Only 37 years old, Ms Lim Cheng Cheng is one of the youngest chief financial officers (CFOs) here.

Her ability to multi-task must have been a ticket to her rapid rise to that position at transport giant SMRT.

Apart from her work, she is doing a Master of Business Administration degree course part-time and also expecting a child.

Ms Lim, a mother of two, thinks nothing of this, saying: 'At certain times I wondered what I was doing to myself, but it was the decision I took and I didn't regret it.'

The Nanyang Technological University accountancy graduate's first job was with the then Price Waterhouse, where she audited banks and worked with many people in corporate finance.

'But I didn't want to be on the other side of finance looking in all the time. I wanted to be part of a company, making decisions and seeing them come to fruition,' she said.

She then joined Singapore Power, where she closed an A$2.1 billion (S$2 billion) deal, at the age of just 29.

'It was my first big deal and it felt fantastic,' she said, attributing her success to the opportunities she has been given and to her colleagues.

At Singapore Power, her boss always felt that age did not matter. 'He felt that even if you had not done something before, a smart person would be able to do it.'

This is the philosophy she applies to her work.

'If I look at young people in the company and see a bright spark, I'm happy to let him try.'

This article was first published in The Sunday Times.