Iconomy Group CEO Returns to Woodlands Primary School as Guest of Honour

15 November 2024

Iconomy Group CEO Mr Boo Kok Chuon returned to his alma mater, Woodlands Primary School, on 15 November 2024 as Guest of Honour for the school’s Prize Giving Day 2024, marking a homecoming to the school where his educational and entrepreneurial journey first began.

Addressing students, teachers and parents under the school’s “Star Player” theme, Mr Boo delivered a keynote centred on curiosity, purposeful play, lifelong learning and the willingness to explore interests beyond conventional boundaries.

The occasion also provided an opportunity for Mr Boo to acknowledge the teachers and educational experiences that had continued to influence his professional and intellectual development decades after leaving primary school.

What Makes a “Star Player”?

Rather than defining a Star Player simply as someone who wins competitions or excels academically, Mr Boo invited students to consider a broader idea.

A Star Player, he suggested, is someone who remains curious, learns through exploration and is willing to try something unfamiliar without knowing from the outset whether it will succeed.

The idea of “play” was therefore used not to mean learning without purpose, but as a process of experimentation.

Curiosity encourages questions. Play allows possibilities to be tested. Experience produces lessons. Over time, seemingly unrelated interests can combine in unexpected ways.

Drawing from his own multidisciplinary journey through entrepreneurship, finance, the arts and professional practice, Mr Boo encouraged students not to feel compelled to determine their entire future while still young.

An Entrepreneurial Journey That Began in Primary 3

The story carried particular resonance because one of Mr Boo’s earliest experiments in entrepreneurship had taken place within Woodlands Primary School itself.

As a Primary 3 student, he began bringing bread produced by his father’s bakery to sell to his schoolmates.

What appeared at the time to be a child’s small experiment became an early encounter with entrepreneurship: identifying something people might want, trying an idea, discovering whether it worked and learning from the experience.

The venture subsequently attracted press attention.

Returning decades later as Guest of Honour allowed Mr Boo to present the story not as a prescription for students to start businesses, but as an example of what childhood curiosity can eventually become when the instinct to explore is allowed to continue developing.

It also provided an opportunity for a light-hearted historical caveat: what a Primary 3 pupil managed to do many years ago should not necessarily be interpreted as an invitation to today’s students to commence trading operations during recess.

Learning Across Disciplines

Mr Boo also shared how the same curiosity subsequently led him into areas extending considerably beyond business and finance.

Music became one such field. Over the years, he explored several musical instruments and composition, including writing the piano work The Wave Sonata, which subsequently received a Bronze award at the Pearl River International Piano Competition.

His interest in music, storytelling and family also came together in his children’s novel, Kiki and the Enchanted Violin.

Other interests eventually developed into professional pursuits across business, finance, corporate governance, law and the arts.

The common thread was not an attempt to master unrelated subjects for their own sake. Instead, Mr Boo encouraged students to remain curious about the meaning and connections behind what they learn.

Knowledge acquired in one field may eventually become useful somewhere entirely unexpected.

A Tribute to a Teacher

One of the most personal moments of the address came when Mr Boo acknowledged his former Higher Chinese teacher, Mdm Chiam, who was present at the ceremony.

Switching to Mandarin, he thanked Mdm Chiam for cultivating his interest in Chinese language and classical literature during his years at Woodlands Primary School.

He reflected that the significance of those lessons had become apparent only much later in life.

The linguistic foundation developed during his early education had subsequently proved valuable in professional settings requiring bilingual capabilities, including his participation in an international arbitration conducted primarily in Chinese.

Beyond its practical application, his continuing engagement with Chinese literature also provided access to a much older intellectual tradition, whose ideas and perspectives continued to influence his approach to decision-making and life.

The reunion illustrated one of the central messages of the address: the consequences of education are not always visible at the moment something is being learned.

A lesson encountered in primary school may continue producing value decades later.

Coming Full Circle

For Mr Boo, returning to Woodlands Primary School as Guest of Honour represented a particularly meaningful point in that journey.

He had once sat among the school’s pupils, experimented with his first small business there, encountered teachers who shaped his interests, and left without knowing precisely where those experiences would eventually lead.

Decades later, he returned to the same school as an entrepreneur, corporate professional, author and musician to speak to another generation of pupils beginning journeys of their own.

His message to students was consequently not that they should already know what they intend to become.

It was almost the opposite.

They were encouraged to remain curious, explore widely, learn from unsuccessful attempts and continue discovering what interested them.

“I still don’t have everything figured out. I’m still learning, still exploring, and still trying new things.”

Giving Back to the Institutions That Shaped Us

The engagement forms part of Iconomy’s wider commitment to public outreach, education and professional engagement.

Across the Group’s engagements with schools, universities, professional communities and members of the public, its professionals have sought to share knowledge and experience accumulated through their respective fields.

The Woodlands Primary School engagement carried an additional significance.

It was an opportunity not simply to speak to students, but to recognise the teachers and institution that had contributed to the development of one of Iconomy’s own leaders.

Education rarely reveals the full value of what it provides immediately. A childhood business experiment can become the beginning of an entrepreneurial instinct. An early interest in music can develop into composition and creative work. Lessons in Chinese literature can become professional capabilities decades later.

Sometimes the significance of those beginnings becomes visible only upon returning to where they started.

For Mr Boo, Prize Giving Day 2024 was such a return: from a Primary 3 pupil experimenting with his first business idea at Woodlands Primary School to returning decades later as its Guest of Honour.