COO, Project & Development Services at JLL Asia/Pacific
Wilma started her career installing switchboards systems on diamond mines in South Africa, before moving to London to work in mobile, just as the industry was making the transition from voice to data. She joined O2 Telefonica where she spent several years developing the first wave of mobile products to drive data volumes and was also part of a team that pioneered the mobile app incubator in the UK.
After many years of London weather, and in search of some much needed sun, Wilma moved to Singapore just over 10 years ago. She joined Cisco Systems and later went on to head up Cisco’s Project Management and Systems Integration Practice where she was responsible for delivering advanced solutions to enterprise clients and service providers across Asia Pacific, including a landmark 4G build for Reliance Jio in India.
After more than 20 years in telecoms and tech, Wilma has come to learn that developing and deploying technology is the relatively easy bit. How companies change human behaviour to leverage technology and transform, is far more challenging. It was this challenge that drew her to the real estate industry which is in the midst of a major transition.
In her role as COO of Project and Development Services (PDS) at JLL, Wilma is responsible for digitising JLL’s projects and construction business and transforming the culture to enable new ways of working. She is a member of the PDS Global Board and is the board sponsor for the global digital strategy. She holds an Executive MBA from INSEAD and is an advocate of business as a force for good.