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Executive chairman of PhillipCapital is Businessman of the Year

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Singapore Business Award winners

Stockbroking pioneer Lim Hua Min, executive chairman of PhillipCapital Group, was crowned Businessman of the Year at this year's Singapore Business Awards.

Mr Lim has helmed the group since 1975, using his personal savings and loans from the bank and partners to acquire a brokerage firm that had been suspended.

The veteran revolutionised the stockbroking industry here in 1996 when he introduced the first Internet trading platform, Poems.

Over four decades, he has also turned the company from a single-market and single-product firm into an Asian house with a global reach.

With its headquarters in Singapore, its operations span 17 countries, including the major financial hubs of Chicago, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and of course, Singapore.

The 72-year-old chairman told The Straits Times that the group is still pushing the envelope by introducing new products and channels and entering new markets.

"Today's competition is no longer products against products but platforms against platforms or ecosystems against ecosystems," Mr Lim said.

"We'll be myopic to think that competition is just local rather than global. What makes you so sure that your traditional company will still have a place in the sun?"

He added that the group will continue to ramp up in Asia, and make more inroads into the US, Europe and Australia.

In its 33rd year, the Singapore Business Awards (SBA) is jointly organised by Singapore Press Holdings' The Business Times and global logistics giant DHL.

Outstanding CEO of the Year went to Changi Airport Group (CAG) chief executive Lee Seow Hiang. Under his purview since 2009, CAG has built on the success of Changi Airport to expand overseas, investing in and managing foreign airports through its subsidiary in major economies such as China, India, the Middle East, South America and Europe.

Mr Jaspal Singh of ComfortDelGro (UK & Ireland) won Outstanding Overseas Executive of the Year for his track record in expanding ComfortDelGro's operations and branding in the UK and Ireland.

Mr Singh, a Singaporean, moved to Britain for this role in 2004 after 27 years in the civil service. He said he accepted the award on behalf of his "first-class management team and the 5,700 hard-working men and women in Metroline who work passionately around the clock in all weather conditions, to keep London moving".

Receiving The Enterprise Award yesterday was Singapore-listed human resource consultancy firm HRnetGroup. It employs 1,000 full-time consultants in 10 cities and serves 2,000 clients.

Congratulating the winners, President Halimah Yacob said at the gala dinner that they "have exemplified the spirit of entrepreneurship, resilience and visionary drive". - THE STRAITS TIMES

BUSINESS & FINANCE