How many years have you been an alumnus/alumna?
I have been an alumnus since the Regional Summer Academy in 2018.
What is your best memory of IACA?
There have been several, but I remember most the lecture held by Mr. Abu Kassim bin Mohamed, covering the 1MDB scandal and then having lunch with him. Although I had read about it many times, hearing first-hand about the investigation was a truly unique experience.
How has IACA influenced your career?
Aside from making life-long new friendships that develop to new business opportunities and knowledge sharing, IACA has provided an avenue to step out of the box (within the private business world) and learning to understand anti-corruption efforts from different perspectives. It has changed some of my mental approach.
What’s unforgettable at IACA? (most memorable)
The many discussions at the academy and sharing the pain points. I heard stories from my fellow classmates describing their experience dealing with corruption and ethical dilemmas (such as dealing with corrupt police) in India and Sri Lanka. Those are situations that I never imagined to be in, let alone handling and navigating around it.
What three words would you use to describe the alumni network?
Strong Willed Warriors
How many days have you spent in Laxenburg?
Zero days for now. I had the opportunity to attend the IACA session in December 2019 but due to schedule conflict I had to cancel. Once it is safe to travel, Laxenburg is top of my list of travel destinations.
What message would you like to share with the IACA community including its staff and alumni?
There were countless achievements in the 10 years since IACA was established, and I congratulate the IACA team on their success to maintain this world scale anti-corruption platform. Yet over that time, we still witnessed many large corruption scandals and headlines, so the IACA alumni and community still have much to do to reduce corruption. As so many new technologies are emerging during the pandemic, there are many challenges that the IACA community needs to work closely with to enhance knowledge and develop new approaches, in order to keep up the speed.
