it now – although the taste of seawater on her tongue still gives her a bit of trauma.

That incident changed her. “It happened the year I was going to graduate. I began taking life seriously and started thinking about what I wanted to do next after that.” She was 21.

RAPID ASCENSION

This story is from the May 2021 edition of The PEAK Singapore.

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This story is from the May 2021 edition of The PEAK Singapore.

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