CEO Insights Magazine

One of the most difficult issues for the industry players carrying out complex marine and offshore enterprises is planning large projects with several phases, dependencies, and demanding customer deadlines. Hence, partnering with a competent partner who can help steer through these projects is indeed imperative today. Leveraging 20 years of in-depth experience, George has two decades of experience in steering through the complexity of managing marine and offshore projects.

In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights Asia Magazine, George Lee walks us through his professional journey along with the unique traits of Sea Forrest.

Give a brief account about your professional journey.

I started my career with a Keppel scholarship to read mechanical engineering at the Nanyang Technological University and worked with Keppel FELS upon my graduation, where I spent six years taking up different job roles. Beginning as a young engineer, I worked my way up to becoming the project manager overseeing noteworthy projects which were worth about $300 million. At Keppel FELS I learned to manage projects while leading multiple departments and individuals in tandem with the project's deliverability. When I was subsequently stationed in China, I was prepared to take on the roles of CTO and project manager synonymously. While in China, we were conducting 16 new-build projects at that same time, out of which I was the project director for 12, which allowed me to further hone my managerial abilities.

Following my tenure in China, I returned to Singapore and established Sea Forrest, by leveraging and utilizing the skills and contacts that I had garnered over the years. Sea Forrest had a humble beginning offering project management services for oil rig constructions and gradually built the company from the ground up to where it is today. Sea Forest has been in business for over a decade and has established a reputation as a reliable and innovative provider of marine engineering services, as well as marine energy management, and decarbonization solutions.

Tell us about your leadership approach and what are the guidelines or methodologies you follow to lead your team.

I believe in leading by example. This has been ingrained in me since the day I completed my national service with the Singapore Army as an artillery officer. As a result, this has been a very key component in driving the company’s growth bandwagon. When your colleagues or partners within the company see that the CEO or the leader is doing what he's supposed to do, everybody naturally will follow. Another crucial consideration is to train your team and match them with the company's vision and mission. A leader ought to develop his or her colleagues' abilities to perform the assigned task flawlessly. Allowing staff time to train or adapt to what the company is should be encouraged.

Define Sea Forrest as an organization and its position in the maritime transportation market.

Sea Forrest was founded in 2011 as a Marine and Offshore project management firm. Currently, the company is transitioning from a system integrator to a technology solutions provider. We are currently focused on the green space where we offer energy solutions to the marine sector

What are the factors you look into when developing effective corporate growth strategies and also while guiding your team?

There are no hard and fast rules for how you should run your business, as more often we are driven by regulatory, technology, and market demands. We need to be nimble and responsive to stay on top of the ever changing dynamics. Any given company, irrespective of industry verticals must have open conversations with its employees with respect to the company's objectives and principles.

Where do you see yourself headed towards the upcoming years? What is your future roadmap?

We are currently focusing on becoming more of a product-driven company where we would be integrating the latest technologies to drive the needed innovation. We would be constantly reinventing our strategies to devise products as a solution to meet the ever-changing industry requirements.

George Lee, CEO, Sea Forrest

George Lee has over 20 years of expertise in the Maritime and Offshore Industry and has demonstrated grit in growing Sea Forrest from a Project Management Company to a system integrator and now green technology solutions provider. Under George's leadership, Sea Forrest has been successfully catering to its clients domestically and overseas today.