"If you are willing to learn new things, open your mind ... Temasek is an incredible learning journey," CEO Dilhan Pillay says in an exclusive interview with CNA.New: You can now listen to articles.SINGAPORE: When Temasek CEO Dilhan Pillay agreed to join the company, he was meant to have a four-month break between jobs.
At the time, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain were struggling in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. European leaders approved a €750 billion stabilisation package to support these economies."And then, she told me later on it’s even becoming more acute, so Sep 1," he said."I left Aug 31 and started Sep 1. What a baptism of fire."
"I thought I was temporarily giving up the law, because I didn't intend to stay in Temasek for long," he said. "Your intelligence sources are different from what you have in Singapore because your feet are on the ground in the market," he said. "I watched that, and I thought, that's a good way of making sure your decisions are calibrated," he said.
Temasek now has a stable, somewhat mature portfolio, whereas Mdm Ho had a stable portfolio in Singapore only, and had to build a growth portfolio.