From the Straits Times:
BANK executive Josie Lau, 48, was appointed the new president of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) on Wednesday night at a meeting of the new team in charge.
She is vice-president of consumer banking group cards and unsecured loans for DBS Bank.
But shortly after she announced that she was president, posed for pictures and made brief comments to reporters, her employer expressed unhappiness that she had taken the top post at Singapore’s best-known women’s group.
And Ms Lau did not have the green light to be Aware president.
‘We believe that as a vice-president in DBS, she already has a challenging job with many responsibilities, and the role of president would demand too much of her time and energy,’ a spokesman said last night.
Full report here.
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A STATEMENT issued by a DBS spokesman:
‘The bank requires all employees to obtain approval before running for or taking on an external appointment, and many DBS employees are involved in community work and/or support various charity organisations in their own personal capacity.
‘Josie was informed prior to the Aware election this evening that although the bank supports her involvement in Aware as council member, in her own personal capacity, DBS is, however, not supportive of her intent to run for president of Aware. We believe that as a vice-president in DBS, she already has a challenging job with many responsibilities, and the role of president would demand too much of her time and energy.’
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DBS involved in anti-gay advertisements controversy in December 2008:
From My Paper:
BARELY three weeks after controversy erupted over DBS’ support of the family- charity group, Focus on the Family Singapore (FOTF), the name of the group is again appearing in DBS advertisements for a credit- card promotion (refer to example on top).
References to FOTF have been pulled from the bank’s promotions after a boycott of DBS by gay activists, who claimed that the charity was “anti-gay” and “anti-abortion”.
Within People Like Us (PLU), we had just about sorted out our group position when the reporter from the Business Times called regarding DBS Bank and Focus on the Family (FOTF). Admittedly, we were slower off the starting block than the “young turks” on SiGNeL, PLU’s email list, who had been seething for two weeks.
They were furious when the saw the Christmas credit card promotion of DBS: “For every set of *limited edition bears* redeemed, DBS will contribute a sum towards *Focus on the Family*, a charity dedicated to helping children and families thrive” – words taken from the bank’s website, mid-November 2008.
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