Ms Belinda Teo Hui (School of Accountancy, Class of 2010) has done SMU proud by winning the Young Accountant in Practice Award at the Singapore Accountancy Awards 2016. 

Organised by the national accountancy body, the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA), the Singapore Accountancy Awards are a mark of excellence for businesses and individuals while promoting good practices and strengthening the branding of the profession and industry. It comprises two main awards, the “Business Excellence Awards” and the “Individual Excellence Awards”.

The Young Accountant in Practice Award, which comes under the Individual Excellence Awards, is open to individuals below 35 years of age and with 12 years or less of accounting / audit experience.

Accounting professionals who embody strong leadership and professional qualities, possess sound technical knowledge and experience are awarded the Individual Excellence Awards. The Award seeks to honour exemplary individuals in the accountancy profession for their contributions to the industry as well as to spur young accountants to play a greater role in charting the future of the profession.

Belinda, a manager with Ernst & Young LLP, said “Winning an award like this is a great recognition for someone who is still young in her career journey like myself and also an encouragement to continue to do my best in contribution to the wider professional sector. I believe that the Singapore Accountancy Awards will continue to encourage others to look beyond themselves and to seek opportunities to be change-makers to the accountancy sector.”

At Ernst & Young (EY), Belinda provides guidance and coaching to her juniors, and conducts in-house training to new assurance entrants on the EY audit methodology. She has exemplified effective teaming with internal specialists to meet the valuation, advisory, tax and hedge accounting needs of her clients. She was nominated as a member of EY Visionaries – a network within Asia-Pacific which was developed to encourage discussion about its vision among its staff across the Asia-Pacific area, and to act as the bridge between EY’s senior leaders and her peers. Belinda is also a keen supporter of EY’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, having been a regular contributor to the Boys’ Brigade Share-A-Gift project since 2010, as well as an annual participant in the Walk for Rice initiative, which makes donations of rice to low-income families in Singapore.

Beyond EY, Belinda also contributes to the wider community. She is currently the Deputy Chairperson of the ISCA Young Professionals Advisory Committee. She is a regular donor of the Care Channels International Ltd education sponsorship programme, which provides financial support to the education and livelihood requirements of children in Indonesia.

On why she chose to study Accountancy and the impact of an SMU education, Belinda shared “I chose to study Accountancy as I was looking for a professional degree with a structured career path. I was also interested to discover the role that accountants play in businesses and the contribution that they can make to the society at large.

“There are many influences that have contributed to my journey to winning this award and one of them would be the educational experience that I had with SMU. The SMU pedagogy and values had equipped me with the necessary skills and ethics I needed to excel in the professional sector, and also taught me the importance of looking beyond myself and seeking opportunities to make a positive impact to the sector at large.”

In 2014, SMU School of Accountancy alumni Ms Annie Seah Yi' En (Class of 2007) and Ms Lim Kexin (Class of 2005) won both Young Accountants of the Year Awards at the inaugural Singapore Accountancy Awards. Annie Seah Yi' En won in the Professional Accountants in Business segment, while Lim Kexin won in the Accountants in Public Practice segment.

[Featured photo: Ms Belinda Teo received the Young Accountant in Practice Award from Guest-of-Honour Mr Teo Ser Luck (right), Minister of State for Manpower and ISCA Advisor, at the Awards Dinner on 25 August 2016. On the left is Mr Chaly Mah, Chairman of the Singapore Accountancy Commission.] (Photo: ISCA)