It was great to be part of the official launch of Icon Asia in Singapore last week. I not only got the chance to check out Stuart’s new Singapore home in person for the first time – I’d seen plenty of it via FaceTime but it was lovely to walk around and see what a great job Sascha had done in picking out all of the furnishings and creating a second home for what I’m sure will be our very regular visits to him.
Singapore has no shortage of stunning rooftop locations, and the Icon SOC team had picked a great space for us to celebrate with many of the people who had helped with the establishment of our Icon Group Asian base.
It was wonderful that all three founders of the Singapore Oncology Consultants (SOC) practice were able to join us on the night and celebrate not only what they had created but the exciting opportunity to use that base to expand the provision of high quality cancer care services to other regions throughout Asia.
I particularly enjoyed the chance to catch up in person with Teena Pisarev, Icon SOC CEO for the first time in person post her well deserved recognition as a finalist in the Telstra Business Women’s Awards. Teena has done an outstanding job as CEO of Icon Cancer Care in Australia, and we are so fortunate to now have her leading operations in Singapore. She will provide invaluable support to Stuart in his role as Founding Chairman of Icon Asia, and I suspect the two of them will be a formidable force in driving rapid expansion across the region.
Transactions like this don’t occur without the support and involvement of many people, and it was wonderful to meet up and raise a glass to toast a job well done with the various financial and legal advisors who’d contributed to making this significant step forward in Icon Group’s history occur. I particularly enjoyed meeting our superstar all female legal team from Shook Lin & Bok and the great female leaders (along with a few good men!) joining Teena at Icon SOC.
It was also great to catch up with An who had previously worked with us at Epic Pharmacy Greenslopes, providing a great reminder that while we’ve long enjoyed the opportunity to offer team members the ability to move to different roles and sites within Australia, this now extends internationally as well.
One of our most important drivers at Icon Group is improving equity of access to exceptional cancer care for patients, and with Icon SOC providing the base for Icon Asia I have no doubt that in the same way that we’ve been able to deliver a rapid expansion of services to Australian patients in their geographical area of need we’ll now be able to do just the same for Asian cancer patients.