Vince Chan
speaker
6,989 appearances
347 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Jun 2025
Vince Chan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Picture yourself as a highly skilled in-house counsel at one of the world's largest banking groups, overseeing a team of 50 and spearheading billion-dollar financial transactions. Life isn't just good. It's picture perfect. Now, what if I challenged you to leave it all behind?
What if I invited you to move with your whole family to Senegal, a vibrant country in West Africa, once a French colony, to start afresh? Would you take the leap? For many, the answer would be a no. But today's guest isn't just anyone.
Join me as I chat with Fatou Zegna So, a remarkable individual I had the pleasure of studying together during our executive MBA classes in London and in Singapore with Chicago Booth. She has since moved from the well-established legal profession to economic development, technical advisory and youth entrepreneurship in Senegal. In her own words, she aims not just to succeed, but to create magic.
What drives a person to embrace such profound change? How does a lawyer used to practicing set laws becoming a chief change officer, making her own laws of change for careers, for communities, and for societies? Fatou is going to tell her own story.
I'm so glad you agreed to come on board. Well, it's been how many years? Last time I saw you in Singapore, is that right?
Yeah. So you moved from where you were born and raised Back to your root, your origin in Africa. Now, before we go deep into the Africa situation, what actually moved you to take this leap of faith from legal profession in banking back to your root? There must be a lot of thought going on, a lot of debate, perhaps, in your mind and among your family members. What happened then?
I think I did well. Sounds like it was a calculated decision. It wasn't a spur of the moment thing. You were prudent enough to plan ahead. Now you move in the year 2016. Now it's 2024, eight years. You've explored opportunities. You experienced new life. Now, I was wondering... What one thing, what that one thing is that motivate you if I have to ask you to come up with one word?
Would you say identity? I sense that for you, born and raised in the developed economy, France, Paris, legal profession, stability, that is part of your identity. But you have the other piece of you which lies in your root, in your origin. You identify with it. You resonate with it. You see a lot of things going on. You really want to do something about it. I think identity is your calling.
Would you agree? Yeah.
Yeah, you are setting up a role model for your children. They see you in action. They see that, oh, my mother Making a move. I mean, honestly, a lot of things I'm sure going on in your life in Africa. And they are there with you. They see a lot of things which they most likely won't see in France. Yes, after they grow up, they can move back to France or move to other countries to be adventurous.
to do whatever they want to do to create impact for themselves as well as for other people because that's what my mother has done for Africa, for many other countries. So now, let's spend the rest of our time on Africa. Tell us about your time as a technical advisor. What did you see? What have you done? What challenges were you facing at that point?
Wow. It sounds like a dream come true for you. Well, but to be honest, in life, in career, when we are in the process of making changes, whatever those are, it's not an on-off switch. It's never perfect. In one of our episodes, in fact, the first episode, I interview our classmate Pei Ling, who is a parliamentarian in Singapore.
Now, she won the battle, won the election, but she admits that during that period of time, the campaigning or even post-campaigning, it was the darkest period in her life. She overcame it, but it's a process. So in your case, tell us honestly, have you ever felt any moment of regret or discouragement or depression or difficulties, any sort of those? And how did you make through it?
Of course, you build a lot of credentials, reputation in the political circle, which is important, which is an asset, which is a capital. And now you are playing a consultant role I'm curious to know about in your country now, what are some of the issues, challenges or opportunities you try to overcome for the country as a consultant?
You mentioned about building an entrepreneurship ecosystem for the young people in Senegal. Most problem.
Well, you're linking cultures, you're linking talents, you're linking skills, you're linking experiences. For the benefits of Africa.
yeah yeah before covid i was involved in the education technology space among all the countries in the world one of those excitement actually happened in africa a lot of young talent they all pray for more education newer skills if we think of it as we are economists basically there's a huge workforce
that yet to be tapped into and that would be a huge productivity growth if you can make the best use of the talent pool in that region. So I can't wait enough to hear more stories, more success stories from you about linking Europeans with Africans and possibly even other parts of the world to create that kind of magic.
So first start with France and then Wendatco, right? And so there would be other countries.
So I'm sure when I invite you back next time for an interview, you'll say, well, Vince, well, it's not just France. Now I got another 10 countries or 20 countries. I won't be shocked to hear that. I've occupied your airtime for long. I do...
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