Juliet Chan Tay, SIM-UOL alumna, Managing Director, Pivotal
9 July 2024
SIM Fulfilled Her Aspiration
Despite her packed schedule as the Managing Director of Pivotal, a boutique accounting firm with over 70 clients, Ms Juliet Chan Tay wanted to meet us at SIM Campus to reminisce her schooling days.
As we ushered her into a meeting room within the Tay Eng Soon Library, Juliet scanned her surroundings and realised the once-familiar space had been fully revamped. “I spent a lot of time in the library,” she remarked. “Its conducive environment allowed me to focus and study well, and so I would usually be here until its closing hours.”
Her commitment to her studies was evident, showcasing her diligence, determination, and discipline, qualities that have propelled her academic and professional pursuits. Despite being the runner-up to Miss Singapore in 2001 at just 19, with a path seemingly destined for showbiz, Juliet never lost sight of the importance of education.
With her strengths in mind and her mother’s support, she set her heart on becoming an accountant. This led her to enrol in SIM-University of London, which offered a direct academic pathway to becoming a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) at that time.
With that goal in clear focus, she chose to work and study concurrently to ensure she clocked the necessary hours of relevant working experience, an arrangement made possible with the flexibility that SIM offered.
“I loved how I could arrange my schedule according to what worked for me and choose the modules that I wanted to take,” she shared. “The flexibility SIM offered gave me a greater sense of ownership and enabled me to pursue my professional goals.”
“Although accounting is a dry subject, I always looked forward to classes with my foreign lecturers. Their real-world experiences gave me invaluable global perspectives.” This deepened her knowledge in the field and helped her realise the importance of cross-disciplinary knowledge in effectively meeting corporate needs. It also sharpened her ability to identify unmet needs in society and strive to address them.
This was a contributing factor that led her to start Pivotal. After three years in the industry and a short career break, she realised that small and medium-sized companies needed affordable accounting and compliance support services. Hence, with the support of her business partner, a fellow UOL alumnus, she founded Pivotal, one of the first few accounting and compliance firms which offers tiered pricing according to the volume of work required.
Committed to Giving Back
Her commitment to supporting others does not end with her clients. The mother of two lives by her personal motto: always help others first.
Together with a group of nine other fellow alumni, Juliet established The University of London Alumni Singapore in 2010 under the mandate of the University of London, to bring alumni together and create a community of support. They share a common goal to empower and enhance the employability of local UOL graduates. As the President of the association, Juliet oversees a team who organises events for alumni across disciplines to connect and expand their professional capabilities, so that they may better serve the needs in the community through their work. Beyond serving UOL alumni, the association is also looking at creating platforms for cross-disciplinary dialogues for professionals, to plug the gaps in meeting the needs in society.
“Education is beyond what we learn in books. It is also about the people we meet, the experiences we go through, and the skills we pick up in our roles. The goal of learning is to grow and develop as a person to give back better to the community,” said Juliet.