PROFESSIONAL  INTERESTS
Designing, launching and growing new ventures, Venture capital and Investment finance, Social innovation, Crowdsourcing + Creatocracy, Marketing, Technology.

PROFILE
- Global outlook with high degree of cross-cultural understanding and adaptability, having lived, studied and worked in USA, Canada, Australia, and travelled worldwide

-  Keen market, business and investment acumen:  Skilled in evaluating and developing new venture opportunities, designing go-to-market strategies and formulating robust financial and growth plans, and in venture capital.

 PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND SKILLS

Founder and partner, Ideas Worth Doing LLP, 2009-present

Founding curator, TEDx Singapore, 2009-present

Board member, Buy-1-Give-1 Giving, 2010-present

Business Advisor, SPRING-SMU, 2009-2010

Venture capitalist - IDG Ventures part of the global IDC Group, 2008

- Spearheaded and built foundations for investments and market entry in Asia
- Led and set up frameworks for industry and competitive analysis and identified attractive business and investment opportunities.

Founder and Principal- Strategy, marketing and finance, Startbucks, 2001-7
- Work closely with CEOs and founders of innovative companies to develop their product and market potential, refine and build robust business, financial, and growth plans.
- Facilitated strategic alliances, partnerships, and corporate funding for companies.

- Built and executed the strategy, marketing and operations of a new business unit for the Singapore -based Asia Pacific HQ of a US company, 2007.
- Arranged joint R&D and co-marketing agreements and seed funding for a Singapore e-learning startup that expanded regionally over 4 years and IPO-ed in 2005.
- Business mentor and funding advisor to the founding CEO and team of an innovative Singapore and helped refine their business plans, raise venture funding and obtained a $3mil funding offer from a global venture capital firm.  The company supplies mission-critical operational software of outlets of the world’s most well-known fast food chain.


Investment manager, TPC Venture Capital, US$800mil private equity investment and management firm, 2000-1
- The firm invested in and managed nearly 200 companies in technology, wireless, internet, IT, telecommunications, life sciences, electronics, semiconductors, manufacturing, industrial and consumer products. For example, Acer, UTAC, Alibaba.com.
- Responsibel for identifying global and regional business and investment opportunities in Australia, Asia-Pacific, China, Israel, USA and Silicon Valley.
- Comprehensive experience and expertise in evaluating business concepts and companies, assessing strategic viability of core technologies and products, market potential and positioning in the competitive landscape, and all aspects of their business and investment attractiveness.
- Helped manage and grow companies as a representative of my firm on the Boards of our portfolio companies.
- Presented business and investment proposals to the President and Senior Vice Presidents of the firm.
- Sourcing and screening new investment opportunities, negotiating deal terms, business, financial and valuation modeling, conducting due diligence.

Online product business developer, 3Fusion, Silicon Valley, 1999-2000
- The company was founded by principal engineers from Netscape Communications, and we grew from 12 people in a warehouse to 70 people over one year after VC funding.

- Conceptualized new ideas for business and consumer applications of the company's core technology.
- Designed a differentiated new online product application for a highly competitive marketplace.

Global economist and fund manager, Markets and Investments Department, Monetary Authority of Singapore (central bank), 1996-9

- Comprehensive experience in global economics and financial markets, foreign exchange, and risk management.

- Fund management of over US$100 billion - Analyzed global financial markets,  and personally responsible for managing a multi-billion, multi-currency money market investment portfolio. 

- Defended currency and interest rates against collapse during 1997 currency crisis.

- Wrote numerous analysis reports presented to the highest levels of the Central Bank and offices of the Prime Minister and Government. 

 - Conducted primary research for and published a "Survey of Treasury Activities" analysing the revenues, costs and profit structures of treasury operations of all banks and financial institutions in the industry 

- Large scale, mission-critical IT design and implementation projects: Individually conceptualized and designed a blueprint for an online e-bidding system for bond auctions of $500 mil to $1,000 million - The e-Apps system has been in operation since 2002. 

- Designed, built and launched RTGS, a national real-time, electronic, multi-million dollar monetary transation system, as a member of a cross-department and private industry team.

- Founding member of the online and website development Committee.
- Organised International Monetary Fund Article4 Consultation with Singapore.
- Trained, supervised and mentored new executives in my department.


Media and Public Relations officer, Public Relations Department, Ministry of Defence, 1987-8.
- Broad media and Public Relations experience.  
- Developed leadership-by-example through 'boot camp' military training

- Trained as an instructor in the Management and Education Department, MINDEF

Earlier entrepreneurial experiences during university.
IBM - led a team to help develop a new software application for management decision-making.
Red Cross - formed an internship programme to conduct an organisation-wide strategy review.
School for Advanced Studies - one of five people who launched a new adult learning school. Designed and programmed database systems, and help formulate and execute marketing campaigns.

EDUCATION
Social business programme, Grameen Creative Labs, 2012

Pathfinders programme, Global Innovation Academy, Young foundation, 2011

Private equity investment, Singapore Management University, 2009

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Certifications, Google and Yahoo 2006

Stanford University & U.California -Berkeley, USA 2000
- Competitive analysis, venture capital, internet and high-tech business
CPM - Certified Professional Marketer, Asia-Pacific Marketing Federation, 1999 

Postgraduate Diploma in Asia Pacific Marketing, National University of Singapore-Marketing Institute of Singapore, 1999  

Numerous professional development courses and conferences
- Professional finance course at IMF and Federal Reserve Bank NYC, accounting and financial analysis, equity investing, M&A, Business communications, public speaking and presentation.  

University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, Masters of Commerce, 1996 Finance, strategy, Marketing,  Law.

University of British Columbia, Canada, Bachelor of Arts - Honours, 1992

First class for Honours Economics thesis, Top 6% scholarship, SAT:98% percentile.
Comprehensive education in social sciences:  International relations, psychology, sociology, anthropology.

National Computing Center, Diploma in Computer Science, 1987.

 - Programming and systems design.

SKILLS and ACTVITIES

Finance and Investment: Econometrics, Monte Carlo and DCF-NPV financial and valuation modelling. 

 Marketing: Survey research design, SPSS statistical analysis, consumer segmentation and profiling, perceptual mapping, new product design and scenario modelling.

Computer and internet-savvy since 1980: built my first PC in 1981, BASIC, COBOL, PASCAL, HTML, XML and Java. Highly skilled in databases, Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

Innovation~Technology: Judge for EDB Beta Competition 2011, Judge for the U of Adelaide-Ngee An Kongsi e-Challenge, National University of Singapore's Start-up Business Plan competitions, CNET feature writer on technology and venture capital, founder of 'Dave's Dispatches', an e-mail service reporting on developments in the Internet and high-tech industry from 1999 to 2001 (read review)

Certified trainer in Emergenetics® a professional and personal profiling and development tool used to build effective leadership, business teams and communication. 

Pro-bono work: Founder/co-founder of TEDxSingapore 2009-present, Fellowship of Inventors Singapore 2008, UNSW Marketing Alumni, Alumni association and Scholarship Fund for International House, Alumni association of Certified Professional Marketer (CPM), and The Magic Club.

Languages: First language English. Other languages: Malay and basic French

Activities and Interests: Reading, tennis, design and art history, volunteer tour guide at Singapore Art Museum (2008-present), photography, qualified airbrush artist, adventuring: backpacked around the world, drove solo across North America (Vancouver- Boston), drove across Australia (Perth - Brisbane)

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