Sociable, chatty and a lover of good food

Sociable, chatty and a lover of good food

April 19, 2009

WHEN Ms Josie Lau Meng Lee has her wonton mee, she likes the noodles cooked in fresh, boiling water. If it is not done right, she sends it back.

That is how finicky the 48-year-old DBS vice- president and new Aware chief is about her food, said those who know her.

None of her colleagues and ex-colleagues who spoke to The Straits Times had heard her speak about involvement in volunteer work.

But they were well-acquainted with her gourmet and jetsetting lifestyle, cultivated in part by her work organising glamorous fashion, food and lifestyle events, and accompanying her doctor-husband to medical conferences overseas.

In previous interviews with this paper, Ms Lau said that she and her husband, Dr Alan Chin, had not missed a single World Gourmet Summit since its inception in 1997.

‘I live to eat, rather than eat to live,’ she said in a 2004 interview, adding that she attended seven Gourmet Summit events that year.

‘I’m the type who would rather go hungry than have terrible food,’ she said then. ‘I send things back to the kitchen if they’re not up to standard, even wonton noodles from hawker stalls.’

She was known to frequent upmarket eateries as well as hawker centres.

Friends describe the well-groomed mother of two teenagers as sociable and chatty. One long-time friend said she was a ‘complete opposite’ of her more serious husband.

Before joining DBS, Ms Lau rose through the ranks at the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), where she spent 15 years, mostly marketing lifestyle events.

Her CV, released by Aware, said she was instrumental in developing high-profile events like the Singapore Food Festival, Great Singapore Sale and Singapore Fashion Festival.

A former colleague at the STB recalled another side of Ms Lau, saying she enjoyed listening to Christian music in her office.

She would also tell single colleagues that if they wanted to find a spouse, the best place to look was in church. And she would encourage them to attend.

As for areas she will be interested in in her new role, the Aware write-up said she was most concerned about work-life balance and the role of mothers as a stabilising factor in a family.

Ms Lau made brief comments to reporters after her appointment as president on Wednesday night, but has otherwise remained uncontactable.

She has not taken questions about herself or her plans for Aware, or DBS Bank’s public criticism of her for flouting bank rules by joining the Aware exco without its approval and defying her bosses’ advice against becoming president.

TAN DAWN WEI

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