The PONI Group has become synonymous with conversations about ocean conservation and sustainable maritime business. What started out as a small diving business for avid diver and entrepreneur, Mohd Tahsin ‘Thye’ Wong Abdullah, has become one of Brunei’s most flourishing businesses. Together with Anna Aziz, Chief Business Officer and Thye’s wife, they have had a whirlwind few years of recognition and awards across the region and internationally; some highlights include Thye being the one of the few Bruneians selected for the prestigious Leader’s Program (Asia-Pacific) under the Obama Foundation; Anna was one of five Bruneians selected to attend the official luncheon and sit with His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, during the Royal Meet-and-Greet in conjunction with His Majesty’s 79th Birthday last year; the PONI group has snagged three Proudly Brunei Business Awards categories over the last two years. And that’s just looking at the last two years. We sit down with the dynamic couple to talk business, becoming parents, and the ‘Blue Economy’.
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BIG: You both have an interesting mix of business backgrounds with different spheres. Could you both share how those strengths helped in catalysing your growth into the formidable business group it has become today.
AA: My background is in hospitality and business development, having spent over a decade in the UK working on projects like 45 Park Lane and Coworth Park under Brunei Investment Agency. That experience exposed me to building projects from concept to execution at a high standard. In Poni, it gave me the experience to bring in structure, systems, and commercial thinking. As we grew, especially into larger and more complex projects, putting the right foundations in place became critical, and that’s where I’ve focused, helping scale the business beyond just operations into something more strategic.
TW: Anna came in at a pivotal stage when we were moving from a small diving business into working with larger clients and more complex projects. Her experience helped us strengthen our structure, positioning, and ability to scale. My interest in business started really young watching my parents run a cold storage business for the last 40 years, then I started working in graphic design & web development during high school and later photography. That, together with my passion for diving led to me founding a dive club at my university in Canada, becoming a dive instructor and being involved with NGO work there. really built a strong set of skills to help Poni grow as a small business into the ocean platform it is today.
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BIG: It’s been exciting to follow how your work has evolved. How did it go from just diving to your work around the larger blue economy, conservation and the maritime industry?
AA: When I joined, the business was growing, but it was still really focused on diving and tourism. Covid was a major shift for us, with no tourists and a slowdown in B2C activities, it forced us to rethink the direction of the company. That’s when we started pivoting more intentionally towards sustainability-related services and building ASTARI. Then my focus became putting in the right systems and structure to support it, making sure projects are not just ideas, but practical and measurable. As we grew, it became about building the right system and the right team that can scale with us.
TW: Diving every week, I could see what was happening in the ocean, and there’s less coral and less fish. So it was really clear that we needed to do more than just operate as a diving center and start to take action. Diving alot, people called us to help them for underwater construction work, as that scaled up, I went to the UK & Australia for commercial diving training and expanded, first boat charters, then aquaculture, oil & gas, and environmental consultancy work. Then this became the fastest way we can scale up our impact work, by driving revenue from our commercial services to our conservation and community work around the ocean as a self-sustainable system.
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BIG: With your current work in this space, what role do you see the ocean playing in Brunei’s future economy and what impact do you hope your work will have over the next decade?
AA: In Brunei, our ocean is about seven times larger than our land, so it’s a huge part of who we are, even if we don’t always see it that way. For me, the focus is really on people, how we bring people, communities, youth, and all the different stakeholders into this space in a meaningful way. Things like training, collaborations, or just helping people feel more connected to the ocean. A lot of what we do now involves working closely with partners across government, NGOs, and even international organisations, because this kind of work can’t be done alone. It’s really about aligning everyone and making sure what we’re building is something people can be part of and benefit from. I like to think our work will see a strong ocean community across all groups and backgrounds taking ocean action together.
TW: Alot of people actually don’t know, but the ocean is actually already contributing to over half of Brunei’s economy. The possibilities for our economy are endless. I see the ocean as a foundation for new industries, new jobs, and long-term growth in Brunei’s post-oil & gas economy. What I’m focused on now is showcasing financially sustainable blue economy pilot projects like mangrove planting by helping companies measure their carbon emission and getting revenue to plant mangroves to offset their impact, or oysters for remediation work in Kg Bolkiah and to sell Brunei’s first blue carbon credits to generate revenue continuously for the program and community. The goal is to show that the ocean creates jobs, supports communities and that profit and purpose can work together for a system that can scale beyond Brunei across ASEAN and to firmly establish Brunei’s ocean as a key growth driver for Brunei’s future, and to really show that everyone can take action that matters and that we all have a responsibility for our future.
BIG: I think it would be safe to assume you both are water babies. Can you share what made you both so passionate about the ocean and conservation work?
TW: I had some early memories going fishing with my dad. We would go boating a few times a year, and it was always being in the outdoors, ocean. There is something special when you’re out at sea, on the boat with good music playing. It’s just a really special moment for me. So that’s probably where it started. I would take my dad’s boat out when I was 15, 16 years old, go snorkeling with my friends. And just jumping in the water to explore Pelong Rock Reef when I was much younger. I did my first try dive in Thailand at 17, so I got introduced to diving really early on. And I wanted to bring that passion to a lot of people.
In Canada, I became an instructor, founded a dive club there so I could get it a bit cheaper for the students, and just being able to introduce people to the ocean and seeing how it changes and transforms people has been amazing especially in the Dive Club days. So coming back here, it was something I naturally wanted to continue doing. Of course, when you go out to sea and there is nothing to see or show, the conservation work definitely followed. But also seeing how much more life there used to be (at these dive sites) when I was younger – 25 years on – and how much more fish there used to be, it really drives home how important it is to tell people what they can do to help. And now with our business, it’s taken on a very big direction in what we’re doing with the business now showing that the blue economy can change Brunei’s future, and how the ocean feeds small states like us. That’s something I think we are very well placed to do.
AA: I guess for me, I’ve always been interested in the ocean. I was a huge traveler even when I was growing up, and living in the UK. I think I’ve traveled to over 60 countries now, even with my son Kaiden – he’s been to six continents and he’s only three years old! When you travel a lot, you see the ocean, nature, and how precious and beautiful the earth is, and you want to do more to protect it. We come from a place of privilege in Brunei and we’ve got such beautiful water and landscapes, very marine biodiverse. We’ve got this primary rainforest that is pretty much untouched and we’re so lucky to have this clean air that we breathe as well. This isn’t just about conservation for Brunei but how we can help as citizens of the world. With our recent trip to Timor-Leste, we saw how passionate some of the volunteers in conservation are and they’re working unpaid as well. The passion in the youth, to see them get into this space without being paid, it’s really admirable and we want to show people how to get access for this funding. We want to make sure that there is a way that we can enjoy the natural beauty without having detrimental effects. I think it’s our duty coming from a place of privilege.
BIG: How would you describe your childhood influences and how they impacted your eventual path to working in environmental conservation and protection?
AA: Both Thye and I went to International School Brunei, back at the old campus in Berakas, and I remember doing projects on the ozone layer, CFC’s and the effect that it had on our planet and the ozone layer. Even now, education plays a huge role in how we care for the environment. So joining clubs, getting involved in school projects, and I think a lot of schools they have things going on whether it’s recycling, their green clubs, or making reef balls, talking about how we could use less plastic, and all of these things really shape the youth. And I think with youth, it’s about starting young and building habits so when you’re older you don’t get those extra bits of plastic bag, or you turn off the water when you brush your teeth. I would say it was pretty critical, these younger influences. Also, movies and documentaries; David Attenborough’s Ocean – that was a really powerful one.
TW: Well, I think definitely parents and actually, reading fantasy novels like fiction where they talk about helping people who need help. You know, especially those that are not in positions to help themselves. There are a lot of people in circumstances where the environment is even more important to them. You know, people that depend on the environment for their livelihood like fishermen, for example, or people that live near the coast. They might not have a lot of disposable income to move when it’s not convenient – like if their house collapses into the sea because of coastal erosion. Or when it gets too hot, they can’t just buy an air conditioner. They can’t get a different job, when there’s no fish. A lot of what we try and do around environment and conservation protection, a big component of it about people that are really affected by this who don’t have the same options as us. Some of them never had an opportunity to even get educated and do more. There’s an understanding about people that need help and how the environment is key to these communities. That’s really one of the main drivers for our work in the conservation field. And a lot of that, for me, came from parents and fantasy fiction novels about the knight in shining armour, that sort of thing.
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BIG: Diving more into the business aspects, you’ve done a lot of work in building sustainable revenue arms for the overall PONI group. Take us through that journey and also share your thoughts about the current atmosphere in Brunei.
AA: At Poni, sustainability has never been just about environmental outcomes. It has always been about building a resilient ecosystem of impact, where purpose and proft can co-exist together. From very early on, we recognised that relying solely on grants or donations would limit the scale and continuity of conservation work. So we consciously made the decision to funnel 10% of our profit from Poni Group entities, ranging from marine and maritime service to adventure tourism, sustainability consultancy, and innovation platforms. These business units generate revenue, create jobs, and build technical capabilities locally. At the same time, they provide the operational backbone and funding base that enables long-term conservation and community programmes. It’s very organic. We started with passion projects such as reef conservation and now a key part of this model is pilot project funding. We believe strongly in testing ideas on the ground before scaling. Whether it is reef restoration, mangrove rehabilitation, oyster programmes, or youth skills training, we typically begin with small pilots. These pilots help demonstrate feasibility, build stakeholder confidence, and attract co-funding from partners, corporates, and international collaborators.
TW: When I first started the business, in the early years we focused on growing the business and we always had a question of profit or purpose. And purpose in our sense was usually conservation work or community work, involving people who may not have opportunities to dive. And it was often a choice. It was one or the other. So when we needed to make money to operate, we had to focus on profit. And when we had a bit of time and our revenues were a bit more comfortable, we could do a bit of purpose work. And that happened for a few years. In some of our tougher years, we were not able to do a lot of purposeful work and now in recent years, I have found a way that we could do both. They don’t need to be mutually exclusive. It is a very narrow path, but it is there and it just takes a bit more work. So that’s what we’re trying to do now. A lot of the work that we can do is sustainable, it revolves around sustainability. Not just the environment, not just the people, but economically as well.
As a business, Poni is sustainable. So that’s one of the key parts. As we expanded our business from the recreational diving, to events, team building, Poni Adventures, to water sports, to Poni Marine, commercial diving, marine construction, vessel services, painting, hydroblasting, environmental consultancy, hydrographic surveys, to our most recent one, Astari, which is a range of sustainable web services. We’ve decided to spread around a lot of different areas and we’ve been trying to think, how can we tie our whole business together as a group? Sustainability has been a key answer for us. And I think Anna came up with our slogan, ‘Empowering a Sustainable Future’. That’s been a real driving force to bring everything back together. So for diving, our big focus now has been diving for purpose. We’re not only teaching people to dive, but we’re teaching them how to save the ocean, how to plant corals and that’s why we want people to dive. Not just to have a one-time experience, not just take a photo, but to do a lot more than that. With our team building, we’ve started to look at different ways that we can really talk about people’s sustainability. How do we do longer term HR consulting for companies and make sure people stay on longer in the business? How do we work with them? How can we introduce SDG and SDG workshops to team building? With our Poni Marine commercial services, we’re looking at helping companies digitalise their maritime solutions and be more carbon efficient with some of the solutions that we’re proposing. And adding that element of sustainability in their design with better materials, longer lasting materials, and a much lower carbon footprint.
Astari is our innovation hub that’s really tying all things together. We have a range of technology partners there. We’re doing services digitisation for the nation in carbon emission measurement for companies, working with people to essentially help climate proof their business. It’s just a really exciting technology that people in Brunei and even in ASEAN haven’t seen, which we’re introducing right now. A lot of our work and time is spent on Astari. It has yet to generate significant revenue, but we feel like we’re very close. We’re definitely ahead of the market here, but we’re excited to be in this space and bring these developments that are leading the sustainability space around the world here to Brunei, and also to represent some of our technology partners for the ASEAN region. Now, what’s the atmosphere like here in Brunei? Well, people are excited. People like hearing and talking about it, but I think we’re really not yet in a space where people are ready to spend a lot of money on sustainability solutions. The public is very much excited to be involved, to support the programmes, but from a business point of view, there isn’t really a lot of strong framework or requirements around it that really gives that big push that’s happening in a lot of other countries. So when we’ve met with a lot of the big companies, a lot of them have mentioned that they do have budget. There is a budget, you know, to do carbon emission measuring, to be more sustainable, to use more renewable energy. However, it’s hard to justify using that money to invest when it’s not a requirement, you know? And why should they when nobody else is?
So that is really one of the key things holding us back. We’d like to start, you know, more discussions with the government to see if there’s something that we can support, that we can work with and maybe showcase some examples from other countries in terms of how their policy has really moved this forward without any negative impacts to growth. You know, I think one of the concerns here from people in the government sector is that we don’t really want to add on more requirements and more costs when trying to grow the nation’s business sector. So really what’s been important for us is how do we frame this differently.
