The best leaders are known to have a catalytic effect on the projects they spearhead, and the people they work with. Elaine Lim-Chan demonstrates this quality while successfully maintaining a healthy social and family life. Susanah Cheok finds out what defines her leadership philosophy.
Elaine Lim-Chan believes that staying on top of her game involves acknowledging her strengths, embracing her flaws and following her intuition. Elaine wears the RM 07-01 Ladies’ Automatic Bracelet watch by Richard Mille; and outfit by Dior.
A formidable interplay of humility, fearlessness and team-centredness fuel Elaine Lim-Chan’s bang-on decisions at work, something the devoted wife and “mother” of three beautiful dogs, Tin Tin, Miu Miu and Zo Zo, pursues with missionary zeal during the work week.
An established name in the wealth management industry, the MBA holder of Imperial College London thinks nothing of working 12-hour weekdays. She makes herself available on her Blackberry until midnight, and spends her weekends poring over her husband Kok Weng’s clinic accounts and marketing collaterals.
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Elaine may give nothing less than 110 per cent at work, but to her, all that is secondary to family. She is foremost a wife, daughter, sister and pet parent, who defines success as “having happiness in family life and marriage, and enjoying doing the things you do”. With the latter, she means driving fast cars, caring for her dogs and travelling.
“Be strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know when you need help, brave enough to ask for it.”
Once the world’s first female president of a Ferrari Owner’s Club, Elaine is a firm believer in passion and perseverance. And it was her hardworking parents, who came from a humble background, who inculcated these single-minded traits. When the going gets tough, she remembers this: “Stay positive. Failure is not the opposite of success, but part of it.”
Photography: Darren Gabriel Leow
Art Direction: Matilda Au
Styling: Randolph Tan
Hair: Grego/Indigo Artisans, using La Biosthetique
Make-Up: Sha Shamsi/Indigo Artisans, using Tom Ford Beauty
Photographer's assistant: Eric Tan and Darren Chan
Stylist’s assistant: Ong Jollin
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