Alumni Profile: Ai-Leen Tan
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Degree: Commerce/Law (Hons) 1997 Current Position: Transfer Pricing Manager, Ernst & Young, Germany Living in Frankfurt, Germany has resulted in a new career direction for Ai-Leen Tan. After qualifying in Melbourne as a barrister and solicitor, and working as a legal counsel in Singapore, Ai-Leen is now establishing herself as a specialist in the growing field of transfer pricing. Ai-Leen contacted the Alumni office in response to the "Seeking Alumni in Europe" item in the April edition of GradNet. Here is what she had to say about life in one of the more unusual destinations for Australians living and working overseas. |
I’m an Australian permanent resident, originally from Johor Bahru, Malaysia. After graduating, I did my Articles at Maddock Lonie & Chisholm in Melbourne.
I left Melbourne in 1999 after being admitted to the Victorian Bar and went to live in Singapore. There I worked in the international tax department of PricewaterhouseCoopers, before switching to do what I thought was more exciting venture capital and IPO work as an in-house legal counsel of a dot.com.
In 2001, after the dot.com bubble burst, I joined the regional South-East Asian headquarters of one of France’s largest banks, BNP Paribas, as an in-house legal counsel. My work there covered all aspects of the bank’s business: investment banking, corporate banking, private banking, wealth management, asset management, project and structured finance work as well as some derivatives work.
I met my future husband, Thomas Elias, during my time in Singapore and we got married in Germany in June 2004. In October 2004 I moved to Frankfurt am Main, Germany where I am currently based.
I have not found it that much of a handicap not to have studied European civil law. Although I cannot practise as a lawyer (Rechtsanwaltin) in Germany, I have been able to put my Australian qualifications to good use by switching to another up-and-coming consulting field, transfer pricing. I did transfer pricing at PwC Frankfurt for two years before moving recently to a new role at Ernst & Young. I specialise in financial services multinationals operating in the banking and capital and asset management sectors. The work is project-based and ranges from documentation of global transfer pricing policies and reports, to audit defence and global structuring solutions which include shifting important functions and risks around global locations with the aim of lowering the overall effective tax rate of the multinational client. I enjoy this new area of work very much as it means I get to be intimately involved in the transformation of a business model from the planning to the implementation stage.
Living in Germany has been a great experience for me. I have had the chance to travel around Europe and meet people from all walks of life. In addition, after I left Australia, I had the opportunity to learn German and French. These are skills I think I would not have been able to develop as fully if I had stayed on in Australia. Speaking the language has definitely helped ease the transition to a new culture and environment.
My wanderlust and nomadic nature have taken me to places and situations I never dreamed I would experience. I have had the chance to go to Ireland, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Sweden and the Netherlands, and soon to Hungary and Portugal.
I have not met many Australians working in Germany so far. Most seem to have gone to London, which is possibly easier from a language point of view. For me, continental Europe holds a lot more charm and fascination than the United Kingdom. In particular, I love to be able to drive down the Autobahn to explore another country (Germany having borders to nine neighbouring countries). During the winter, it’s great to be able to drive to the Austrian or Swiss Alps for some skiing. I have been able to improve my skiing a lot here!
I am glad to have done the combined degree program at Melbourne. It’s helped to open a whole new world for me on the other side of the planet.
