For Lay Perk Toh, the challenge of pushing against existing boundaries and limitations to set new standards in treasury excellence and innovation is a key motivator for her and her team. Although the challenges can seem daunting at times, her outlook is simple: “With collective effort and determination, we can find a way forward’.”
With more than 20 years of experience in treasury, enterprise risk management and corporate finance in APAC, the US and the Middle East, Lay Perk currently holds the role of Group Treasurer and Head of Corporate Insurance at Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc.
After gaining her Bachelor of Accountancy from The National University of Malaysia, Lay Perk began her career journey as a trained accountancy professional working for Arthur Andersen, before joining PwC as Assistant Manager in the firm’s assurance and business advisory services. After gaining further experience at Motorola as Senior Corporate Auditor, she entered the world of treasury in 2008, becoming Regional Treasury Manager at Honeywell.
In January 2013 she joined Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc, (K&S), a Nasdaq-listed company and a leading provider of semiconductor packaging and electronic assembly solutions with dual headquarters in Singapore and the United States. In 2016, she was promoted to the position of Corporate Assistant Treasurer, becoming Corporate Treasurer in 2018.
In her current role, Lay Perk leads the Group’s cash and liquidity management and oversees financial risk strategies. In addition, she is responsible for ensuring that the organisation’s assets and operations are safeguarded through extensive and comprehensive insurance coverage with optimal market terms.
Goals and challenges
In an uncertain and highly volatile interest rate environment, a major priority for Lay Perk is the optimisation of global cash and liquidity. A key part of her strategy involves enhancing global liquidity forecast modelling and increasing real-time cash visibility, ensuring the optimal utilisation of funds through cash sweeping arrangements, and deploying automated investment structures whenever feasible.
“My priority has always been to enhance automation by leveraging technology to streamline and simplify processes – making them more robust, efficient and less prone to error, so I could free up the time of the team to focus on something more strategic,” she comments.
On the corporate insurance front, Lay Perk is currently leading a comprehensive global insurance renewal to ensure that the Group’s insurance cover is fully suited to its evolving business needs – a task which involves balancing financial efficiency with robust risk management.
Industry recognition
In 2018, Lay Perk led her team to success in the Adam Smith Awards Asia. Notably, Kulicke & Soffa Industries was named Overall Winner in the category ‘Harnessing the Power of Technology’, which recognises organisations that have used technology to improve their treasury operations.
The team’s winning solution applied cutting-edge technology to address the problem of legacy systems built across different technology platforms and formats across the organisation’s 130 global bank accounts.
In the same year, the team also received the Highly Commended award for Best Trade Solutions – and Lay Perk received a personal accolade, taking the Highly Commended award in the prestigious Treasury Today Asia Woman of the Year category.
“Winning the Adam Smith Award Asia was both an honour and a defining milestone for our team,” she enthuses. “It recognised the strategic thinking and cross-functional collaboration – across both internal and external stakeholders – that were critical to the successful delivery of our solutions.” In addition, she says these achievements have further motivated her team to continue challenging the status quo.
A common theme in the awards received by Lay Perk and her team is the company’s strategic use of technology to transform operations, increasing efficiency through automation and digitalisation. “Our solutions have delivered lasting positive impacts across the organisation,” explains Lay Perk. “These solutions have helped to streamline complex and manual processes, resulting in significant cost savings, improved yields, stronger internal controls and enhanced security.”
Sharing her experience of submitting entries to the Adam Smith Awards Asia programme, she emphasises that the starting point is to show a compelling need for the solution used, with the problems that the solution addresses and the challenges encountered fully highlighted. Finally, the benefits and longer-lasting impacts on the business – both tangible and intangible – need to be fully articulated.
Since a successful solution will almost inevitably involve collaboration, this too should be acknowledged in the submission. “It is also important to identify and recognise the contributions of all stakeholders involved,” she explains. “It is this collective effort that makes all the difference.”
Fluent in five languages, Lay Perk is able to effortlessly collaborate with people of diverse nationalities and cultural backgrounds. As a respected member and passionate supporter of the treasury community, she is a regular speaker at industry events and conferences, where she shares her experiences and expertise on a variety of treasury topics.
Acknowledging the importance of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (Singapore) (ACTS), the non-profit organisation that serves as a professional body for corporate treasury and finance professionals in Singapore, Lay Perk says: “Their efforts to foster a culture of cross-industry collaboration have been instrumental in supporting the personal and professional growth of treasury professionals.”
With Singapore being home to such a thriving and vibrant treasury community, a platform where members of the profession can access tools to assist in professional development and share knowledge to gain a greater understanding of treasury is an important resource. “ACTS provides a valuable platform for treasurers to stay connected – a space where treasurers can exchange best practices, share ideals and build meaningful networks,” Lay Perk concludes.
