12 saturday people - Parkway Pantai

TODAY • SATURDAY 13 APRIL 2013
12 saturday
people
If there is one
manager in world
football who knows how
to get his tactics right in a
big one-off cup match,
it is Rafael Benitez.
ADRIAN CLARKE • 26
THE ST REGIS PERSPECTIVES
CHIEF
HEALER
Taking on a S$90,000 debt
right out of NS, Dr Tan See Leng
was a millionaire by his 30s.
Meet the family physician
who also happens to be a
savvy businessman and CEO
CONRAD RAJ
Editor-at-Large
conrad@mediacorp.com.sg
Most young doctors join
an established hospital
or clinic after serving
their housemanship.
Not Dr Tan See
Leng, who plunged into setting up
his own health practice with three
friends — one of whom is now his
wife — in 1992, right after completing
National Service.
His decision wasn’t without sacrifice.
“I had to break my bond (with the
Ministry of Health) and buy myself
out by taking what was then a hefty
loan of S$90,000 to start Healthway
Medical Group.
“Then, six months later, my classmates
from the National University of
Singapore were given an early release
by the Ministry, without having to pay
a cent,” Dr Tan recalls with a sigh as
if to say, if only he, too, had waited
six months!
Still, he can’t regret the serendipity
that has ruled his life since then. “I
feel blessed beyond measure,” says the
affable 48-year old Group Chief Executive
and Managing Director of the
Parkway Pantai Group, one of Asia’s
largest private healthcare providers.
The only son of a Singapore Bus
Service timekeeper and a housewife,
Dr Tan has come a long way since
growing up in a rented room of a Toa
Payoh HDB flat.
“I really believe that, in Singapore,
we have meritocracy,” he says. “I think
my story is really about how, just when
the doors appeared to be closing on
me, I managed to slip through and
seize the opportunity ... It’s something
that I thank God for.”
FLAIR FOR BUSINESS
It was due to fate’s intervention that
he got into a medical career at all.
In pre-university, he was awarded a
scholarship for studying humanities
at Oxford/Cambridge. But when his
mother fell into a coma from cancer,
he decided to switch to medicine.
“It was at National Junior College
(NJC) that my interest in biology, the
sciences and so on really came alive,”
says the alumni of Monk’s Hill Primary
and Secondary.
As a young doctor running his
own business, Dr Tan had decided he
needed to get some formal business
education. So he obtained a Master’s
in Business Administration from the
University of Chicago Booth School of
Business. “Everyone then was talking
about return on equity and so on,”
he explains.
It turned out that, so good was his
business savvy, the Healthway group
soon grew to encompass more than 30
branches. His and his partners’ invest-
ments paid off within 10 years, when
they sold the group to the British United
Provident Association — he is reluctant
to disclose the sum, but admits it
made him a millionaire in his mid-30s.
Afterwards, he continued to work
for the group for another two years
to provide some continuity. “Yes, we
could have taken the company public
but, if we had done that, then we’d be
holding paper. This was an all-cash
sale,” he says.
FIRST, GIVE OF YOURSELF
Medicine
starts off as a
passion. Once
you graduate
... it’s a calling.
I’m trained
as a family
physician so
I live by the
adage that we
cure seldom,
we relieve
often but
we comfort
always.
Dr Tan See Leng
CEO AND MD OF
PARKWAY PANTAI GROUP
PHOTO: ERNEST CHUA
In the meantime, his business acumen
had been spotted by then-head
of Parkway, Dr Lim Cheok Peng (who
now heads its listed parent Integrated
Healthcare Holdings). Dr Lim invited
him to join the group’s Mount
Elizabeth Hospital as its Chief Operating
Officer.
After about two years there — he
joined in 2004 — the stress was beginning
to take a toll. So Dr Tan took a
sabbatical to help his friend, Mr Richard
Eu, turn the Eu Yan Sang group’s
Australian business around.
Six months later, Dr Tan was back
at Parkway and was soon appointed
the group’s Senior Vice-President of
International Operations. Later, he
was seconded to Pantai Holdings Berhad
as Executive Director and Group
CEO of its hospitals division.
“By serendipity, and also thanks to
Richard Seow (then Parkway’s Chairman)
and Dr Lim, I was introduced to
the operating team in Khazanah,” he
says, referring to the investment holding
arm of the Malaysian Government.
“Those years I spent in Malaysia
were really formative because I learnt
a lot. For instance, that in order to gain
something you must first give a lot of
yourself — your time, your resources,
your convictions and passions.”
Gaining the trust of Khazanah put
him in good stead when the Malaysian

13
saturday people
TODAY • SATURDAY 13 APRIL 2013
sovereign wealth fund won control of
Parkway after a battle in mid-2010
with India’s Fortis Group. Dr Tan was
in quite a quandary as to who to support,
as he had then just been appointed
Parkway’s CEO.
“Both were very good shareholders.
Both had very good strategic
visions for Parkway. So it was not a
case of who you wanted to support,
but more of doing what was right for
the company. I learnt a lot from Fortis
— the way they operate, their thinking,
their worldview. I also learnt a
lot from Khazanah in terms of their
worldview and how they see (Parkway)
as a sustainable organisation
moving forward.
“I think, if both parties had been
able to work together, their platform
would have been great. But I must say
I’m quite happy now.”
‘WHAT I WOULD CHANGE’
Asked about his philosophy of life,
Dr Tan says: “I think no one has a fixed
philosophy of life. It changes according
to where you are on (Abraham)
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs ... I think
in the early years, when I was in my
20s and 30s, everything just went by.
I wish I could go back in time; I wish
I’d spent more time with my parents,
with my children’s upbringing.
“In those (early) years, what drove
me was fear of failure. What drives
me now is making sure my staff, the
people who support us — I mean all
our unsung heroes — that their needs
are taken care of (such as) putting
three meals on the table; that they
have a reasonable enough lifestyle;
they can keep their families going,
help the next generation to get proper
education, and so on.”
Dr Tan is also well aware that his
group is perceived as a group of hospitals
catering to the rich, especially
foreigners. He says: “The demands on
the healthcare system in Singapore
and the region are constantly evolving.
Given the ageing demographics,
we are now seeing a greater complexity
and higher intensity of diseases.
“All of these factors require that we
attract the best doctors, nurture our
nurses and allied health professionals
and invest in the necessary medical
equipment and infrastructure, to
In those (early) years,
what drove me was
fear of failure. What
drives me now is making
sure my staff — all our unsung
heroes — that their needs are
taken care of (such as) putting
three meals on the table ...
Dr Tan
effectively serve the needs of our patients.
These drive costs up.
“However, we always make sure
that we manage and balance our cost
structure, such as harnessing technology
and streamlining our processes,
so that these costs are not passed on
to our patients.”
DOCTOR OR
BUSINESSMAN FIRST?
Given the group’s operations in several
countries — from joint ventures
in India to managed hospitals in China
and Vietnam — and with 12,000 people
to manage, travelling takes up half
of Dr Tan’s time.
“That is why weekends are sacred
to me,” says the father of three — a
20-year-old daughter and two sons
aged 20 and 14. The two older children
are studying medicine.
A lover of good food and wines and
single malts, Dr Tan loves cooking for
his family and friends at his home in
Siglap. “I’m a lousy cook but my family
humours me by telling me they like
it,” he says.
One classmate at NJC, in fact, remembers
him as “the fattest guy in
class, but smart and studious”.
“I was very overweight,” Dr Tan
admits, but in the last few years he
has been on a diet-and-exercise regime
that has reduced his girth to a
mere 40 inches.
A very busy CEO he might be,
but Dr Tan is still a practising doctor.
“Medicine starts off as a passion.
Once you graduate, it’s not just a commitment,
it’s a calling. I’m trained as a
family physician, so I live by the adage
that we cure seldom, we relieve often
but we comfort always.”
Asked if he is more businessman
than doctor, he replies: “I hope to become
a commercially savvy doctor
with a heart.”
WHAT DR TAN SEE LENG
HAD AT LABREZZA
Burrata cheese,
heirloom tomatoes, basil
Grilled Kurobuta pork chop,
sauteed spinach
and balsamic reduction
Mixed forest berries
with zabaglione sauce
S$84