Alumni in profile
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Karen Ngee Yeo
Bachelor of Commerce 1999
Although she completed a diploma in chemical engineering in her home country of Singapore, Deakin graduate Karen Yeo always dreamed of a career in sales and marketing.
Eventually Karen's passion for business won out over a career in chemical engineering and she came to Australia to undertake a Bachelor of Commerce at Deakin University majoring in e-commence.
"My e-commerce major was amazing right from the start and really had a great impact on me. The IT industry was on the verge of some major developments at the time and with so many innovations I could see a real future career in this area", she said.
Karen believes her final-year project had the greatest influence on choosing a career in e-business.
"As part of my degree I competed in a team competition, with the winner to undertake a project with an IT company. I was team leader and we managed to win the competition; and we were employed to design and test web-based systems. I was eventually employed full time by this particular company as a project manager of a team of eleven people and eventually became the Australian accounts manager for regional sales."
Having had five years of marketing and public relations experience in the commercial sector, in 2004 Karen decided to set up her own business, Wrappingpaper PL (Singapore) which delivers customised website design,
e-commerce and e-marketing solutions in Singapore and Australia.
Karen believes her degree and previous industry experience have helped her greatly to develop this exciting new business venture and to further develop her project management skills.
"My degree has enabled me to confidently undertake so many different projects in areas like events management, e-marketing, customer service and channel marketing which has meant Wrappingpaper can successfully meet the needs of clients in so many aspects of e-business", she said.
"Project management is fascinating because you have contact with so many different people including clients, designers, programmers, systems analysts and project supervisors. You have to be able to 'speak their language', which is certainly challenging: as the project coordinator you are the main point of contact between the client and your team."
Karen believes the transition experience coming from Singapore to Australia was well worth it.
"My transition from being in a very organised education system for 10 years in Singapore to a very independent environment was a challenging one. The multicultural environment here was certainly an enjoyable one as you are able to meet people from all over the world. The exposure was tremendous and helpful to my career as I have to deal with multinationals in many aspects of my work."
A passionate Alumni member, Karen encourages all international alumni to join the Deakin Alumni Community and to assist in the development of overseas chapters.
