Larry Gan

It's been an extremely busy week blogging, both here and at my other blog. So I thought I'd take it easy today. ;)

Here's something else I've dug up from 12 years ago. This chap, yes, the guy with the guitar, hippie outfit and long tresses, Larry Gan was my big boss during my days at Andersen Consulting. He was definitely my "corporate idol", in terms of what I wanted to achieve in my personal and corporate career.

Larry Gan became the Country Managing Partner of Andersen Consulting, then split from Arthur Andersen, at the age of 29 back in the early 1980s. Besides being a corporate bigwig, he was a national fencing champion and represented the country for the sport. Later, he is also an accomplished single handicap golfer who won the Malaysian Amatuer Golf Open. Within Andersen Consulting, which later was renamed Accenture, he rose to become the Managing Partner for Asia before recently retiring a multi-multi-millionaire with a fat golden handshake.

Larry was certainly a person who gave me the confidence when I was just a fresh graduate at 22, albeit indirectly, that one can achieve a great deal before the age of 30 and retire comfortably (if desired) well before the age of 40. While I am no where near to having achieved his wealth or matched his achievements, I'm grateful for I've managed to list my very own Malaysian company in the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to become the youngest CEO/Founder on SGX at the age of 29 back in 2001.

The cariacature on top was drawn when I got my hands on a photo of him (inset) while he was still a student. That was when he was reputed to be a popular crooner and a masterful rock guitarist, during the days of the flower-power hippies. I thought the contrast was so stunning, that I did another (below) of what he became many years later, naming the little piece, "the Miracle of Age". ;)

Heh, heh, he wasn't too pleased with the latter hair-style when another partner of the firm showed him the cariacatures. Obviously a high-risk career-threatening move being a rookie analyst back then, and getting caught with the sketch! ;)

There's an official Accenture Alumni evening today, so will be meeting plenty of old friends and ex-colleagues to reminiscene about the "good old days". Or was it the "stressful old days". ;)