“When the company’s culture is aligned with the employees’, you get a committed and motivated workforce.”
ScienTec Founder
Fuelled by a strong interest in business start-ups, Karen Tok decided to leverage her deep sales and management experience to start ScienTec in 2002. Following her passion for entrepreneurship and with only S$10,000 working capital, she grew the fledgeling company into a multi-award winning, a highly profitable business valued at S$10 million upon exit.
"The more we experience learning as fun and rewarding, the more we enjoy learning. And the more we enjoy learning, the more we develop curiosity, and the more successful we will be.” Karen Tok
An incredible journey...
By bringing in global talents to fill the critical talent gaps, Karen’s pioneering success saw ScienTec supporting the Singapore government, foreign investors, MNCs, and start-ups during the infant stage of the then-nascent Life Sciences industry. Taking it upon herself to build a community around the Life Sciences industry, Karen organised many industry networking events and gave numerous talks on recruiting for Singapore’s Life Sciences and Technology industries. Highly sought after for her experience and know-how, her thought leadership articles and interviews have been published in leading newspapers and magazines, including Business Times, Straits Times, Today, BioSpectrum, Recruitment International and other leading HR magazines.
Award and Recognition
Karen Tok interviewed for The Life Sciences Recruitment Company of the Year at the 2014 Recruitment International Asia awards.
Karen was recognised as an outstanding young entrepreneur in the Shell LiveWIRE 2005 Young Business Start-up competition as a Merit Award winner. Since then, ScienTec has garnered over 20 prestigious industry awards, ahead of leading international recruitment firms. Key to its ongoing success is its unwavering commitment to service excellence – to both clients and candidates – its ‘People First’ brand culture, and proprietary systems and processes developed through years of development and refinement.
Asia Recruitment Grand Winner, Best Candidate Experience by a Recruitment Agency, Recruitment Agency of the Year and Best Client Service at Asia Recruitment Awards 2016
Best Small Recruitment Business, Best Recruitment Consultant, Best Client Service, Best Innovation and Best In-House Training at Global Recruiter Asia Pacific Awards 2016
Recruitment Agency of the Year and Best Client Service at the Asia Recruitment Awards 2015
The Life Sciences Recruitment Company of the Year and The Growth Company of the Year at the Recruitment International Asia Awards 2015
Best Small Recruitment Business and Best Specialist Recruitment Business at the Global Recruiter Asia Pacific Awards 2015
The Life Sciences Recruitment Company of the Year at the Recruitment International Asia Awards 2014
Best Small Recruitment Business and Best Marketing Campaign at the Global Recruiter Asia Pacific Awards 2013
Best Small Recruitment Business and Best Specialist Recruitment Business at the Global Recruiter Asia Pacific Awards 2012
Shell Livewire Young Business Start-up Merit Award 2005
Karen was presented with the Merit Award by Mr Heng Chee How, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade & Industry and National Development, during the Awards ceremony held at ITE headquarters in Sept 2005.
Asia Recruitment Award 2016
Asia Recruitment Award 2016 Asia Recruitment Grand Winner, Best Candidate Experience Recruitment Agency, Recruitment Agency of the Year and Best Client Service at Asia Recruitment Awards 2016
For a boutique recruitment business, ScienTec has differentiated itself from the competition and achieved above industry net profit margins, with a track record of outstanding testimonials on both clients’ and candidates’ experience, and an engaged workforce.
Over the years, ScienTec has expanded its practices from Life Sciences to various industries. It has over 120 international clients, numerous success stories and more than 600 client testimonials - a strong testament to its high standards of service delivery.
ScienTec’s success attracted Will Group Inc. Investment, a company listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. As of 2017, ScienTec became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Will Group.
From a humble start-up to a business that scaled to become integral to the development of Singapore’s Life Sciences industry, to a multi-million dollar exit, Karen’s entrepreneur story is proof that it is possible to make it big in business with no experience, no VC backing and no powerful industry connections. Hers is a story of how embracing failure to find a new way to win is the key to anyone’s success.
““Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away.””