A series of three Reflections with Angelene Chan – CEO of DP Architects, Singapore – on meditation and how it has helped her survive, adapt and learn a lot from the crisis
Angelene Chan speaks freely from the heart, with clarity and depth from a life that balances professional pressure in a company that stretches from Shanghai to London with family and service to others. She speaks gratefully of her professional work. “ I love my work” – she says.
Meditation has helped her continue to love her family too and stay centred in her professional and inner life.
In her first reflection with Laurence Freeman she describes how she felt called to the profession early in life, how she found meditation and wasted no time in starting the daily discipline “I’ve experienced the benefits of meditation – it has helped me to release the daily pressure of a very demanding profession.” Watch her first talk here.
“I have truly experienced the benefits of meditation. Meditation has helped me to release the daily pressure of a very demanding profession.”
Angelene Chan
Leadership through crisis
In her second talk of this series, Laurence asks Angelene to explain how has meditation helped her with the burden of leadership that she carries, especially in times of crisis. “I feel everyone is a leader in their own right, you don’t need to have a team of people under you, you can still be an example for others and be a leader. Since becoming a regular meditator my idea of professional success is grounded on how well I can align my personal value system with the business decisions I take on behalf of the organization, in other words how I can bring aspects of spirituality like empathy, inclusiveness in what is essentially in a secular environment.” Watch the full second talk here.
Good leadership goes beyond gender
In this third and concluding part of the conversation with Laurence Freeman, Angelene Chan, CEO of Singapore-based DP Architects, with sixteen offices from London to Shanghai, continues to share her vision of work, life and the spiritual dimension of both. The role that meditation plays in her work and life as a whole is central. She explains why she never “make a big deal” of the dual fact of being a successful leader and a woman. She has never just seen herself in terms of gender even as a woman in a male-dominated profession. ‘I just always tried to do my job”, she says. She concludes with insightful thoughts on the varied, possible outcomes of the current pandemic crisis.
Angelene Chan
There are two things that Ms Angelene Chan, CEO of DP Architects, holds close to her heart – Design and People.
Angelene received recognition for her creation in 2010 when she was listed as one of Singapore’s 20 leading architects under the age of 45 by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Her achievements in the world of architecture are numerous.
An active contributor to the profession and building industry, Angelene sits on Singapore’s Board of Architects, Urban Redevelopment Authority and Professional Engineers Board. She has been a key contributor in the WCCM Bonnevaux site redevelopment as a leading architect.
