by Lavie Ham (Romain's mother in law)

Salutation aux trois venerables bonzes avant de s'adresser au public.

Mesdames, messieurs, 

Chers amis, chere famille,

Vous venez aujourd’hui à la pagode, pour présenter vos condoléances à notre famille pour le décès de notre bien aimé Romain Petitpierre, mon gendre qui nous a quitté le 13 janvier dernier à Hong Kong. Certains d’entre vous le connaissaient et d‘autres ne le connaissaient pas.

Je me permets de vous le présenter très brièvement : 

Romain est né le 24 mars 1980, il a deux frères, Pierre-Antoine et Julien.

Anne, sa maman parlait souvent de ce garçon intelligent, sportif, très ambitieux et fonceur...

Romain est diplomé de l’Essec en 2004.

Romain et Vissakha, ma fille sont sorti ensemble pendant quelques années et ont fini par se marier en 2008.

Romain respecte notre coutume et nos traditions khmeres.

Ils ont deux filles : Tevy 9 ans et Kaliane 6 ans. Ils vivent à Hong Kong avec beaucoup de bonheur et entourés de nombreux amis.

Ils sont très appréciés de leurs collègues et amis.

Romain était quelqu’un de est très généreux ; il donnait des conseils. il était toujours à la recherche de nouvelles amitiés.

Toujours souriant !

Il était aimé.

Il utilisait son intelligence pour que nos deux familles trouvent le plaisir, le bonheur et s’apprécient.

Au Cambodge, Vissakha et Romain parrainent des petites cambodgiennes pour qu’elles puissent aller à l’école.

A Hong Kong, ils ont cherché des fonds en faisant des galas pour aider une ONG «Passerelles Numériques ».

En tant que père, Romain était un papa modèle.

Romain et moi nous nous parlions souvent de l’éducation des enfants.

Il m’appréciait beaucoup…

Le jour de leur mariage, j’ai déclaré que pour moi Romain était mon fils !

Ils étaient très heureux, ensemble, tous les quatre.

Je demande à toutes les puissances bienveillantes du monde et a Bouddha d’accompagner Romain vers un lieu paisible et donner du courage à sa femme et ses deux filles pour qu’elles puissent traverser tous les obstacles dans la vie ; qu’elles pensent juste, voient juste et pratiquent juste.

Mes amis, je vous remercie encore de votre présence, et espère que chacun puisse lui dire au revoir !

Merci.

Romain, Vissakha, Chloe & Noemie spent almost three years in Indonesia. The enduring happy memories Romain left with colleagues in Jakarta and around the world have been remembered fondly following the shock of his passing. 

Romain stood out among the ‘boo-lays’ – or foreigners - for how well he integrated in Indonesia and with Indonesians: 

• he preferred travelling by Ojek (motorbike pillion taxi) rather than by car to work – which meant his number 1 companion in Jakarta was his famous red helmet! It also may have been down to the fact he purchased and ex-diplomatic car on arrival; on which he got a very good deal as a good Finance professional would, but diplomatic cars are notoriously hard to normalize for civilian street use – so it took poor Romain the rest of his two and a half years in Jakarta to actually sort out the paperwork so that he could sell it again. 
• He also captained his local soccer team and left numerous teammates in his wake with his silky skills and long strides; he was super handy with a tennis racquet; 
• and somehow - to the envy of many who have succumbed to the local cuisine – managed to effortlessly maintain a trim physique with barely a visit to the gym! 

But what really shone through during Romain’s time in Indonesia was that in the face of adversity or in times of stress, he would always maintain a broad smile, lightening the mood for his colleagues with humour, and was always prepared to take on the challenges that arose. He didn’t shy away from speaking up, whether he had good news to share or – as sometimes happens at HSBC – not!, or whether the audience was his local team meeting or some of the most senior Group managers from London. Romain has left an indelible impression on his colleagues in Indonesia. To paraphrase the words of the author Maya Angelou “people may forget what exactly was said or what exactly was done, but his friends and colleagues in Indonesia have not, and will not, forget the way Romain made them feel, and the laughter and happiness he brought.” I would like to thank the Indonesia team for their memories of Romain.

Good afternoon everyone,

I would like to open by extending the apologies from Kathleen Gan – our Regional Finance CFO – and Simon Parons – Romain and my Global manager who could not be here today.

My name is Ben and I today I am feeling vulnerable Romain's passing has reminded me and I suspect many of you of our own physical mortality which is not something I often thought about. And standing here before you today only excentuates how vulnerable I am feeling emotionally as I grieve for the loss of not only a good friend and valued co-worker but for the pain his family is feeling now from such a terrible and unexpected tragedy. Over the past week I have spent many a waking - and sleeping - hour thinking about Romain’s passing and when Vissakha asked me to share at today’s service I felt honoured but a little apprehensive that I would not be able to do his life justice in front of all of you I am not a family member In fact I was not a friend that he spent his evenings or weekends with But over the past year I have probably spent more time with Romain than most as his work collegue in HSBC and today I would like to share some of my thoughts as well as those of his collegues in the Bank I first met Romain a number of years ago when I was interviewing potential candidates for a role in HSBC’s International Finance Manager programme. This was a global mobility programme within the Finance department and I can distinctly remember at the start of the interview that he came across as a friendly, happy and very self-confident man – perhaps too self-confident I thought at the time as he shared with me why he would fit into the programme. But as we continued to talk via video conference we moved away from the standard capabilities based interview questions and we started to talk more about his personal values and ambitions and I can remember two areas that stood out for me – he was 

•  open to supporting change within HSBC which was one of the foundations of our programme, and 
• that he made me feel positive with his optimistic demenour and friendly smile.

After all the interviews were done for the day I remember mulling over whether to support his application and I asked myself whether I would personally like to work with him either on the programme or in a day to day capacity and to that I answered yes and recommended that he move onto the next stage of the process to which he was ultimately successful. Eventually Romain moved to Hong Kong with his family where I was also based where he worked in the Tax and Retail Business teams. We did not cross paths for long as with all mobility programmes it was time for me to move on to Brunei for a few years. We kept in contact and caught up at Hong Kong based events but before I returned to HKG - Romain was given an opportunity to move to Indonesia with his family to join Daniel Hankinson who is here today. 

So at the end of 2017 - Romain’s work in Indonesia had concluded and coincidentally I had a vacant position in my team back in HKG to work Edith and Kenneth who are here today. I work for the finance department that supports the Global Liquidity and Cash Management business – run by Kee Joo Wong - who joined me last night at the funeral home - that manages the sale and servicing of a variety of bank product that we offer to our corporate customers throughout Asia – namely corporate deposits, credit cards and payment channels. Given the role involved supporting not only our 22 Asia sites (including countries like Indonesia) but the HKG based regional team - with Romain’s diverse background - I thought he would be an great fit and Romain being Romain he did not disappoint. 

He joined the team at the start of 2018 to work on the business financials – specializing in supporting Harish Kumar in managing the customer deposit product. While working on the numbers was one part of his role - the area that he excelled at was what we call stakeholder management. Essentially this required talking to people in the business and within the other areas of finance and the feedback from his collegues was that he was that he was one of the friendliest and happy people you could have the pleasure of meeting and that they always valued their interactions with him. I have many fond memories too but most are too painful to share just yet but I wanted to share with you what I truely valued in Romain. 

Apart from his ability to make me laugh on a weekly basis – it was his willingness to exhibit a very rare trait these days – he took it upon himself to share with me personal feedback. Everyday Romain, Kenneth and I walk too and from the Pacific Coffee on level 20 – me to have my white coffee and him with his ancient black tea. And it was during these strolls that he chose to either share with me some of his pearls of wisdom from a book he had once read or an article he had recently finished. And many times there was an underlying message that either reinforced a decision or action I had made or provided me with a different perspective to learn from. And it was his ability to mentor and guide me through these interactions that I will miss most of all. I never saw myself as Romain’s superior in the traditional sense – I was more the fortunate recipient of the wisdom of a mature soul that was ultimately not destined long for this world.