Li-Ann Wan

Li-Ann is from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She completed her Degree in Chemical Engineering from University Malaysia Sabah. She came from a large family of five siblings and she is the middle child. Li-Ann drew inspiration from one of her older sisters, who was pursuing Chemical Engineering at Cambridge University, turning her into a role model.

Excelling in math and sciences, Li-Ann decided to follow in her sister's footsteps. However, as she neared graduation, the choice between a technical or commercial route presented itself. During her final year, she had the opportunity to present a plant design to the CEO of an oil and gas company. She realized that she is more interested in looking at the money-making side of the business, instead of pure engineering. Therefore, she decided to start her career as a sales engineer, despite receiving criticism from her peers. 

Going into sales as an engineer is somewhat looked down upon by others, especially for a woman. There is the perception that a woman salesperson will need to dress pretty and entertain customers. 

Li-Ann was determined to pursue her direction as she believed that: “To each his own. Everyone has their way of how they want to go about doing business, but I know that I will find my way." 

Upon starting her first sales engineer job, Li-Ann saw the importance of socializing which involves drinking with customers. At the same time, she understands the importance of health and she engages her clients through sports activities. Whenever external clients asked her to go drinking, she invited them to play badminton or run instead. That works for her! 

She discovered that playing sports with her clients creates stronger bonds as compared to getting drunk in a bar. She wanted to change the way of doing sales. She is not willing to just be a conventional sales engineer. She was successful in her first sales job with an instrumentation company that sells to the oil and gas industry. After 1.5 years, she was headhunted to join a competitor. 

The Shell opportunity in Singapore came along later. It was through an ex-colleague from her first company. Her first attempt to join Shell in an engineering role was not successful. A few months later, she received another invitation to join Shell as an account manager, which was a better fit for her. She successfully secured the job but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed her relocation to Singapore by seven months. 

Li-Ann shared with me that joining Shell is like a childhood dream. The Shell brand was very prominent in her family as her parents only went to the Shell petrol station for fuel. She had a lecturer at the university who used to work in Shell’s upstream business, and her lecturer inspired her. 

Li-Ann applied for a Shell scholarship previously but she was not successful. She applied for their fresh graduate program upon graduation and she was rejected. Shell turned her down for an engineering position. It was only in her fourth attempt to join Shell that she became successful. Talk about determination!

Li-Ann attributes her success in the male-dominated oil and gas industry to having a female mentor in her first sales job. This mentor imparted valuable lessons about the significance of internal customers and external customers alike.

Today, she is enjoying her account manager job at Shell as she serves the marine industry. As she enjoys sports, Li-Ann picked up golf as her marine customers enjoy playing golf together. Through her conversations with fellow golfers, she learned that in business, “hard work is mandatory, but connections are compulsory if you want to be successful.” 

She believes that she has the winning formula by combining her passion for sports with how she builds relationships with colleagues and customers. She aspires to take up management roles in the future and she is having a blast in her job with Shell today. 

Since July 2023, Li-Ann has started an MBA program. She believes it will equip her well for her career. She also received her first promotion in Shell in 2023. I’m confident that Li-Ann will develop well in her career!