“We’ve learnt lessons from the past, from the likes of Enron, the Asian Financial Crisis and the Global Financial Crisis, and we’re more cognisant of operational, legal and financial risk,” she recounts.
In a wide-ranging interview, Yiong Yim Ming, group CFO of City Developments (CDL), describes her role and what it is really like. These include bidding for land, hedging foreign exchange (forex) exposure, and other exciting developments at one of the oldest listed developers on the Singapore Exchange.
“CFOs are always financial stewards. Being a financial steward of capital, risk and where to deploy capital is fundamental to a CFO’s role,” Yiong says. “The CFO is also a business partner and an enabler of growth, efficiency and optimisation, [speaking to] the numbers, the amount of confidence that people place in you.”
