WONDER WOMAN

While most of her peers are getting ready to kick back their feet to enjoy their golden years, the vivacious Wee Wei Ling, the eldest child of tycoon Wee Cho Yaw, shows no signs of slowing down. Having joined the hospitality industry at the age of 30, the last three decades of tireless toil have earned Wee the positions of Executive Director of the Asset & Lifestyle Division at the Pan Pacific Hotels Group, Chief Operating Officer of St Gregory Spa and Executive Director of Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurants.

As anyone will tell you, scaling the corporate ladder is no mean feat. However, Wee is one who has not only endured adversity, but thrived on it. “Managing so many responsibilities at once is all about time management,” Wee explains. “I wake up at 5.30am every day. While everyone is asleep, I’ve already completed several tasks and am ready to hit the ground running by the time I arrive at the office.”

Like many working women, Wee’s time is divided between that of managing her career and tending to her family. “I’m a grandmother, mother and a wife. Working women have so many responsibilities; we really have to be like Wonder Woman to do everything,” Wee says with a laugh. “For us to have the energy to fulfil all these roles, it’s important that we remain healthy, in body, mind and spirit.”

In this lies Wee’s passion for wellness and health, which led her to work at the spa. Set up in 1997 along a quiet little road in Singapore, the spa has since made its way into the Pan Pacific and Parkroyal hotels in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and China. This, in addition to the Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurants, represents two of the Pan Pacific Hotels Group’s most important lifestyle arms.

“It is normal for hotels to have rooms, but it is important that these rooms sell emotions and experiences to our guests,” says Wee. “The spa and restaurant encourage guests to return and locals can also patronise its services, which in turn creates greater awareness for the hotel.”

To ensure that these lifestyle services offered by the hotels continue to stand out from the competition, Wee believes in “never compromising on quality”, especially with St Gregory Spa. Here, the masseuses are brought to Singapore for training and assessment to ensure that the spa maintains the high standards it has set. “Transparency and integrity are essential in the spa industry. People are looking to relax when they come to a spa; they are offering their bodies and souls, so you have to ensure that you give them the best possible service,” says Wee. “There’s no point expanding if we cannot maintain our high standards of quality.”

Having achieved so much, one might expect Wee to start winding down after a long and illustrious career, but this is hardly the case. Four years ago, Wee was moved to do her part for the “invisible poor” of Singapore; those who have been left behind in the wake of the nation’s economic prosperity and continue to remain out of sight and out of mind of the general public. This manifested itself in a philanthropic event held by the Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurants during the Moon Cake Festival, where Wee, alongside several CEOs from Singapore’s corporate circle, rolled up their sleeves to personally prepare mooncakes for the needy.

The success of this initiative paved the way for the inception of Project We Care, an ambitious effort chaired by Wee that engages with both MNCs and SMEs in charity efforts. Among their more recent initiatives was the 2013 “Project We Care Stop Bed Bugs @ Central Singapore”. Here, Wee continued her tradition of leading from the front as she fearlessly donned a post-apocalyptic hazmat suit to fumigate the cockroach and bedbug-infested apartments in dilapidated old HDB flats in Bukit Merah.

“Most Singaporeans are fortunate to have their basic necessities covered,” says Wee. “However, I believe we can do more to improve the social wellness of the less privileged.”

Wee’s hands-on management of the project is an embodiment of her belief that charity doesn’t only mean giving money to the needy. “Charity is about the heart and effort. We engage the existing resources of the SMEs we work with in many of our projects,” explains Wee, referring to a small laundry company that supported their bed-bug clearing activities to clean the beddings of the HDB’s residents. Through this approach, the number of SMEs working alongside Project We Care has swelled from 40 to over 170 companies in the last four years.

Apart from continuing to expand the spa and restaurants across the hotel network, Wee is also keen on cultivating talent from within.

“It’s important that we foster the next generation of leaders among our staff,” says Wee. “The group is diverse enough for them to explore many different fields, so I’d like to see that we help to nurture their talents. This not only ensures that they grow with the company, but it also contributes to society as a whole by providing a good career path for many people.”

Where her life is concerned, Wee says she wants to continue her spirited and tireless lifestyle. “I never want to stop learning and being curious about the things around me. It’s important that we are always willing to share the good things in life with those around us.” A Wonder Woman indeed.