40 Under 40 2020: Leslie Goh, Tribal Worldwide

Leslie Goh

Chief operating officer
Tribal Worldwide
Singapore

With "unmatched tenacity and foresight to drive a business forward", Leslie Goh has played a key role in building Tribal Worldwide's TX (Total Experience) offering, which combines a number of services to help clients grow in the digital economy. In just two years, TX has become a "flagship" product, delivering a third of the agency's revenue. The value of the projects TX completed in the past 12 months increased 25% year over year as its pitch conversion rate rose from 72% to 85% and new work came in from Samsung, iShopChangi, Discovery, GovTech and many others. TX also has an impact well beyond Singapore, as it delivers solutions for DDB clients in Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand, and China. 

While her main responsibilities include delivering technology products, platforms and apps, Goh is also "able to code switch to a gentle mother to encourage young staff". Perhaps this helps explain why Tribal enjoys low staff turnover, and why 20% of its employees have a tenure of five or more years. Over the past two years, over 60 staffers have completed more than 1800 hours of training, and Goh has led the promotion of four TX employees into leadership roles, minting a head of project management, a head of technology, a principal business consultant, and a lead data consultant.

Goh's commitment to developing talent also extends to her work with Equator, a program DDB runs with Temasek Polytechnic (her alma mater) and Nanyang Polytechnic to groom young technologists. Meanwhile, Goh's CSR programme enables staff to spend two days of volunteer leave caring for less fortunate people, animals and the environment.

Goh joined Tribal in 2008 and over seven years was instrumental in growing the agency’s digital business by 20% year-on-year. She rose through the ranks to become COO in 2015. Earlier in her career, she spent time with Proximity Singapore and started out at seminal digital agency XM Asia Pacific.