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Woman killed by tree ‘a rising star’ in Mastercard

The woman who died after a Tembusu heritage tree in the Singapore Botanic Gardens toppled on Saturday was 38-year-old Indian national Radhika Angara, who moved to Singapore in 2013.

SINGAPORE — The woman who died after a Tembusu heritage tree in the Singapore Botanic Gardens toppled on Saturday was 38-year-old Indian national Radhika Angara, who moved to Singapore in 2013, TODAY has learnt. Her husband, French national Jerome Rouch-Sirech, 39, and their twins, who had turned a year old this month, were among four people injured. The other is a 26-year-old Singaporean woman.

They have all been discharged from the National University Hospital.

At the time of her death, Ms Angara had been working as the regional digital marketing head (Asia-Pacific) at Mastercard for almost four months.

“She had an energy and warmth that won her the respect of her peers and managers alike,” said Mastercard senior vice-president of communications (Asia-Pacific) Georgette Tan. “She was a highly talented professional, a rising star in her field and a valued member of the Asia-Pacific marketing and communications team, and she will be missed.”

Ms Tan added that, as an immediate first step, the company is working with her family to provide support through its employee assistance fund and will be providing additional support through other means over the weeks ahead.

Before joining Mastercard, Ms Angara was the chief marketing and strategy officer at social and mobile payments platform Fastacash from January 2013 to last August.

The firm’s chief executive, Mr Mark Carter, said she was a pivotal member of its management team and an inspirational leader who “garnered huge respect from all who knew her”. “Radhika was always there to support colleagues through the Fastacash journey and will be deeply missed. Our condolences and deepest sympathies go to her family at this sad time,” he added.

Her husband, Mr Rouch-Sirech, is currently the head of retail (South-east Asia) at athletic brand Puma. His LinkedIn profile showed that he had joined the firm in January 2012 as its general manager for retail at its India office and assumed his present role last May.

A statement from the company said that it was saddened to learn that his wife has been killed by the fallen tree. ‘We’ve extended our deepest sympathies to Jerome on the passing of his wife and are committed to offering full support to the family during this difficult time,” said the statement.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said: “Our hearts go out to the casualties and their families.”

Prior to Ms Angara’s death, the last known reported case of a falling tree killing a person was in September 2012, when a national serviceman died in the Ama Keng Training Area at Lim Chu Kang.

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