INTHEBLACK October 2021 - Magazine - Page 21
STORY CHRIS SHEEDY
PHOTOGRAPHY STEFEN CHOW
PERFECT
CAPTURE
Len Jui FCPA, a globetrotting, full-time audit professional and
part-time photographer, is shaping the future of international
audit standards through his role with the IAASB. Along the way,
he is hoping to develop a perfect global picture.
A
s we speak over a video call for this story,
Len Jui FCPA is grounded in Mainland China.
The deputy chair of the International Auditing
and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) arrived
in Beijing in July 2020 from the US on a regular visit in
his role as KPMG’s Asia-Pacific lead on public policy and
regulatory affairs. He has been unable to leave since, because
of COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Jui’s family – his wife and two adult children – are in
Washington, DC. His elderly mother is in Florida, and he
is not sure when he will see her next. That’s OK, Jui says
undaunted, it’s par for the course. While his life to date has
rarely involved staying in one place for long, Jui is making
the most of his time in Beijing, just as he has in many other
places during his life.
That is because he has known from a very young age that
diversity of experience is typically a positive.
TAKING LIFE IN HIS STRIDE
In the mid-1970s, when Jui was just 13 years old and living
in Taiwan, his parents decided that greater diversity of life
experience would be beneficial for their son. He spent the
following five years at a boarding school in the UK.
It is easy to assume that such an experience would be
highly stressful, or perhaps even emotionally devastating,
for such a young boy. Jui, however, took it all in his stride,
considering it a wondrous adventure – just as he is treating
his extended Beijing stay several decades later.
“I guess I was too young – or too stupid – to recognise the
pressure,” Jui smiles. “I just embraced the experience. I knew
people who felt a lot of stress at a young age for various
reasons, but I didn’t feel any of that.
“I was in a small village in England, where there was no
diversity. I was probably the only East Asian person there.
While I knew I was different, I didn’t feel any pressure.
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