For several months in 2013 and 2014, Adarsh Goyal worked late into the night, driven by an idea that would redefine how Temasek visualised its growing portfolio. 

As the company expanded its global footprint and diversified into new sectors, he recognised the need for a unified and dynamic view of its investments, one that would not only support real-time decision-making across Temasek, but inform its long-term strategy in an increasingly complex investment landscape. 

“We were tracking multiple returns measurements, but it felt like we were missing a comprehensive portfolio view – something that captured the full performance of our investments,” says Adarsh, now Director of Finance (Finance Management). 

This insight came at a critical juncture, as Temasek was actively seeking to improve its portfolio management processes to keep pace with its growing scale and ambition. “So, I started building a consolidated view of our data,” he says.

His initiative ​​would ​lay the groundwork for ​Temasek’s Portfolio Analytics and Reporting App (PARA), a tool that has since become ​a cornerstone​ of its data strategy, transforming how it tracks, evaluates and manages its portfolio.

“We’ve come a long way since those early days,” he reflects. “Whenever we incorporate new data or features into PARA, or when I see it used, I feel proud of the part my team and I played in making it happen.” 

Bridging finance and technology

Adarsh’s journey to Temasek began with a passion for numbers, inspired by his father, a chartered accountant. He followed his father’s footsteps into accountancy, joining Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in India, but transitioned to tech consultancy during his time with Hyperion, a leader in enterprise performance management (EPM) software and one of TCS’ vendors. Oracle’s acquisition of Hyperion prompted Adarsh to join Oracle’s Singapore office in 2008, where he encountered Temasek as a client. 

“I started to think that I should go back to what I’m good at – numbers and finance,” he recalls. By 2010, he had joined Temasek, initially working on completing the automation of the company’s financial consolidation processes, the task he had begun at Oracle. ​​It was when he moved to join the Corporate Finance team that he saw an opportunity to address a ​​critical gap in the company’s data: Temasek’s expansion across geographies, sectors and asset types had increased the complexity of its portfolio exponentially, he explains. “We needed a holistic view of how our investments were performing,” he says.  

“We put together a few slides and presented our ideas to the senior management,” he recalls. “It led to the creation of a task force to develop it further – and that’s when it really took off.”

Broadening the view for decision-making

The first breakthrough came when Temasek adopted a software tool that automated portfolio data flows and enabled the company to track its portfolio value daily. “Initially, the software ran only on my computer. It was basically the ‘server,’” Adarsh laughs. “Anytime someone needed access, IT would have to install the app on their laptop, and I’d activate the licence for them.” 

As Temasek’s data needs outgrew this setup, Adarsh led the move to a cloud-based platform. This move not only improved accessibility but also offered real-time updates and advanced analytics capabilities. It took just under a week to migrate Temasek’s data onto the new system, eventually renamed PARA, but its impact was immediate. 

Beyond consolidating data, PARA allowed Temasek to tag investments by sector and location, customise portfolio views, and integrate benchmarking data from two decades of investments. “We could see how different parts of our portfolio performed relative to each other and against benchmarks,” Adarsh says. The idea was to enable real-time, firm-wide access to insights that could contribute to Temasek’s long-term investment strategy.  

“PARA doesn’t dictate day-to-day decisions – it helps our teams identify trends, assess risks, and decide on the broader direction they want to take,” he says. “It reflects Temasek’s commitment to creating long-term value.” 

A data-driven future 

Today, Adarsh is known internally as “Temasek’s numbers guy,” and PARA has become an integral part of Temasek’s decision-making process. 

“But we did not stop at PARA,” he says. The success of the app paved the way for the creation of two complementary tools – Dial, which captures Temasek’s investment targets and supports liquidity management, and the Post Portfolio Summary Tool, or POST, which tracks portfolio exposure by ​underlying assets​​.​ Together, these tools form an integrated data ecosystem that provides Temasek with agility and insights into a complex global market.  

For Adarsh, PARA’s ongoing evolution is a testament to Temasek’s culture of innovation. “Life is not static, and neither is data,” he says. “We will continue to make it better, and evolve it further. This is a journey of continuous improvement.”