Loving life in Singapore
12 Sep 2025
Working in Singapore as an in-house tax lawyer for the world’s largest energy company is a far cry from Harry Tothill’s (13787) early career days.
Leaving College in 2011, Harry moved to Wellington where he studied Law and Commerce before joining EY in Auckland. He began working for a semi-retired partner who had relocated from the US and was focusing on American companies operating in Asia, designing large multinational manufacturing and supply chain operations to be tax efficient.
Harry started travelling frequently to Asia and ultimately shifted to Singapore with EY where he stayed for another five years before taking up his current role with Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia and the world’s largest energy company.
Working at the forefront of the global energy transition at a time of massive tax and trade uncertainty is something Harry loves.
“It means my job has a real geopolitical dynamic.”
In his previous role with EY in Singapore, Harry had travelled to Saudi many times to visit his then-client, and now employer.
“Saudi is a country that has changed hugely in a short space of time. When I started visiting in 2019, women ate in separate parts of local restaurants from men, and tourism was still banned. Nowadays, there is a whole industry dedicated to tourism, and the stunning new restaurants looking out at the Arabian Gulf throng with families dining late into the evenings.”
Enjoying his adventures, Harry isn’t coming back from Singapore any time soon.
“It’s a superb place to live. As a highly advanced, densely populated city, it has all the mod cons. My fiancée and I live quite centrally, in an apartment (as most people do, since six million people live in a space roughly a marathon long and half a marathon wide). I barely factor travel times into any plans, because you can get anywhere on the island in a heartbeat.
“The humidity takes a bit of adjustment, but once you’re used to it, it’s like being on a summer holiday year-round. Life feels more casual, and going out for street food in the evening is endlessly relaxing.”
For Kiwis moving to Singapore, Harry says the work life balance can take a bit of adjusting to as the whole continent works late.
“But when you need a break, you can be on a beach anywhere in Southeast Asia in a couple of hours flat. We can go to Penang or Bali on a Friday after work and be home again by Sunday night.”
