Step Back In Time

The shophouses of Joo Chiat and Katong have a long and rich heritage, which is being preserved by their modern-day inhabitants. We’re invited into one that has been meticulously rejuvenated – and we find out why a boy from Yorkshire has chosen to settle in Singapore.

- Kel Flanders

The first thing that strikes me when I meet Mike Collins at his impeccably styled Joo Chiat shophouse is his voice – 30 years after leaving Yorkshire, his lilting accent remains, delivered in a tone that is deep and magnetic. The second thing I notice is his imposing stature.

You can easily see that Mike, as Chairman and CEO of Command Recruitment Group, is used to “commanding” a room. I’m transfixed as he starts to tell me about his expat journey.

“I arrived in Sydney in 1990 at the age of 25. I didn’t have a job and I soon realised my background as an oil and gas engineer wasn’t really a required skill, as they don’t do oil and gas in Sydney!”

After visiting numerous, unhelpful recruiters, Mike took matters into his own hands and started Command so he could help other engineers. Nearly 30 years later, he has offices across Australia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and soon Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong.

“A year and a half ago,” Mike tells me, “I realised I needed to get out of Sydney; it was too isolated. I’d always lived in the same area of Tamarama, and each of the six homes I’d been in was within a 500-metre radius of the others. I needed to experience more.”

Lord of the Manor

Mike’s brother was the first to move over to Sydney to join him, then his sister and finally his parents came too. But when all the siblings decided to leave Australia recently, his parents went back to England. “This is what motivated me to go home for the first time since I left. I also wanted to show my eldest son Henry where I was from and where his Granny and Grandad live.”