Long hours, but the best job in town

Vuylsteke, who has led the chamber since 1999, recently announced he will leave Taiwan in early 2008 for a post as president of AmCham Hong Kong.

For the past eight years though, the pace and demands of the job here have translated to a stimulating and even “rejuvenating” work life for Vuylsteke, that he says makes his “the best job in town.”

“Every day I deal with a whole spectrum of people in this community from the military, political, and business, think tanks,” as well as NGOs and the media, he says, dealing with “a complex array of issues.”

“That kind of daily excitement is really hard to find in other jobs,” he says, and “it does keep the mind alive.” “How can it get better?” he asks.

While Vuylsteke serves as a spokesperson, sharing the role with the chairperson of the group’s board of governors, he also takes a hands-on approach by working closely with his team — a source of much pride.

“My staff and I work together to keep the board informed. We have the best business magazine in Asia for chambers — there’s nothing like it. And so monthly, our whole membership as well as the board gets an update on what’s going on and our continuing assessment of what’s going on.”

“We feel like we’re being a very solid information source,” he says, adding this has become one of the group’s biggest achievements.

“When the chamber speaks, people, the government listens,” he says. “It’s not just a slogan, it says that we’ve built credibility. We do fact-based advocacy work, and people — even though they may not like it sometimes — at least they know that we’re not making things up.”

His time at the helm of one of the island’s most prominent international associations since 1999 has coincided with a period of enormous political and economic change locally.

“The biggest challenge for the chamber when I took over was to adjust to the new political and economic environment,” he says.

Another source of satisfaction for Vuylsteke is the feeling of “doing the right thing.”

“It’s a profound sense of having done good work. My academic training ... was in social and political philosophy, and jurisprudence, social transformation. It’s been rewarding to see that all the years of academic training were relevant and still are to the kind of job I’m doing,” he says.

Vuylsteke has also overseen growth in the number of the group’s programs from around 230 in 1999 to “around 500” today. One of those events is the annual “Hsieh Nien Fan” dinner, which brings together chamber members and prominent people in the local community including the president and senior government officials.

“It’s so great to have all these people in one room and see that, even though we may disagree on priorities sometimes ... that there’s still an openness between the chamber and government officials that I think is very healthy.”

As for his successor in 2008, while Vuylsteke will not be involved in the selection process, he did have one suggestion. “All I can say is, whoever the person is, I hope they have lots of enthusiasm and enjoys long hours.” “But,” he adds, “it’s time well spent.”

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email