“Success isn’t just about what you achieve silently, but how effectively you communicate your value.” – Lim Ee Ling
Thought leadership isn’t just about reshaping industries or pushing bold ideas. At its best, it’s about investing in people— especially the next generation—and giving them the tools, space, and confidence to create something better. Lim Ee Ling has made that her life’s work.
Lim’s journey began in the fast, high-stakes world of investment banking. For nearly a decade, Lim did what many would call ‘making it’. But at some point, she paused and asked personal questions about what it means to truly have an impact.
“It’s probably not one singular defining moment, but a series of pivotal ones,” she recalls of her mindset shift. From remembering how it felt when a parent told her that her son “hung onto every word I said” when she was teaching kids at a temple to feeling deeply inspired by a start-up founder in Indonesia whom she met during her investment banking days to observing her mother, a teacher, painstakingly crafting lesson plans, each was “a stepping stone that illuminates the next” in her evolution.
Stepping away from the corporate track—she used to head business development in Asia Pacific for 500 Global, one of the world’s leading venture capital firms, and currently serves in a “global mentor” role to deliver workshops and guide leadership programmes—it is Lim’s work with youth that feels especially telling of who she is.
In 2018, she co-founded Wavesparks—previously known as the Young Founders Summit (YFS) —with Liaw Yit Ming, with the goal of nurturing entrepreneurs between the age of 15 and 20. These aren’t workshops for hobbyists. A not-for-profit and annual six-month start-up incubator programme with mentors that include industry experts from the likes of Bosch, Keppel Corporation, Grab, and 500 Global, Wavesparks offers hands-on, purpose-driven programmes that are designed to equip young people with training, mentorship, networks, and funding opportunities to build real-world ventures.
“We want to create builders, risk takers, people who are not afraid to just start. We are building Asia’s largest community of Gen Z entrepreneurs,” she said in a press statement for the YFS Global Summit last year, which saw 80 participants from 10 countries convening in Singapore for a five-day in-person residential boot camp.
What has been your biggest professional risk?
Leaving the world of investments and finance, twice, to become an entrepreneur. As some put it, moving from the ‘dark side’ to the ‘side of impact’. Both leaps taught me that we hold an incredible capacity to reinvent ourselves and no decision, however daunting, is the final one. Every ending creates space for a new beginning.
What anchors you when you’re navigating uncertainty?
First, my daughters and the youth I mentor. I can’t guide them through challenges and encourage them to take risks without feeling like a fraud or hypocrite (if I don’t) embrace vulnerability and courage myself. Second, the inner work I’ve done to understand myself deeply. That is, confronting the true roots of my fears and often realising that the fear of failure is more paralysing than actual failure.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be?
Most education stakeholders and teachers are still exploring incremental improvements when we should be thinking of transformative disruption. Unlike industries like finance or tech start-ups, education innovation often moves too slowly, and it also lacks a rapid cross-pollination of ideas.
What belief did you hold early in your career that you’ve since outgrown?
That quiet diligence alone guarantees recognition and rewards. Early on, I believed that one just needed to work hard and put in the hours, and it would bring recognition. Over time, I learnt that visibility and self-advocacy are essential. Success isn’t just about what you achieve silently, but how effectively you communicate your value.
What legacy do you hope to leave behind?
A thriving, connected community of empowered young founders across Asia who believe deeply in their own potential, driven by curiosity and resilience. I hope my legacy lies in the impact of the lives transformed and the communities shaped by these fearless youth.
Photography by Eugene Lee of Enfinite / Hair & Makeup by Sophia Soh of Suburbs Studio
