Meet Team Malaysia

Well balanced.

If I had to describe our group as a whole, these are the words that I would use.

5 months ago, each of us received an email congratulating us saying that we would be heading to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On the email were 3 other email addresses, and in that moment, I imagine all 4 of us scouring the internet and social media platforms trying to find anything and everything about each other.

Within 20 minutes, I had 3 new facebook friends, a couple new Instagram followers, and 3 new connections on LinkedIn…all from an email address. The interconnected world we live in is incredible.

Several days later I received an email from craigrjohnson3@gmail.com with a short, formal introduction and already talks of travel and recommendations. We all followed suit and agreed to start looking at weekend travel options. Our formal email introductions would later serve us all a good laugh- each of us clearly trying very hard to give off good first impressions scrutinized in the business world.

Several months later we all met in Orlando, Florida at KPMG’s newly renovated “Lakehouse” for Global Intern Training. By that time, we had already been messaging in our group chat for a couple weeks (we were all thankful for blue messages).

From the moment we all met in person at the Lakehouse, I could tell we were going to get along very well and that there would be few quiet moments. It is safe to say that we are an expressive group. This commonality along with several others made connecting feel seamless.

Having lived, worked and traveled in Southeast Asia together now for 3 weeks, we know each other slightly beyond the Facebook photos and LinkedIn experience page. With that, I would like to take the time to introduce our team and some of the unique characteristics that make our team interesting and as I said earlier, “Well Balanced.”

First Up: Natalie Perry AKA Madam President and Future Elephant Nurturer

Natalie Perry is a senior at St. Cloud University in Minnesota working in tax out of the Minneapolis office. In Malaysia she joined the indirect tax group and has completed valuable research on Malaysian indirect tax laws that will assist KPMG in helping clients understand what rules and regulations they fall under (boring)(jk Go Natalie!)

On campus, Natalie is the President of her Business Fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi (boooooo!). DSP just so happens to rival Alpha Kappa Psi (a far greater organization in my opinion), a Professional business fraternity I am involved with on campus. Natalie and I have our disagreements, but we both acknowledge that you can’t go wrong either way (yes you can). Needless to say, Natalie was actually nominated for DSP Collegian of the Year. Unfortunately, she did not receive the high honor but we believe due to her absence, the results were skewed. On the brighter side, we don’t have to refer to her as your highness and her ego is still only slightly above average.

Other interesting things about Natalie:

• She loves ordering room service from the hotel.
• She is very caring of animals and will soon be leaving KPMG to become an Elephant nurturer in Thailand (jk @ the Minneapolis tax recruiter).
• She is self-proclaimed “amazing at 2K”
• Loves all food that includes shell-fish (she’s allergic to shell-fish)
• Every time she gets out of the elevator in the hotel, she hits the Milly Rock

Second Up: Grace Smith AKA Ms. Planner and The Monkey Whisperer

Grace Smith is a junior at The University of Villanova studying accounting. She works in Audit out of the Philadelphia office and to her dismay is still auditing in Malaysia. Word of advice: do not ask her about her 1 hr morning commute on the train. Regardless, Grace has gained valuable experience auditing a technology company in KL.

Grace has won several awards during our time here in KL. After a wonderful photography performance in the KL bird sanctuary and several close calls with little Monkeys, our group gave her the “Most likely to aggravate animals award”. She also sported her skills in Langkawi, Malaysia enticing small monkeys on the side of the street with granola bars.

We also awarded Grace with the “Planner Award” as we look to her hyperplanning nature to book weekend travel, lodging etc. Some of us are less into planning and more into winging it (hence the balance).

Lastly, Grace deserves the “Anti-Spicy Award”. Her most asked question of the trip is undoubtedly, “Is this spicy?” She will not eat anything with remote heat and actually on one occasion, in an attempt to stay as far away from heat as possible, she ordered ice cream for dinner (who does that).

Next Up: Craig Johnson AKA Anti-Plan Craiggers, LaughMan and The Portuguese Wonder

Craig Johnson is a senior at Brigham Young University (BYU) studying accounting. He works at the Salt Lake City office in Audit and also happily chose to continue audit in Malaysia for some odd reason. Craig has by far been the busiest of the 4 of us here working on an major Oil & Gas company. If you were to ask his team, they would say that he works significantly less than them to their dismay (KPMG US limits our hours to 40 a week while in Malaysia).

Beyond work, Craig is a happy-go-lucky guy that never stops smiling and laughing. If you tell a horrible joke, he will still laugh (my type of guy). Additionally, Craig is a “fly by the seat of your pants” type of person who doesn’t want a plan and goes with the flow (similar to myself). He also loves beaches.

Short Story: Last weekend, Craig, Natalie and Grace travelled to Thailand and while the ladies stuck to the hour-by-hour plan, Craig defiantly left to pet Tigers cause he wanted to.

Other interesting facts about Craig:

• He spent two years in Brazil on sabbatical and is fluent in Portuguese. He also can recite the Book of Mormon in Portuguese (not the play).
• For breakfast, Craig usually has an omlette, spaghetti, fruit, chicken roti, and 2 cups of orange juice and is hungry by 11:30 AM,
• And when Craig gets happy, he shakes his behind like an excited puppy.

And last but not least: Myself AKA Grab Man and the Deal Closer.

I am a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I work in the Deal Advisory and Strategy group based out of the Chicago office, and in Malaysia I am a part of the Corporate Restructuring group (the two are very different but we’re going with it).

I am known widely as the Grab Man because every time we are going anywhere, I am always the one who calls the “Grab” (Malaysia’s version of Uber). Due to the length of my body, I luckily am always given the front seat. They also put me up there cause I am known to talk to the Grab drivers and spur interesting debate about why McDonalds serves Nasi Lamak.

Another common occurrence is me negotiating deals (most likely a result of my frugalness). If Grace needs to negotiate the price of her Batik, I’m the guy that talks down the native Langkawi man to a reasonable price. If our group is planning a snorkeling excursion, I’m the one trying to finesse the local Malaysian discount citing the fact that we “live” in Malaysia (for the time being).

Lastly, I am adventurous and in some cases over adventurous in relation to the foods I try. I have been seen to eat first and ask second, and tend to place a lot of trust in small, local food shops.

In summation, our group has character. Each person has many unique tendencies and characteristics that I have the honor of sharing and bringing to light. I am extremely grateful to be on this journey with this group and even more grateful for the friendship that we’ve grown together.