The Global Leaders in Industrial Wastewater Treatment
Tamarai Selvi
Financial Controller, SWA Malaysia
Tamarai has been with SWA Malaysia since 2012. She is the financial controller of SWA Malaysia. But she is also so much more than that. HR, payroll, payment processing, project tracking and coordination, finance and pre-qualification exercises in the tender process all fall under her remit.
When she joined SWA, Tamarai brought her skills as a chartered accountant with her. She has worked in some of the world’s largest accounting firms… and now SWA is fortunate to have her expertise.
“When I was working as an accountant, I was always doing the same thing every day. But working here at SWA Malaysia, there are new challenges and opportunities all the time. That’s what drives me.
Here I am very hands-on in growing the business and managing a team. It is so different to my past work as an accountant.”
While Tamarai puts her accounting and business skills to work every day, she is also very interested in learning more about the core business of SWA. She wants to understand the technology and how it works so she can make solid financial decisions for the business.
“This role is not all accountancy. I’m learning about engineering and problem solving. It’s so motivating to see how we solve complex problems… it makes me feel really good about the work we do and the fact that I’m a part of that.”
Tamarai is excited about the future and continuing to drive growth for SWA Malaysia.
“We have the capability for full EPCC delivery from engineering to procurement, commissioning and construction. This gives us an opportunity to really expand our business beyond Malaysia.”
And in the EPCC model, Tamarai plays a critical role, namely in procurement.
“If the engineers tell me that we should purchase product A over product B, I will always do my research to see if we should proceed with that option or another one altogether. I’m always looking at the big picture. Engineers tend to be very technical, so they need someone like me with a business view who can give an overall sense of direction and look at not just performance but cost and other factors.”
Outside of work, Tamarai loves to spend time playing tennis with her three sons. She also attends barre classes a few times a week.