If cash flow is a company's lifeblood, the accounting and finance departments are its heart - and the appropriate CFO keeps your heart healthy. Companies rely heavily on their Chief Financial Officers, and when a position becomes available, finding the right candidate can be difficult. The CFO is a highly visible job inside any size organization, so excellent interpersonal skills are required. The CFO not only interacts with the finance and accounting departments, but their impact extends throughout the organization.
This is where a young and vibrant individual - Tracey Ooi, Group Chief Financial Officer, Sunview Group Berhad - comes in with high-level operational and finance knowledge. She possesses highly honed capabilities in forward-thinking strategies, modelling, and leadership, wherein, she has been instrumental in pushing change for better organization's finance operations in step with the ever-changing finance dynamics. She is skilled at dealing with change and has been effectively managing the organizations through those transitions.
In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights Magazine, Tracey Ooi walks us through her professional journey along with the unique traits of the company.
Tell us about your professional background and experiences. Which factors motivated you to take the role of Group Chief Financial Officer at Sunview Group Berhad?
I had clearly set a goal of getting myself promoted as a CFO by the age of 30. I have worked very hard to gain as much experience as possible with a steep learning curve; hoping that my goals can be achieved. After completing my diploma, I started my career with a small firm in Malaysia as an audit assistant back in 2015. There, I was in-charge of Audit Services. Thereafter, I joined a mid tier firm in 2016 as an audit junior, which was one of the top 10 audit firms in Malaysia called Crowe Malaysia PLT. Working with this firm provided me with more avenues to explore and gain more experience from different types of business industries. I quickly climbed the ladder and got promoted to a senior auditor. Post that, I moved to Singapore and joined Deloitte & Touche LLP in January 2020 as I wanted to go further and see beyond the walls of Malaysia. After gaining all this experience across various firms, I decided that it's time to take on another challenge, wherein, I joined another company as a finance manager and was in-charge of corporate exercises, as well as consolidation and reporting. Upon returning to Malaysia, I met Ong Hang Ping - Group Chief Executive Officer, Sunview Group Berhad He explained to me a lot about the beauty of renewable energy, and also the potential breakthrough of this industry. I spend my time studying their company profile and see what role I will be able to play in this whole engagement. I had to think about many things before accepting the offer because I believe no one likes changes. But then I realized that the change is inevitable and that is what makes us better. I decided to join the company as the Group's Financial Controller in 2021 and I have since been promoted to Group CFO at the age of 31.
How would you define Sunview Group Berhad as an organization and its position in the market? What is the unique proposition that your organization offers to its employees?
We aim to be the largest renewable energy company in Malaysia. And this is the message that the management would like to deliver to everyone in our company so as to strive towards achieving the same. Sunview Group Berhad has built robust practices with focuses on creating a family-driven culture by helping each other. We are very much ethical and transparent where we want to grow as one unit. We always encourage our employees to be open with one another and provide suggestions and ideas to help each other go forward. Further, we constantly push our employees to go beyond their limits to speed up their career progression. Even our CEO wishes all the employees to own our company's shares so that we can grow together, going forward.
As you have extensive experience in the financial industry, what has been your success mantra that constantly helps you arrive at positive outcomes?
My number one mantra in life would be to keep going and live in the present. One should never wait for the opportunity to arise, but rather create it. Too many times in my life, I have seen people wasting their precious time waiting for golden opportunity instead of taking matters into their own hands and work for it. We are led by our instincts, fears and dreams. Everyone screws it up sometimes and so have I. Throughout my career, I have fallen numerous times and have learned to do things the hard way. But I have no regrets as this has helped to position myself today. Life can be heavy, especially if you try to carry it all at once. It is important in knowing what things to keep and what things to release. So, decide what is important and let the rest go. There's always room for better things. Hence, one needs to recover and become more resilient.
Based on your strong professional experience, what advice would you give to the upcoming leaders in the same industry?
Never settle for complacency and keep setting new goals /targets. There is no finish line to this. Once you finish and achieve one goal, you will have to set the other and keep going. And one needs to always set their goals and dreams higher in order to achieve bigger things in life. Never let others dictate your goals and strive towards it at your own pace. Besides that, I believe that the renewable energy industry is the future of the energy sector. Together, we can definitely create a cleaner and more sustainable environment for our future generations.
Tracey Ooi, Chief Financial Officer, Sunview Group Berhad
Tracey Ooi, Group Chief Financial Officer, Sunview Group Berhad was born in Malaysia. She leverages seven years of unparalleled experience in the financial domain, and has worked with some of the most renowned organizations. Tracey has built up her experience with a lot of trials and errors and always been a hard worker towards achieving her goals.
Hobbies: Extreme Sports, Event Management
Cuisine: Japanese, Mexican, and Italian Foods
Your Favorite Book: `Love For Imperfect Things'
Favorite Travel Destination: `New Zealand, and Japan'
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This article was first published on CEO Insights Asia.
