Charles Chow is a Singaporean who has strong links to New Zealand, especially Auckland, a city which he fondly regards as his home away from home. When in Auckland, he commutes between his apartment in the city and his weekend country home in Matakana.
His fondness of New Zealand can be traced back to his younger days studying for his accounting degree at Auckland university. Even though his 20 year career span as an banker and stockbroking director at JP Morgan Chase and DBS Vickers Securities took him to London, where he also obtained a post-grad degree at LSE, Charles remains very attached to the Kiwi way.
In 2006, while attending an Asia New Zealand foundation conference in Wellington, Charles was given a friendly nudge by the then minister of immigration, Lianne Dalziel, to obtain PR status in New Zealand.
Even since then, Charles has been coming “home” to his beloved and adopted country frequently and was happily anointed by KEA NZ to be one of the many world class New Zealanders living overseas.
During this coronavirus crisis, Charles has been “locked down” in Singapore, giving him time to ponder and comment widely and freely about the crisis situation in Singapore. Needless to say, he has also been following the New Zealand scene very closely, going online at 9 am Singapore time every weekday to listen to PM Jacinda Ardern and Dr Ashley Bloomfield.