At 69, when many CPAs are relishing retirement, Loh Hoon Sun FCPA is still in the thick of business life as managing director of Singapore-based Phillip Securities. The retirement age in Singapore is 62, soon rising to 64 because of the skills shortage. But this will still make Loh five years older than the average retiree.

'Certainly I'm unusual,' he admits. 'I'm part of a very small minority, but as long as I'm healthy, enjoy the job and am able to contribute, I'll be doing it,' he says with a gentle smile.

The Chinese-born, Malaysian-raised and Australian-tertiary-educated CPA and Singapore based seems to have the energy and enthusiasm of someone half his age. He certainly shows no sign of fatigue, even after flying into Melbourne from Singapore the night before to attend a CPA Australia Education advisory committee meeting.

He recommends such involvement to others. 'I have enjoyed and benefited from my active involvement in CPA Australia. It is a good training ground for teamwork and leadership. It provides opportunities for networking and professional updates. It is gratifying to note that your efforts contribute, in a small way, to raising the standard of professionalism and to provide a better and wider range of membership services.' He is also a past president of the Singapore division and a life member.

His voluntary work for CPA Australia is only one of 12 outside positions he holds, including memberships of the Implementation committee on financing for SMEs and the GST board of review. At Phillip he holds seven directorships. He is also a director of OTC Capital, Singapore's over-the-counter trading platform operator. It's enough to make the average CPA of any age a little weary.

Loh's main challenge is to keep Phillip Securities at the forefront of an increasingly global and competitive business.

'To stay in the forefront, we have to constantly initiate innovative new products and services,' he says. 'We also need a team of able and dedicated colleagues to deliver them, and to provide good-quality services to clients. Brainpower and manpower are our great challenges.'

In the 17 years he's spent at the company, Loh has seen the stockbroking industry change dramatically in Singapore, just as it has globally.

'In 1990 it was a closed shop,' he explains. 'To be a stockbroking firm you had to buy a seat on the exchange, and seats were limited. Foreign brokers who wanted to buy Singapore shares had to buy them through a local broker. All commissions were set at 1 per cent. But that all changed in 1997 when the markets opened up and commissions become negotiable and foreign brokers were allowed to buy directly. There's much more volume in the market today. We now have a smaller share of a bigger pie.'

Phillip Securities has developed alongside the market. It operates in 11 countries including Australia, and has diversified from pure broking into a wide range of financial services, including futures and managed funds. The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has recently received in principle approval to set up a representative office in China. Loh believes this will make Chinese companies wishing to raise funds, as well as investors looking for investment opportunities, more aware of the attractiveness of the SGX and its range of products.

'Hopefully this will enlarge the financial markets in Singapore, thereby benefiting all market participants including ourselves,' he says.

Securities may be Loh's passion but he's taken a circuitous route to the industry, having undertaken roles in public practice, mining, forestry, plantations and oil since his graduation with a bachelor of economics (first class honours) from the University of Queensland in 1964. 'No one job was a conscious choice,' he says happily. 'Whatever job came round I took, I was just open to new experiences.'

His first job was in public practice in Brisbane, but after a year homesickness made him take a job as a manager for Singapore Unit Trusts – at the time the only unit trust fund management company in the country. Today there are 56 companies managing more than 700 funds. Looking for change he then experienced life as an estate accountant working for a British plantation company in Malaysia, and subsequently as a financial controller and company secretary for a Malaysian-owned logging and mining company. Then it was back to Singapore to work for an oil company.

In the early 1970s he found his metier and passion: banking and finance, working first for the United Overseas Bank and then a 14-year stint for the Overseas Union Bank, ending up as executive vice president. 'I would say banking really gave me experience of the outside world, then to move into stockbroking was wonderful. It is an exciting industry to be in. The market moves so fast and is sensitive to political and economic news. Keeping up to date with economic trends is essential,' he says with the enthusiasm of someone who has just begun their career.

'I've gone through many industries and I have no regrets about this. My experience has given me a lot of perspectives on management.

'I've worked with Australian management, British management, American management, Malaysian management and Singaporean management. They all had different styles and I learned something valuable from each,' he says.

He cites leadership, vision and people management as the most important qualities a managing director might have. And his people-management skills may be due in part to a short stint as a tram conductor during his time at university, a job that broadened his horizons and taught him a lot about people.

'Vacation jobs were hard to find in Brisbane, so I travelled south to Melbourne, where I had friends studying,' he recounts. 'I enjoyed being a conductor. It was interesting getting to know the different types of people.'

Reference: February 2008, volume 78:01, p. 23 – 24