Human Development

Ad Personality of the Year Award

Addressed by Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Lim Kok Wing
22 August 2003

Thank you very much for the warm reception. Thank you for having made this a very special day for me.

It has been quite some time since I last attended an Adball. This is like going back 20 years. And it feels good to be back! Thank you very much for having me.

And it must have been 150 years - 35 years to be exact - since I wandered into the creative department of an advertising agency called Lintas.

Well, I got into the lifestyle of an adman the minute they gave me a job! I wasted no time. I learnt very fast, everyone said. I learnt mostly the good, but I might have picked up a little bit of the bad. Soon after I started, I was hanging out till 3 in the morning and turning up for work just before lunch time! I filled in my time sheet only once a month!

I was having a ball, just rolling along. I had absolutely no idea where I would end up, didn′t think about it.

I certainly did not expect to end up here at this 2003 Adball! And receiving this very flattering recognition in your presence.

Thank you very much indeed. You are just very kind. Thank you for caring to remember.

I′ve been at it for so long, I have forgotten most of what you have just been told about me, and these things they say I have done. No wonder I have been very busy all these years!

President Shahar Noor and the Council of MAA, what you have done for me is truly an honour.

It is a true honour when you are remembered kindly by your peers, by people who know you well, and when they decide that it′s time you should be recognised for what you have done.

I am so pleased that I am able to be here to receive this in person - in the presence of the many friends I have met over the years.

For me, it′s been a great time, and there can be no better place. Nowhere else in the world would I have been able to do what I have managed to do here. And nowhere else could I have met the friends that I have in this place.

I am honoured by this show of generosity and I thank you most kindly for this opportunity.

Enjoy the rest of the evening. Enjoy the rest of the year.

Thank you.