I feel extremely lucky to love what I’m doing. At Standard Chartered Bank, my role as Head of Corporate Affairs and Marketing oversees the Corporate Affairs and Marketing functions for the Bank in Brunei. Internal communications, external communications, business communications, brand, sponsorship, public affairs and corporate social responsibility programmes are all part of Corporate Affairs and I work with our great Corporate Affairs team to deliver these.

For Marketing, together with our passionate and dynamic Marketing Team, we support our business functions on their marketing needs - from marketing communications to planning to strategies to campaigns. (Photograph insert: A picture with Jennifer at the 2011 Standard Chartered Bank Media Appreciation Night)

Describe yourself in a few words.

Disciplined, outgoing, energetic, fun (although my children don’t think so), determined, confident.

Share with us three highlights from Standard Chartered Bank's 2011 calendar year.

For Brunei, 2011 was an extremely busy year for us. We had numerous business and CSR (corporate social responsibility) events happening throughout the year. From the business side, we had successful launches such as the launch of 24/7 Phone Banking (live), the successful bundling for Total Salary Solution and Total Home Solution, the launch of Liverpool eCash card with EMV chip, the launch of eKiosk machines for instant rewards, and the launch of 1Equity Notes and partnership with Aberdeen. At the same time, we also saw an increase in our relationship managers to cater to the growing needs of our customers.

From the community side, our very successful Standard Chartered Charity Run 2011 that saw over 2,100 runners and over BND108,000 collected towards charity. We are very excited to be featuring a half marathon on 8th April 2012 that has stemmed from the positive response from the runners. There were also countless community initiatives around our key programmes: Seeing is Believing, the Environment (including my first trip to Sg Ingei), Living with HIV and our volunteering programme.

Photographs from the Standard Chartered's Sg Ingei "Heart of Borneo" trip in October 2011

The start of the Standard Chartered Charity Run 2011

Winners and Grinners from the 2011 Charity Run

What do you do?

I work as a teacher at Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Foundation School. I am currently the President of Brunei Darussalam AIDS Council (connect with them via Facebook here), a non-profit, volunteer-based Non-Governmental Organisation raising awareness on HIV & AIDS and other related matters. I graduated with a Diploma in Youth Development Work from University Brunei Darussalam. I volunteer at the Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Foundation Volunteers Unit, Scouts Association & Datalish Volunteers (a relief humanitarian group). I have also attended or been invited to various programmes related to youth work, scouting and HIV / AIDS in ASEAN, South Korea, India, Japan & Europe.

Together with the AIDS Council, we have been acknowledged with the Commonwealth Youth Silver Award (2005 / 2006 & 2007 / 2008), the B-@ktif 2008 Silver Medal, and the ASEAN Youth Award 2009. On a personal basis, I was awarded with Youth Service Award by His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah during National Youth Day 2010.

Describe yourself.

In one word; passionate! In a sentence, a down-to-earth yet aspiring youth advocate that has passion in volunteerism, youth work and a special interest in HIV & AIDS

Last year you represented Brunei at the One Young World Summit. How did that come about?

I have been to a number of Youth related events on HIV and AIDS, Youth Work, Scouting, etc and my networks usually communicate through emails and Facebook. I think a friend of mine shared about the Summit. 

To attend as a participant, you have to register at OneYoungWorld.com. We were all supposed to raise funds (about 3,000 Euro) to attend. I did not raise the required amount but I received an email about a month before the Summit. It outlined that a company funded me based on my youth work background.

Iswandy with other members of the Brunei AIDS Council

Iswandy at the Brunei Online Forum (Photograph courtesy of Candid Syndrome)

What do you do?

I am a Mathematics teacher. I work at The International School Brunei (ISB) in Berakas as the Head Of Mathematics and have been teaching here for nearly two years now. I thoroughly enjoy my job, working with student helping them to understand and appreciate the subject of Maths; especially seeing student progress and grow in confidence as the school year goes on.

Describe yourself in a few words.

Describe myself in a few words? Hmmm, a traveller, keen to experience new places, experience new cultures and aspects of life, while meeting new people. I'm friendly and good humoured. I enjoy the outdoors and playing a few sports such as golf and squash. I enjoy following football and cricket and am a very keen Formula 1 fan! (if ProjekBrunei could bring a grand prix to Brunei.... Wow! :) )

Where are you from, and how long have you been in Brunei?

I am from the UK. I was born in Sheffield in South Yorkshire but grew up overseas in Pakistan due to my parents work commitments. I then returned to the UK to finish school before moving to Glasgow in Scotland to study at University and remained there as I began my teaching career. I moved to Brunei with my wife (who is also a teacher although Primary not Secondary) two years ago. We had always wanted to work overseas and especially in South East Asia, so were delighted to accept this job here in Brunei!

What were your initial and your current opinions about living in Brunei?

My initial and current opinions about living in Brunei...at first I was both excited and nervous about moving overseas to live and work, especially to a country that I had not been to before. I was looking forward to living in a different culture, especially one so different from my own. I knew that I would miss family and friends but was looking forward to embarking on a new chapter of life. I also knew that friends and family would enjoy visiting somewhere different. Now that we have been here a couple of years I am still pleased that we made the decision to come here! We enjoy the safety, quietness, the travel gateway to the region and of course being surrounded by rain forest as well as being by the beach. The weather is great even in a spectacular thunderstorm too.

Greetings Readers! In this post I will be sharing about Convergence 2011 - How Convergence came about, My thoughts about Convergence 2011, The Future of Convergence and Lessons Learnt from Convergence 2011. I have purposely left it until now to write about as I have needed over a week to digest the event that was Convergence.

How Convergence came about.

It started with an idea I scribbled down in my Moleskine on 18th December 2010. All I wrote down was “VIP Launch Party 2011”. I jotted down a few brands I wanted to work with. BMW, Red Bull, Body Shop, etc. That was it. No other notes. No additional dot points. What exactly this “VIP Launch Party” looked like, I had no clue. “It will come to me” I thought. Daringly, I immediately put up a QR Coded post (18th December 2010) which read “Greetings Readers! Thank you for your support throughout 2010. What a year it has been! 2011 is going to be bigger and better for Projek Brunei, and here’s a secret – I am planning a VIP Launch Party. Shh… Stay tuned for details. 8) Big Love!” I parked the idea in my mind and left the engine on.

What do you do?

I am the Country Manager for CfBT here in Brunei. I look after the educational side of our work here and ensure that we continue to provide world class education to all the students we teach.  

For those unfamiliar with CfBT's role in Brunei, give us the overview of the local organisation.

The main focus of CfBT's work in Brunei is on the recruitment and management of teachers of English to work in government schools. CfBT is contracted to employ over 250 teachers at Primary and Secondary level. In addition to the work in government schools, CfBT in Brunei also offers various courses and programmes such as personal enrichment and leadership courses, language and computer classes and teacher development courses such as the Cambridge In-Service Certificate in English Language Teaching (ICELT).  CfBT also works in partnership with the Ministry of Education, local companies and organisations such The Brunei English Language Teachers' Association (BELTA) to organise events such as conferences and national competitions such as Wordplay. We are also involved in the development and publication of teaching materials for use in Bruneian schools.