All-Rounder: Khemara Ros
Interview with Christy Davis
In this month’s all-rounder feature, Khemara Ros shares his remarkable and unconventional career trajectory from working in palm-oil plantations, to NGOs, a brief stint in advertising, to working for the IFC and ADB, and now heading up Fintech company Kiu Cambodia, and what he’s learned on his journey.
Coming from a poor family of schoolteachers who barely had enough food to put on the table, to being the only one of his peers to achieve such career success, he talks about the importance of knowing your own strengths, and also the role that education has played in his life.
Along the way he’s continued to develop his skills with 3 degrees, soft skills training, and on the job learning from multiple sectors and industries, while constantly listening and adapting, making him a truly well-rounded all-rounder!
Tell us something about yourself.
I was born into a family of schoolteachers, my father was a schoolteacher. In Cambodia the salary is very low and not enough to support a family.
In 1995, when I finished high school, I was one of just three students out of 240 who passed the high school exam, but I failed in the entrance exam for (public) university in Cambodia. During that time, there were no private schools, so if you failed the exam, you had no other choice. I went to work in a palm oil plantation in Sihanoukville while my family was in Phnom Penh. In Sihanoukville, we were living outside civilisation. The Khmer Rouge still existed and there was lots of fighting. I was a scared 16-year old, crying and missing home.
After a year, a private university opened in Phnom Penh and I asked my parents if I could come back and continue studying. I studied at two schools at the same time — a private school where I finished my business management degree, and a public school studying a bachelors in English.
When I finished my business degree in 2000, I got a job at World Vision Cambodia. After finishing my English degree two years later, I got a scholarship to study in Japan. So I left World Vision to study a Masters in International Relations in Japan from 2003–2005. When I came back from Japan, I worked briefly in an advertising agency as an account manager, but after 5 months, I went back to the NGO space and joined NGO Forum, a membership network of NGOs in Cambodia that makes sure that government policies and trade agreements are fair to poor people. After a year, I moved to the Economic Research Institute of Cambodia as researcher focused on the national budget. In 2006/2007, information on the government budget was very limited. I wrote the first guidebook on the national budget of Cambodia which includes areas of priority, budget allocation, and the alignment of both. Afterwards, I joined International Finance Corporation (IFC) where I was an Analyst and later, Operations Officer working with the government to improve the regulatory framework of doing business in Cambodia. In my last two years with IFC, my scope expanded to improving SMEs’ access to financing so they can create more jobs, expand their business activities, and generate more economic activity for the country.
Then I joined Asian Development Bank (ADB) in private sector development. We supported the startup community, innovative entrepreneurship ideas, introduced investments from private investors to the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and supported alternative financing. I was then promoted to Country Manager of Cambodia. I was also a financial technology advisor for Mekong Business Initiative (MBI) handling four countries: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. I got to interact with financial technology players and investors from across the world including Singapore and Silicon Valley. I was also an advisor for Tryb Capital, a $120-million investment fund based in Singapore investing in innovative technology companies in the Mekong region.
Currently, I am the CEO of Kiu Cambodia, I manage Kiu’s operations. We have financial institutions help SMEs do more formal financial reporting, and based on those data, we have an automatic credit scoring system to provide financing for them in a more innovative way.
During the time you worked at the palm oil plantation, why didn’t you want to settle for that type of life? Where did your passion come from to do something more?
I always wondered why my parents never encouraged me to study. All they worried about was for the family to have food on the table. They didn’t have time or resources for anything beyond that. When I finished high school and couldn’t enter university, I just had to get a job and that’s why I ended up working in the palm oil plantation. From time to time, the plantation’s accountant would come to check the operations and expenses. I thought, accountants have a bachelor’s degree and I want to be like them. So when private schools opened in Phnom Penh and the fees were affordable, I grabbed the opportunity. That was my turning point.
Looking back and recognising that your parents were just trying to keep you fed, what have you learned from that? How has it changed your relationship with your own children?
I appreciate my parents and how they went through the difficulty of not having enough to feed their children. Sometimes, they wouldn’t eat just for me to have something to eat, and they would borrow money to buy the things I wanted. They did their best.
With my kids, I expose them to educational environments, advanced countries and a more sophisticated education. I wanted my children to have a broad mind from an early age, so I invested in their education.
Also, the world has changed. TV shows from the US are now available in Cambodia. You can now be informed of what’s going on in the world, unlike when I was growing up and we didn’t have access to information outside Cambodia.
Being an all-rounder is to develop adaptability. How did you manage to adapt to different nationalities, cultures, and across generations as well?
In addition to what I learned in school, I think it’s also my personality, and how I understand and value people. I value relationships more than things.
I realised that what you learn from school is not what actually happens in reality, and you have to understand reality more so you can adapt easily. I also remind myself to listen more to hear other people’s views, ideas and opinions, which helps me adapt to different kinds of people, no matter what social class they are in.
How did you learn to partner and work with others that are different from you?
To be successful in working with different people in any organisation, you not only need to understand the organisation but also the people that you will be dealing with. You have to know their personalities, characteristics and interest, and who has influence within an organisation and can get things done.
I was fortunate to attend soft skill trainings, such as communication and negotiation, during my time at IFC and World Bank. I used this opportunity to change how I would react to certain situations, and to do things differently. These learned skills taught me to think first before doing or responding, and has definitely helped me in communicating and working with others.
What’s your experience in brokering partnerships, and how do you approach partnerships?
Currently I am coordinating, leading and facilitating a number of partnerships. At Kiu, we provide Resource Planning Software for SMEs, with the end purpose of helping them to get better bank financing. I partner with the banks to support and use our product for data and credit scoring, so they can lend money to SMEs. So in a way, I am brokering partnerships or agreements between banks and the SME clients.
Trusting relationships and credibility are required to get things moving. Technological innovation of our ERP product is important, but I also need to partner with the bank to help SMEs avail loans. Partnering with banks or other financial institutions is not easy, as they are very risk-averse. Trust is one key thing, but it also helps if you can have a conversation with the decision-maker in an informal, friendly environment.
From what you’re describing, trust is so critical. How do you cultivate trust?
I cultivate trust just by being honest. It’s one of my values to build strong teams and strong partnerships.
What advice would you pass on to others who want to take a similar path as you?
It’s important to know yourself — know your interests, strengths and what you’re good at. You may be good with numbers like an accountant, or working with people and curating partnerships. You can then pursue a career around that rather than trying to follow others who are successful in what they do. Remember that they are different from you.
Moving from World Bank to Asia Foundation to MBI to ADB, it was quite a journey for me to change from development work to working in the private sector, and to become a CEO at that. Work now demands a lot of time from me — I work even at night and on weekends. Some people might find it difficult, but I enjoy it. I still maintain my work-life balance and I’m able to spend time with my family. All in all, it’s just a matter of commitment and willingness to do so.
Life is not all about work, but how you enjoy and value your everyday life. Don’t take things too seriously, otherwise you will feel stressed and not be able to give your best to what you are doing.
We hope you learned a lot from this interview. If you want to read more from our All-Rounder series, click HERE.
