Fermin Diez is a well-traveled man of many trades. Diez, who has visited more than 90 countries and hopes to reach 100 in the coming years, brings an integral international mind-set to the WorldAtWork community.

He has taught classes for more than 20 years in seven different countries, and applies his well-rounded, worldly mind-set to each organizational interaction. His current role with the National Council of Social Service in Singapore is rooted in a desire to give back to the community, a passion of his and one that he says feeds many professional and personal desires.

An HR Journey Around the World

“If I had known how much fun this job was going to be,” said Diez, “I would have done it much sooner.”

Between being born in Caracas, Venezuela and settling in Singapore for the past 13 years, there were 11 stops along the way. Those stops included Philadelphia, New York, Ann Arbor (Michigan), San Juan (Puerto Rico), Mexico City, São Paulo, Hong Kong, Sydney. Do any of those stops stand out as particularly memorable or impactful?Every city and country has its own charm. One that marked me the most, maybe, was New York, because it was New York. Coming from a small country in South America, the fact that I got to work on Park Avenue, to me, was a big deal when I was first starting out. Living in the big city marked me. The line, ‘If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere”? That’s really true. That showed me I could do it everywhere else.

In Mexico, I loved the people, the food, the vibrancy. Sydney is gorgeous. Nothing about it I didn’t like, just a spectacular setting. The Brazilians are the most fun people you’ll ever meet; they’ll celebrate the baptism of a doll if they could. Puerto Rico, I raised my children there. 

What ultimately led you to settle in Singapore?I truly believe this is as good as it gets, in terms of everything you want out of life. You want a place that’s safe, that’s clean, where people are nice and friendly and helpful, where crime is not a concern. This is where I’m going to make my final stand, that’s it. 

Fermin Diez

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Educating and Inspiring the World at Work 1ST QUARTER 2021

Do you feel you have a gift for working in your roles you held? What is it about you — as a person, your unique characteristics — that allows you to thrive?I don’t know about that. If I had a gift, if you could call it that, it’s that I learned how to be numerical and analytical before it became fashionable. I learned how to be business-savvy before people talked about HR-business partnering. By the time all of this came around, I had already learned these skills along the way. 

You went to Michigan for your undergrad, then Wharton for an M.B.A. in General Management and Strategy. Thirty years later, you went back to school at Singapore Management University for a Ph.D in General Management. What had changed in those 30 years?Everything changed. Everything I thought I knew? It turned out a lot of it wasn’t true. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we’d based a lot of compensation on that theory being a main driver of motivation. It turns out that it had been debunked 15 or 20 years ago, and I never knew that. Here I am, still going on talking about it. That’s an example.

Your membership with WorldAtWork has been described as exemplary. How long have you been involved with the organization? How much does WorldAtWork, the whole organization and what it provides, mean to you?I first got involved in the late 1980s. I started teaching at WorldAtWork about 20 years ago and have taught courses in at least seven countries. 

I’ve met some of the best comp people in the world through WorldAtWork. Part of what I give is perhaps an international flavor to what, at times, seems to be a very American organization. So we’ve worked hard to expand the footprint of WorldAtWork, and how to incorporate more international views going into the magazines and journals. Also, perhaps what I enjoy most is being able to teach the new professionals. It’s a privilege to teach them. 

Your hobbies away from the office, what’s the No. 1 hobby, would you say?I regularly play tennis with friends; the best thing about that is we never talk about work during it. Also, I play guitar. When I really need to decompress, I take

my guitar and play. If I can only do scales and exercises that day, that’s fine. It takes my mind off whatever is troubling me. I like to play fairly complicated finger-picking music. You want to have total concentration.

When did you develop the guitar-playing skill? And what about it most benefits you?I started playing the guitar when I was a teenager. Like pretty much everybody else at that age, I wanted to be a rock and roll god. To me, the guitar gods were David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Steve Howe (Yes), Steve Hackett (Genesis). These are the guys I wanted to, and still want to, emulate. The music I play is music from those guys.

There’s something about mastery. When you go and play this piece and you play it well, there’s a sense of accomplishment. It doesn’t matter how bad your day was, it doesn’t matter how beat up you got in that boardroom. You come home, play your music and you feel good. 

How about a bucket list? What’s one thing, or it could be more than one thing, that you’ve always wanted to do?I want to sit on top of Mount Kilimanjaro. It’s about as high as I could go without having to do a technical climb, and I’ve always loved climbing and hiking. There’s also a song by Johnny Clegg, where he sings “I’m sitting on top of Kilimanjaro.” That has always inspired me; it would be pretty good to sing that song up there. 

I also do want to get to 100 countries, and Kilimanjaro would help because Tanzania would make one more. Mostly, I want to see my children succeed. And so far, so good.

Fermin earned a Ph.D. in General Management

from Singapore Management University. Who Is Fermin Diez?

Born: Caracas, Venezuela

Age: 60

Lives in: Singapore

Married: Yes (since 2011, to Su-Yen Wong)

Children: Four daughters, all live in the U.S.: Patricia (born in 1982), Andreina (1984), Alexandra (1988), Ileana (1991)

Hobbies: Tennis, playing guitar, travel, education, hiking

RésuméNational Council of Social ServiceDeputy CEO & Group Director, Human Capital and Organization DevelopmentApril 2014 to current — Singapore

National University Health SystemBoard Member (Jurong Health); HR Committee Member2015 to present — Singapore

Institute for Human Resource ProfessionalsBoard Member; Chairman of Assessments Committee and Dean of HR Studies2017 to present — Singapore

Singapore Management UniversityAdjunct ProfessorAug. 2011 to present

MercerSenior Partner2009 to 2013 — Singaporee

Freescale SemiconductorHead of HR Asia Pacific2007 to 2009 — Singapore

Mercer Human Resource ConsultingWorldwide Partner2001 to 2007 — Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Miami

PepsiCoVP of Human Resources1996 to 2001 — Mexico, Miami, Hong Kong

DeloitteSenior Manager1993 to 1996 — Puerto Rico

Towers PerrinPrincipal1984 to 1993 — Philadelphia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, New York, Mexico

PDVSA Petroleos de Venezuela SAOrganization Development Associate, Marvin1981 to 1983 — Venezuela

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