The AlumNUS Jan-Mar 2016

ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE • J A N – M A R 2 0 1 6 / I S S U E 1 0 4

THE SPIRIT OF

Enterprise PASSION IS WHAT DRIVES NUS ALUMNI

U@LIVE; LIFTING THOUGHT-LEADERSHIP

• STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY ADDRESS • NUS ALUMNI AWARDS

The AlumNUS clinched this award in the category of Magazines, Journals & Tabloids — Custom-Published

ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE • J A N – M A R 2 0 1 6 / I S S U E 1 0 4

F I R ST WOR D

CONTENTS JAN–MAR 2016 THE SPIRIT OF

2

Enterprise PASSION IS WHAT DRIVES NUS ALUMNI

U@LIVE; LIFTING THOUGHT-LEADERSHIP

• STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY ADDRESS • NUS ALUMNI AWARDS

10

WITH THE AMOUNT OF SUPPORT THE GOVERNMENT PUTS BEHIND START-UPS AND ENTREPRENEURS, IT IS A GREAT TIME FOR ENTREPRENEURS IN SINGAPORE.

10 16 18 20 22 24

Mr Min-Liang Tan (Law ’02) 26 28 30 32 34

18

16

20

36 46 48

IN THE NEWS

NUS Alumni Awards 2015 State of the University Address Yale-NUS College Campus Opening

COVER STORY

Start-Up Nation

MY WORD

Riding the Winds of Change

ONCE UPON A MEMORY

DEAR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS,

Campus Haunts

CHANGEMAKER

A Legacy of Service

ALUMNI SCENE

Going Above and Beyond Leading by Example

ALUMNI SCENE GIVING

Mr S R Nathan Dr George Y Soh

PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE

Human Touch

U@LIVE GOING GLOBAL U@LIVE

Ms Rani Singam

MEGA U@LIVE

Alma Matters

U@LIVE

Ms Elim Chew

ALUMNI HAPPENINGS PERSPECTIVE LAST WORD

ADVISOR

Assoc Prof Victor R Savage (Arts and Social Sciences ’72)

EDITOR

Karin Yeo (Arts and Social Sciences ’97)

CONTRIBUTOR

Amanda Ng (Business ’12)

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Noreen Kwan

PUBLISHING CONSULTANT

Mediacorp Pte Ltd

CONTACT US Office of Alumni Relations National University of Singapore

HE OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS (OAR) ended 2015 on a high note. Apart from our signature

events — the Bukit Timah Campus Homecoming and the Kent Ridge Alumni Family Day — that saw a total of close to 7,000 participants, the year also saw great turnouts for smallerscale perennial favourites like the Alumni Leaders Forum; the China, Canadian and Indian Film Festivals; U@live forums; and Thirsty Thursdays meetups for young alumni.

On 19 November 2015, NUS honoured 19 alumni at its Alumni Awards ceremony. There were 10 Outstanding Young Alumni Award recipients, seven Distinguished Alumni Service Award recipients and two Eminent Alumni Award recipients: Professors Tommy Koh and Wang Gungwu. The exceptional achievements and contributions of these alumni are an inspiration to the NUS community and serve as benchmarks of what human endeavour can achieve in service to the university, community and nation.

In our first issue for 2016, The AlumNUS focusses its attention on some NUS alumni entrepreneurs. Read about their success stories and the unfolding of their passion in varied creative ways, in pages 10 to 15.

OAR looks forward to engaging all alumni in many ways. Join the alumni movement and be counted as attendees to the many alumni functions, contributors to alumni activities, active participants in our alumni committees, and as sponsors to younger ones who will follow in your footsteps.

Last but not least, here is wishing all our alumni a very happy, peaceful and healthy 2016.

To all our Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese alumni, I wish you an energetic, vibrant and prosperous Lunar New Year in the year of the Fire Monkey.

11 Kent Ridge Drive, Singapore 119244 Tel: (65) 6516-5775 Fax: (65) 6777-2065 Email: oarconnect@nus.edu.sg Website: www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet Facebook: www.facebook.com/nusoar

Corrigendum In the October to December 2015 issue of The AlumNUS magazine, Mr Tan See Png was incorrectly spelt. It should be Mr Tan See Peng.

The National Council of Social Services should be the National Council of Social Service. We apologise for the mistakes and regret any inconveniences caused.

The AlumNUS is published quarterly by the NUS Office of Alumni Relations. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the NUS Office of Alumni Relations or the National University of Singapore. For more information or to read The AlumNUS online, please visit www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet.

Copyright 2016 by the National University of Singapore.

All rights reserved. Printed in Singapore by KHL Printing Co Pte Ltd.

ASSOC PROF VICTOR R SAVAGE Arts and Social Sciences ’72 DIRECTOR, NUS OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

JAN– MAR 2016

1

IN TH E NE WS Prof Tan Chorh Chuan making his opening speech.

NUS Alumni Awards 2015

19 alumni were lauded for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the University and beyond.

Eminent Alumni Award recipient Prof Wang Gungwu (Arts ’53), sharing a lighthearted moment with Prof Tan Chorh Chuan (Medicine ’83), NUS President (left), and Mr Po’ad Mattar (Accountancy ’71), NUS Pro-Chancellor (right).

2

resented every two years by the National University of Singapore (NUS), the NUS Alumni Awards honours alumni who exemplify the spirit of excellence and demonstrate continued service to their alma mater and society.

This year, 19 exceptional NUS alumni were honoured at the NUS Alumni Awards 2015 ceremony held at the Marina Mandarin Hotel on 19 November.

Three categories of awards were presented at this year’s ceremony: the ‘Eminent Alumni Award’, the ‘Distinguished Alumni Service Award’, and the ‘Outstanding Young Alumni Award’. The University conferred the ‘Eminent Alumni Award’ on two illustrious alumni, the ‘Distinguished Alumni Service Award’ on seven prominent alumni, and the ‘Outstanding Young Alumni Award’ on 10 promising young alumni below 40 years of age.

The event saw a turnout of 290 guests consisting of award recipients, their families and friends, distinguished guests, alumni, staff and students.

NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan (Medicine ’83), said in his speech, “The award recipients are outstanding individuals who have demonstrated visionary leadership in their respective fields, and contributed with passion and dedication to the University and society.

NUS is proud to have these individuals among our distinguished alumni. Collectively, they inspire us to continue to strive for excellence and contribute our best to the community. On behalf of the University, I extend our heartiest congratulations to all our award recipients.”

The award recipients are outstanding individuals who have demonstrated visionary leadership in their respective fields, and contributed with passion and dedication to the University and society.

NUS is proud to have these individuals among our distinguished alumni.

PROFESSOR TAN CHORH CHUAN

Prof Tan presenting the Distinguished Alumni Service Award to Dr Lee Soo Ann (Arts ’60).

2015’s Eminent Alumni Award recipients, Prof Wang Gungwu (left) and Prof Tommy Koh (Law ’61).

(MEDICINE ‘83) NUS PRESIDENT

2015’s NUS Alumni Awards recipients.

See page 4 for list of NUS Alumni Awards 2015 Recipients JAN– MAR 2016

3

IN THE NEWS

NUS Alumni Awards 2015 Recipients EMINENT ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENTS

OUTSTANDING YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENTS

Professor Tommy Koh (Law ’61) Professor Wang Gungwu (Arts ’53 ’55)

PROFESSOR TOMMY KOH

PROFESSOR WANG GUNGWU

(LAW ’61)

(ARTS ’53 ’55)

DR CHIONG YEE KEOW

DR INTAN AZURA MOKHTAR

(MEDICINE ’12)

(SCIENCE ’98, LEE KUAN YEW SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY ’08)

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENTS Ms Janet Ang (Business ’82) Ms Chen Chunhua (Business ’00) Mr Edward D’Silva (Architecture ’75) Dr Lee Soo Ann (Arts ’60 ’69) Mr Seah Cheng San (Engineering ’82, MBA ’92) Dr Tan Eng Liang (Science ’61) Mrs Joanna Wong Quee Heng (Science ’63)

4

MS JANET ANG

MS CHEN CHUNHUA

MR OUYANG XIUZHANG

MS JASMINE SER XIANG WEI

(BUSINESS ’82)

(BUSINESS ’00)

(BUSINESS ’99)

(BUSINESS ’14)

Dr Chiong Yee Keow (Medicine ’12) Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Science ’98, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy ’08) Mr Ouyang Xiuzhang (Business ’99) Ms Jasmine Ser Xiang Wei (Business ’14) Ms Priscilla Shunmugam (Law ’06) Mr Benjamin Tan (Business ’00) Ms Cherie Tan Shi Hua (Engineering ’12) Mr Min-Liang Tan (Law ’02) Mr Tan Tai Kiat (Arts and Social Sciences ’02) Mr Royston Tay Zhing Keak (Engineering ’08)

MR EDWARD D´SILVA

DR LEE SOO ANN

MR SEAH CHENG SAN

MS PRISCILLA SHUNMUGAM

MR BENJAMIN TAN

MS CHERIE TAN SHI HUA

(ARCHITECTURE ’75)

(ARTS ’60 ’69)

(ENGINEERING ’82, MBA ’92)

(LAW ’06)

(BUSINESS ’00)

(ENGINEERING ’12)

DR TAN ENG LIANG

MRS JOANNA WONG QUEE HENG

MR MIN-LIANG TAN

MR TAN TAI KIAT

MR ROYSTON TAY ZHING KEAK

(SCIENCE ’61)

(SCIENCE ’63)

(LAW ’02)

(ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ’02)

(ENGINEERING ’08)

JAN– MAR 2016

5

IN THE NEWS

State of the Univer sity Address 2015 “People, Culture and Purpose” As we look back at how far we have come in the past 110 years, I urge you to continue giving us the full force of your talent and passion, to add to our gathering strength, to give another 110 per cent, to help NUS move strongly upward in the years ahead, as a leading global university centred in Asia, influencing the future, creating distinctive value.

PROFESSOR TAN CHORH CHUAN (MEDICINE ‘83) NUS PRESIDENT

to be the focus of attention for NUS. OR NUS TO CONTINUE STAYING RELEVANT in a rapidly-changing world, “People, Culture and Purpose” must be the focus of attention, said NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan at his State of the University Address held on 27 October 2015.

To continue excelling, a strong sense of common purpose is crucial for a diverse and talented community like NUS, Prof Tan said. This common purpose motivates each individual by giving greater meaning and fulfillment to his or her work. He emphasised, “I believe that the most important purpose of our University is to create distinctive and compelling value for our students, for Singapore and the wider global community.”

To sustain its rate of progress, NUS must foster a culture of excellence at all levels of the University, Prof Tan said. This translates to every member and group continuously striving to be even better and to be constantly self-surpassing. Simultaneously, the University must provide the enabling environment that promotes and supports outstanding performance, with teamwork and collaboration being the norm.

“Being exceptional is increasingly important as we enter an era of what I might term ‘the commoditisation of competencies’,” Prof Tan highlighted.

“People” constitutes the third but

most important pillar. The University must focus on helping every student discover and develop his or her potential, and also to further raise the quality and impact of faculty and staff by nurturing them to do their best work. The University is recruiting talent who can work well with industry, and bridge basic research and application, and commercialisation, to augment teaching and research.

NUS will be spearheading two major thrusts* to achieve these goals.

The first, centred on helping students maximise their potential and realise their aspirations, will involve a stronger focus being placed to ensure that NUS graduates possess a “can do” spirit, can connect with others and are continually learning.

The second major thrust involves building two signature initiatives that maximise NUS researchers’ impact in areas of key importance to Singapore.

Named ‘NUS Solutioning Networks’, these groups will draw on all relevant expertise across campus to work with public- and private-sector partners on defined problems.

Prof Tan urged the community to look beyond international rankings which capture only some dimensions of a university’s accomplishments. He reiterated that “our focus must be on the distinctive value that we are creating as a worldclass university rooted in Singapore”.

* To read the full State of the University Address and learn more about the two major thrusts, visit: www.nus.edu.sg/soua/

6

JAN– MAR 2016

7

IN THE NEWS

PM Lee addressing the Yale-NUS community.

Yale-NUS President Prof Lewis receiving the commemorative gift from Yale University.

Yale-NUS College Campus officially opens Singapore’s first liberal arts residential college, Yale-NUS College (Yale-NUS) inaugurated its new campus on 12 October 2015. he inauguration ceremony was attended by Guest-of-Honour Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong; Singapore’s Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills), Mr Ong Ye Kung; and leaders from local and overseas educational institutions.

In his opening address, Yale-NUS Founding President Professor Pericles Lewis said, “We have dedicated ourselves to the principles that underpin advanced learning: free inquiry, open discussion, respect for a diversity of views and the constant search for knowledge.” He described the campus as a “learning landscape”, saying “This state-of-the-art-campus provides our community with the resources to bring the best of the East and West together.”

8

At the ceremony, Yale University President Professor Peter Salovey presented Yale-NUS with a bronze statue of American patriot Nathan Hale, who graduated from the University in 1773 and whose courage and single-minded determination Prof Salovey said exemplified the spirit in which Yale-NUS was founded.

NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan (Medicine ’83) presented a specially-commissioned Chinese ink painting titled Spirit of the Explorer, depicting a landscape with numerous walking paths. He explained that the work “encompasses imagination, boldness, resourcefulness, courage and resilience” — a spirit that “underpinned the partnership between NUS and Yale to establish the Yale-NUS College, a unique and ground-breaking

PM Lee presented with a 3D model sculpture created by a Yale-NUS student.

Yale-NUS President Prof Lewis receiving the commemorative gift from NUS.

initiative [and one that] continues to drive NUS’ and Yale’s enduring commitment to the success of the partnership and the Yale-NUS College.”

In his speech, PM Lee said that Yale-NUS will add to the tertiary education landscape with its innovative pedagogy and new learning approaches. He also said he is confident the College will create a unique model of academic excellence in Singapore. Following the inauguration ceremony, Mr Lee toured the Yale-NUS campus and attended a private reception where he was met by members of the faculty, students and staff.

Founded in 2011, Yale-NUS is Singapore’s first liberal arts residential college with a full residential programme that integrates campus living and learning, and emphasises broad-based, multi-disciplinary learning across the natural and social sciences, humanities and the arts.

Drawing on the resources and traditions of two great universities, Yale-NUS aims to redefine liberal arts and science education for a complex, interconnected world.

The new 64,000 sq m campus — adjacent to the National University of Singapore (NUS) University Town — is set amid lush greenery and consists of three residential colleges, 1,000 student rooms, seminar rooms, laboratories, fabrication studios, a library, sky gardens, a black box theatre, a performance hall and art studios among other facilities.

The campus was designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli of New Haven, United States, and Forum Architects of Singapore. For its efforts at creating ecologically-friendly landscapes, Yale-NUS was the first educational institute to be awarded the Landscape Excellence Assessment Framework certification by the National Parks Board.

PM Lee meeting Yale-NUS students.

JAN– MAR 2016

9

TH E N U S EN T R E P R E NE U RI A L S PI RI T

Mr Keith Tan

Nation

The National University of Singapore plays a unique role in the development of successful tech start-ups. The AlumNUS finds out how, and speaks to three graduates whose businesses reflect NUS’ involvement. BY THERESA TAN n the recent 2016 BNP Paribas Global Entrepreneur Report, which polled over 2,600 multimillionaire entrepreneurs worldwide, Singapore ranked sixth among global economies that entrepreneurs consider as presenting the best opportunity for starting and running a successful business.

While this is not exactly a new finding, it is a significant one — because just over 15 years ago in 2000, Singapore ranked 20 out of 21 countries for entrepreneurial propensity in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study.

In 2010, Mr Scott Anthony, the managing partner of American growth consulting firm Innosight, moved to Singapore to oversee the company’s new incubation and investment arm.

In a February 2015 article in Harvard Business Review, he wrote that his move faced ridicule then, when he was hard-pressed to name a notable startup from Singapore apart from Creative Labs — which had made news in 2006 when Apple paid it US$100 million for infringing its ZEN patent rights, but by 2007 had delisted from NASDAQ. (It was subsequently delisted from the Singapore Exchange in 2013.)

Of course, Mr Anthony could not name gaming peripherals giant Razer as a notable exception, although this

sexy success story did begin with a Singaporean and National University of Singapore (NUS) alumnus, Mr Min-Liang Tan (Law ’02), who founded the company in the United States in 1998 with venture capitalist Robert Krakoff. Razer has, to date, attained a cult-like status among gamers all over the world, having stayed true to its motto: “For Gamers. By Gamers.”

However, Mr Anthony could, five years on, list a multitude of reasons “Why Singapore Has Become An Entrepreneurial Hub”, as his article is titled. One reason is that, like Silicon Valley, Singapore has strong research institutions and not many restrictions by way of non-compete clauses.

Another is that like Israel, Singapore is a small country with limited natural resources and is therefore forced to be innovative when it comes to economic ideas — both countries have liberal immigration policies, for one. And both have compulsory military conscription for men, and the military provides ripe ground for innovation, he says, quoting the book Start-up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer.

Mr Anthony also highlighted the venture capital investment available in Singapore, which went from US$30 million in 2011 to over US$1 billion in 2013. The Singapore government has played a huge role in creating low barriers to entry for foreign talent to

grow innovation from Singapore.

A new business can be registered in a matter of hours. English as the working language is a huge plus, as is the efficiency for which Singaporeans pride themselves.

But the real honey must be the range of grants and related programmes made available via the National Framework of Innovation and Enterprise (NFIE), birthed out of the National Research Foundation (NRF), a department of the Prime Minister’s Office set up to strengthen Singapore’s R&D capabilities. NFIE was established in 2006 as a comprehensive national programme to grow innovation and entrepreneurship in Singapore. It comprises seven schemes, one of which offers Singapore-based startups a matching grant of up to 85 per cent of capital (capped at S$500,000 per company) and the guidance and active mentorship of the Technology Incubator. The Incubator then has the option to buy over the start-up within three years.

Mr Anthony certainly isn’t the only one who has moved to Singapore to capitalise on the investment opportunities. The most high-profile of these is Mr Eduardo Saverin, a co-founder of Facebook, who has been based in Singapore since 2009 and has invested in five tech start-ups so far, Continued on page 12

THE TECH SECTOR CAN BENEFIT FROM HAVING PEOPLE VIEW START-UPS AS A LEGITIMATE CAREER OPTION. PROGRAMMES SUCH AS THE NUS OVERSEAS COLLEGE ARE CHANGING THIS PERCEPTION. Mr Keith Tan

(Arts and Social Sciences ’15), 26, is the co-founder of Start Now, a site that offers a full suite of tools for social enterprises. Founded in 2011, Start Now was bought over by local company Goodtizens in Nov 2015 for S$378,000.

Mr Tan is now back at Plug-In@Blk71 with Start Now co-founder Mr Ivan Chang and a third partner Mr Kuriakin Zeng, working on Wonderlabs, a company that helps start-ups set up, test and validate their products within a very short time.

TECH FOR GOOD Tell us about your journey to forming Start Now. How did NUS Enterprise play a part?

Ivan [Chang] and I met when we were classmates in Sec 1. At 14 we founded our first business — which dealt in apparel printing and corporate gifts — with just S$72. We sold it when we were 19 for a six-figure sum.

In 2011, we had an idea that stemmed from a personal problem — trying to find a place to volunteer. We thought, what if we created a platform to connect volunteers to volunteering opportunities? And the idea of Start Now was born. We shopped around for incubators to incubate us for the YES! Startups Grant.

All the incubators rejected us because they did not believe that volunteerism could be a viable business model. However, at the time NUS Enterprise had just started the Social Venture Lab to incubate ideas that tackled social issues (social enterprises). That’s how we ended up being incubated at NUS Enterprise.

Start Now is described as “civic technology” — what does that mean?

“Civic technology” is technology that seeks to stimulate or create civic action – like taking part in social causes by way of volunteering, donating, crowd-funding or micro-financing.

Our mission was to connect people to causes.

Originally, our platform strove to connect volunteers to volunteering opportunities.

Later on, we moved to create white-label software such as volunteer management and donor management software to government agencies and non-profit organisations (NGOs) to help them engage volunteers and donors to create change. We also set up a division that ran campaigns to promote volunteerism as well as campaigns for corporate clients.

How did Wonderlabs come about?

We started Wonderlabs as the key vehicle

10

Wilson Pang

to scout for new ideas and entrepreneurs that we could seed invest in. We also want to help entrepreneurs avoid the pitfalls we experienced: waiting too long and developing too much before testing ideas in the real world.

I met Kuriakin while we were students at Singapore Polytechnic. After I graduated from NUS, I worked with him on a social change project for the Enactus Organization. After Kuriakin graduated from Harvard, I roped him in as a partner and Chief Technology Officer at Wonderlabs.

Did being in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) encourage the entrepreneurial streak in you?

NUS did not cultivate that entrepreneurial streak per se, but it was a great place to pursue entrepreneurial activities, and build on my initial interest in pursuing this as my career.

As for FASS, the type of critical thinking and open debate that is the foundation of the social sciences is highly applicable to the technology sector. When much of what we do is to disrupt the status quo, it helps to have a healthy distrust of norms and a critical mind to question the present state of affairs.

What is your view of NUS being a “hotbed” for start-ups and enterprises? Is enough being done to encourage entrepreneurship?

I think the vast majority of NUS students still graduate and aspire to join a large company with a stable career path. The tech sector could definitely benefit from having more people view start-ups as a legitimate career option. Programmes such as the NUS Overseas College are changing this perception.

People in Singapore aren’t used to the potentially turbulent nature of working for a start-up where your entire organisation could go bust in 60 days.

JAN– MAR 2016

11

TH E N U S EN T R E P R E NE U RI A L S PI RI T

RAZER SHARP

Continued from page 11

government’s pursuit of a nation of entrepreneurs.

NUS’ ROLE IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP The NUS of yore had certainly seen its fair share of entrepreneurs, from Banyan Tree founders Mr Ho Kwon Ping (Arts and Social Sciences ’78) and Ms Claire Chiang (Arts and Social Sciences ’74 ) to Hyflux founder Ms Olivia Lum (Science ’86) and export doyenne Ms Jocelyn Chng (Arts and Social Sciences ’89) of Sin Hwa Dee. But the University then had little direct input in the entrepreneurial journeys taken by these business luminaries.

It was in 1988 that NUS foresaw the importance of tech enterprise and the then-Centre for Management of Innovation and Technopreneurship was set up. In 2001, it became a division of NUS Enterprise (also established that year) and was renamed NUS Entrepreneurship Centre (NEC). NEC’s goal is to nurture entrepreneurial learning and venture creation among the NUS community.

In 1999, the NUS Entrepreneurship Society, with NEC and the NUS Business School Alumni Association launched Start-Up@Singapore, an annual national business plan competition in Singapore, in a bid to draw ideas from entrepreneurs and help them actualise those ideas. Within NUS, there was also a Technology Entrepreneurship Minor programme for all undergraduates which ran from 1999 to 2007.

Started by NEC, this was the University’s pioneering move in entrepreneurship education.

In 2000, NEC was appointed the country-representative in the GEM research project — the same one that ranked Singapore 20 out of 21 countries in 2000. However, Singapore progressed to 15 out of 37 countries within two years.

From 2000 to 2007, GEM was the

WITH THE AMOUNT OF SUPPORT THE GOVERNMENT PUTS BEHIND START-UPS, IT IS A GREAT TIME FOR ENTREPRENEURS IN SINGAPORE .

When we first started, we were just passionate gamers who thought, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be great if there was a mouse that was built specifically for gaming?’ Things grew from there.

I’ve either been insanely lucky or have just never seen things as being a challenge. Whenever issues came up we just got together and solved them. Today, we are our own biggest challenge. Razer is the world’s largest gaming peripherals company, and we manage that by focusing very strongly on product quality. Everything we produce gets rigorously tested and each new product we release is a way of us outdoing ourselves.

It has been said that Singapore is a country that doesn’t breed entrepreneurship. You are a clear contradiction of that argument.

What does it take to make an entrepreneur like you?

Mr Min-Liang Tan only global effort to benchmark entrepreneurial propensity across nations.

Momentum grew when NUS Enterprise was formed in 2001.

What it provides is an umbrella to various enterprise-related initiatives such that there is comprehensive, coordinated and dedicated support for innovation and entrepreneurship at the University level. This way, NUS Enterprise has broader oversight of potential opportunities for collaboration across NUS departments and is able to identify challenges and gaps that need plugging. As a central body, it not only helps develop entrepreneurial mindsets among students and staff, but provides the environment and resources any resulting technologies or start-ups need to get to that next level.

One key initiative that has turned out to be very fruitful for NUS and Singapore’s start-up community is the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme.

Then-NUS President Professor Shih Choon Fong launched NOC with a partnership between NUS and Stanford University in July 2001, and by January 2002 the first batch of 14 NOC students arrived in Silicon Valley. The Continued on page 15

12

What drove or inspired you to start Razer?

What challenges did you face at the start?

Mr Min-Liang Tan (Law ‘02) is to gamers what Steve Jobs still is to tech nerds: a veritable god. The cofounder, CEO, Creative Director and Chief Gamer of Razer Inc, the world’s largest gaming peripherals company, was a lawyer with his own firm before he left for Silicon Valley and designed the world’s first gaming mouse, the Razer Boomslang, in 1998 with fellow gamer Mr Robert Krakoff. The pair acquired Razer in 2005 and the company is now valued at over US$1 billion. Mr Tan, who turns 39 this year, has won a plethora of awards, among them, the recent NUS Outstanding Young Alumni Award 2015.

I would say that statement is categorically untrue; there could not be a better place for entrepreneurs today than Singapore. With the amount of support the government puts behind start-ups and entrepreneurs, it is a great time for entrepreneurs in Singapore. It’s definitely better than when I started. When Razer first began, start-ups were not the sexy endeavour they are today. It was more like, “Why would you do that?”

What makes an entrepreneur successful is perseverance. You have to keep pushing forward, no matter what. If an idea does not work, refine it, refresh it, and then have another go at it.

NUS Enterprise, which awarded you the 2011 Outstanding NUS Innovator Award, exists to create enterprise opportunities for startups in NUS. What suggestions might you have to encourage more start-ups coming out of NUS? I think this is a great initiative and we should be giving more opportunities to start-ups. This is how we encourage innovation and ingenuity. Entrepreneurs are people who have an ideal and then strive towards it relentlessly. Being an entrepreneur used to be harder — there was less support if you wanted to start your own business. But these days, the government recognises the importance of start-ups, which is great!

Photo courtesy of Mr Min-Liang Tan

including property search website 99.co — which simplifies home buying and renting in Singapore — co-founded by NUS alumnus Mr Darius Cheung (Engineering ’04), who also founded mobile security company tenCube which was acquired by McAfee in 2010.

The main criticism from global media is that not many of the Singapore-based start-ups acquired by giant companies are founded by Singaporeans. The most notable acquisition in the last five years was of Viki, a video streaming site picked up in 2013 by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten for US$200 million. Viki was founded by Egyptian-American Mr Razmig Hovaghimian, “who never received any [Singapore] government funding”, claimed The Economist in a January 2014 article.

But what is perhaps more significant is that Viki was part of an ecosystem called Block 71, which houses a teeming, thriving community of start-ups, many of them founded by Singaporeans.

And it all began with NUS taking on a role to support the

for gaming. It is basically the next step in giving gamers a more immersive experience. This poses huge benefits but also huge challenges to the gaming community. Our OSVR Platform brings game developers, gamers and hardware manufacturers together to solve those challenges and make VR gaming a reality for the masses.

Working with partners like NUS is very important for the development of VR because by creating an open platform to exchange knowledge and learning of both commercial and academic partners, we can drive the entire industry forward with an open knowledge base. We are still in somewhat unchartered territory with VR, and it is through collaboration that we can solve problems and push the envelope of VR technology to make it a mass-market success.

You’re a founding member of the Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) platform and among its partners are universities and colleges. Is NUS one of these? What is the significance of this platform and how it will disrupt technology in the near future?

NUS is one of our academia partners. We are working with NUS’s Keio-NUS Connective Ubiquitous Technology for Embodiments (CUTE) centre, providing hardware development kits and related support for use in their research lab.

I believe that Virtual Reality (VR) is the way forward

Do you support and invest in other startups? If you do, what are they, and what are the qualities of a start-up that you would be interested to invest in?

Yes, we do. Who we are investing in, I can’t really talk about but we are always interested in supporting ventures that we have a synergy with. We are even in the process of putting together a fund specifically for investing in start-ups.

Razer is a company that has scaled to produce and ship millions of products worldwide, so we have the expertise, understanding and reach that could massively assist young and up-and-coming companies.

Right now, the plan is to find strategic companies that we can help and who can leverage off our profile. As we are globally-covered, this can be of great help even before they move into new geographies or jurisdictions, because they can benefit from what we’ve learnt in those jurisdictions.

We’ve got people on the ground around the world who have been doing the same work for years, and we can tap on their expertise.

Personally, I’m excited about giving back to NUS and its budding entrepreneurs. I would love to meet up with more NUS start-ups so ping me anytime!

JAN– MAR 2016

13

TH E N U S EN T R E P R E NE U RI A L S PI RI T

(Engineering ’08).

One of NUS Enterprise’s success stories, Zopim, an online marketing and live chat software company, was founded in 2009 by four NOC students who studied together at the NUS College in Silicon Valley in 2005/6. The team was one of the first to receive a iJam grant from NUS and MDA. In November 2015, Zopim was acquired for US$30million by USbased public company Zendesk, which offers customers cloud-based service. Zendesk now has an office in Singapore, and the Zopim team has been absorbed into its operations. Co-founder Mr Royston Tay, 33, shares the rollercoaster journey of a start-up that bootstrapped all the way to exit.

ANATOMY OF A START-UP

What has been the biggest change for you as co-founder and CEO since Zopim’s acquisition?

A huge positive has been the depth of experience we have within Zendesk. Previously, finding mentors and subject-matter experts was tough. Today, within Zendesk, from the board of directors to the individual managers on the ground, our team is able to learn and grow quickly. Conversely, a big challenge is also trying to stay nimble and move fast within such a big team where decision-makers may be stationed all over the world and information inevitably diffuses at a much slower pace than before.

You are the pride and joy of NUS Enterprise. Tell us how your NOC experience led to Zopim.

I’m not sure about pride, but we might have brought joy to NUS Enterprise with our crazy antics, especially during the annual parties! To be honest, I applied for NOC as a financially-neutral alternative to the Student Exchange Programme (SEP). Somehow I was selected, and found The Zopim team myself in Silicon Valley surrounded by brilliant people like my co-founders Julian (Low), Wenxiang (Wu) and (Kwok) Yang Bin. One of our past-times was developing prototypes for new business ideas. Zopim was conceptualised by Wenxiang and Julian when they faced frustrations selling their belongings online before they returned to Singapore.

Why answer phone calls from buyers? Wasn’t there a way to chat online with people viewing your listings?

14

WITH A GREAT CULTURE, YOU ATTRACT AND RETAIN BRILLIANT PEOPLE. WITH BRILLIANT PEOPLE, YOU CAN CRAFT A WORLD-CLASS EXPERIENCE FOR CUSTOMERS.

Zopim bootstrapped all the way to acquisition. How did you manage to survive six years doing that?

The first three years was challenging for the founders indeed.

We each survived on a stipend of S$500 a month, foregoing it sometimes to ensure employees got paid first. We’re all local Singaporeans who lived with very supportive parents, thus we enjoyed free housing, laundry services and amazing home-cooked food! As long as we didn’t look closely at our dwindling savings, it wasn’t all that depressing. Retrospectively speaking, that period built our characters. We now know how little we need to still lead fulfilling, meaningful lives.

Shortly after we launched pricing in 2010, our product became a hit, and we got profitable. Channelling our profits back into the company, we were able to grow the business, and our team quickly expanded to 40 within a few years. Thankfully, none of the founders demanded to be paid well. All of us focussed on making sure employees were treated well. We offered generous stock options, reviewed salaries twice a year, made sure pantry and office facilities were top-notch, and always splurged on annual retreats at exotic locations, so people in our distributed offices got to hang out with the folks from Singapore.

Mr Royston Tay Continued from page 12

What advantages do today’s entrepreneurs have?

We have a wide array of funding options such as accelerators and crowdfunding. Barriers to developing and iterating through a new product are much lower, with tools like open-source software libraries, 3D simulation and printing technologies which shorten product development cycles massively. That’s why we hold tech entrepreneurs from the earlier eras with so much respect.

Bootstrapping is much tougher. You not only need engineering brilliance to build a product, you also require business guile to sell a vision, raise money or sell your assets to get initial capital.

Do you think Zopim wouldn’t have been what it is if not for NUS Enterprise? What can NUS Enterprise can do more?

Without exaggeration, Zopim wouldn’t have existed without NUS Enterprise. I wouldn’t have met my co-founders, we wouldn’t have had an office. I’d have had no excuse to go jobless after graduation! NUS Enterprise has done a great job of being around whenever a start-up needs them. Two areas of improvement I can think of are mentorship and hiring. With many graduates in diverse fields, how can NUS build a platform that matches alumnus with companies for mentorship and jobs?

What the secret of your success?

I’m told that it’s our culture. A great culture attracts and retains brilliant people. With brilliant people, you can craft and maintain a world-class experience for your customers. Keeping customers happy (and paying!) is what keeps most start-ups going.

Photos courtesy of Mr Royston Tay

Mr Royston Tay

Once back in Singapore, I was roped in to develop the prototype, and we became illegal squatters in NUS Enterprise’s meeting rooms! NUS took pity on us and gave us a tiny room for free. We also became the initial recipients of the newly-minted iJam grant of S$55,000. Dr Lily Chan and Professor Wong Poh Kam of NUS Enterprise, Professor Teo Chee Leong of NOC and Wong Sang Wuoh (our investment manager) were all key figures in Zopim’s inception.

programme (which now also includes New York, Beijing, Shanghai, Stockholm and Tel Aviv), makes available annually to the 150 undergraduates not just entrepreneurship-related courses at prestigious partner universities, but valuable exposure as interns in the mecca of tech, with access to mentors and collaborators.

The aim is nurture these young people into enterprising, resourceful, independent self-starters and, hopefully, successful entrepreneurs.

NUS students can also intern with local start-ups and learn the ropes through the iLEAD (innovative Local Enterprise Achievement Development) programme started in 2008.

But tech entrepreneurship is not the only frontier that NUS Enterprise champions. The patenting and commercialisation of innovation birthed at NUS is another area that has seen a fair bit of development over the decades. In 1992, the

Industry Technology and Relations Office (INTRO) was established to handle Intellectual Property (IP) protection and industry relations. It was later renamed Industry Liaison Office (ILO), a body that connects and partners with industry to commercialise the university’s innovations into products and services that benefit businesses and society at large. In 1995, NUS Technology Holdings Pte Ltd was formed to take equity in spin-off companies.

A genetically-modified fish initially created in 1999 by Dr Zhiyuan Gong from the Biological Sciences department for the purpose of tracking pollution by flourescing, became a commercial phenomenon, and its worldwide rights to market these fluorescent zebrafish — now named “Glo-Fish” were sold to US company Yorktown Technologies.

Glo-Fish has been referred to in various movies and even made an appearance on the popular TV series Big Bang Theory.

Still, it is currently the tech start-up that draws the greatest attention, and NUS Enterprise has had a large part to play in this.

THE MAGICAL BLOCK 71 Block 71 began life as a flatted factory block in Ayer Rajah and is currently slated for demolition.

However, it is still the heart of Singapore start-ups, housing about 100 potential game-changers.

The idea for a community of entrepreneurs came out of NUS Enterprise, which understood the power of proximity when it came to creativity. Setting up such a community would also allow its incubation expertise to boost the dynamic interactive digital media sector.

So in 2011, NUS Enterprise teamed up with the Media Development Authority (MDA) and SingTel Innov8 to establish a strategic incubation programme called Plug-In@Blk71 that offers facilities and perks such as

hot-desking and free Internet access. Blk 71 is now the hotspot for hip Interactive Digital Media (IDM) companies and home to hundreds of tech-related organisations, including start-ups, venture funds and incubators.

Over the years, NUS Enterprise has supported hundreds of companies and formally incubated more than 100 of them. Some of their more well-known successes are the aforementioned tenCube and Zopim, which was acquired by Zendesk in 2014 for US$30 million.

Many founding entrepreneurs and companies who have exited their first businesses — such as NUS alumnus Mr Keith Tan (Arts and Social Sciences ’15) whose software suite for social enterprises Start Now was bought by local company Goodtizens — are still active within the Block 71 ecosystem, some of them even nurturing the next generation of start-ups through mentorships and investments.

The ecosystem now extends to Block 79 (named “BASH” for Building Amazing Startups Here) and the smaller Block 73. Together, the cluster is called JTC Launchpad @ one-north. Block 71 has been such a resounding success that it even offers a programme called Block71 San Francisco that specifically caters to local tech companies interested in establishing themselves in the United States’ tech ecosystem.

PLUG>IN @BLK 71

NUS ENTERPRISE

JAN– MAR 2016

15

MY WO R D

“

Riding the

you need is also different. It is not an option. It is a survival requirement.

That said, basic principles — respect for individuals, for laws; honourable business practices; integrity — these do not change.

The challenge now is to translate these principles into governance guidelines as to how you use data and how you address the business. It is still an evolving culture, but as it becomes more and more of a lifestyle, individuals and companies will evolve guidelines and mindsets to set the OB markers. In terms of what it takes to succeed in this fast-paced, high-tech environment, the concept of business acumen does not change either. This refers to an individual’s ability to sniff out business opportunities, and a successful businessman is the guy who is able to make the best use of the new environment.

Winds of

Change

THE EVOLUTION OF THE BANKING INDUSTRY tells you how the Singapore business landscape has changed. Singapore has become a key financial hub globally — probably the leading hub in Asia and home for the Asian dollar market. In the process, banks have become very much outward-looking.

In fact, the three largest Singaporean banks (OCBC Bank, DBS Bank Ltd and Overseas Union Bank

BY KOH YUEN LIN Ltd) are too large for the country in terms of capital. DBS is 44th largest in the world, with a much larger further, there is also a different market capital than most dimension to running businesses banks in Europe — that is very today: to harness technology. The large coming from a small old-style entrepreneur needs to country like ours. retune his mindset to this new So the banking industry also world driven by technology. DBS supports companies, both large tries to play a part by teaching our and small, as they move beyond customers how to use technology to the shores of our city state. Also, improve knowledge and databases. they have to look for an external For example, DBS BusinessClass dimension to grow their profits (launched in 2014) is an app and also — for DBS, Singapore makes up a community that connects start-ups 60 per cent (of our business) and and SMEs with industry experts and the rest is from off-shore. The fellow entrepreneurs. evolution of the banking industry is a reflection of the evolution NEW PARADIGM of the Singaporean economy. As When we talk about ‘community’ we move from entrepot trade to today, it is just a linkage of people manufacturing to value-added via the Internet. You can effectively activities and the high-tech exchange ideas and even get industries now, the types of business through social media. activities that entrepreneurs For young people this might be are engaged in have changed. natural, but to an older entrepreneur Entrepreneurs today also need who grew up in a different to address a much larger market environment, this is a new concept. outside of national boundaries.

BusinessClass is an example of This is both an opportunity and a how banks can contribute to challenge. The Singapore market nurturing entrepreneurship by being small, entrepreneurs today helping individuals adjust into this need to be able to compete at new paradigm. Giving them the least regionally, if not globally, ability to open a business account to survive. online is another good example — it Apart from the opportunity can all be done within a day and — and challenge — to go much saves a lot of time. Something like this helps them feel comfortable in a new world driven by technology.

In my time, to make an overseas call, you had to book it a day before.

Mr Peter Seah (Business ’68) — Chairman of DBS Group Holdings Ltd, DBS Bank Ltd and DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited — on Singapore entrepreneurs and the business landscape.

16

SOCIETY NEEDS CREATIVITY TO CHANGE, AND WE NEED DIFFERENT TYPES OF PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SKILLS TO MAKE UP A SOCIETY.

And 20 years ago, when my daughters were studying overseas, they told me about a messaging system that would allow them to communicate across continents for free, I said: ‘What are you talking about?’ This is email today. Now we live in times when ‘download’ is part of a toddler’s vocabulary. As sure as the sun rises, this new world has already come.

Singapore is shaping itself into a Smart Nation, a country that is highly efficient in using technology. How is your business going to fit into this environment?

I don’t need to tell a younger person how to do that, but the older

Photo Wilson Pang

Mr Peter Seah

generation has to reset their thinking, and the SMEs are probably the slowest in adapting to this new lifestyle. A successful business owner would say: Why do I need to do data analytics when I have everything in my head?

Success further builds up people’s confidence, and when your formula has worked all these years, you ask: Why do I have to change? Why do I have to take a leap of faith and walk into the unknown when we are experiencing success?

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE But the challenge for entrepreneurs is not just about running their business

well now, but preparing for the future and having a much longer-term positioning of your business. It is about how your business can survive the changing environment. If your competitor has more access to data and information and the ability to use predictive analytics to figure out what is coming down the road, you are going to be hard put to beat them in the game.

Banks are the most challenged when it comes to serving existing, intermediate and new customers — we have massive data and services online for the Internet-savvy, but we still have branches for those who have never used an ATM in their life.

That is also the challenge for many existing businesses today. But I would say that the majority, if not all business models, have to increasingly deploy technology and big data analytics to be more efficient. The use of technology and the speed at which tech is invading our lifestyles makes it a lot more challenging for today’s entrepreneurs. It is no longer just about looking for the right business or market, but how you harness technology to run it and have a longer reach. It is not just about getting the right software — the talent pool

RESPECT FOR VALUES To nurture entrepreneurship in Singapore, the education system needs to take into account these technological changes, but must not take away the respect for basic and important values. It needs to be a system that challenges the individual to do his best, yet tells him that it is alright to make mistakes. Very often, early failure is the foundation of success for an entrepreneur — many of them had been bankrupt at some point.

Those who don’t have the makeup of a true entrepreneur will usually become an employee after the first failure.

Also, the system needs to value creativity. Society needs creativity to change, and we need different types of people of different skills to make up a society — the quality of an individual should not be measured purely by his academic results. And very often, creativity and willingness to do things differently, to change, are not totally related to the person’s academic IQ. I use this term because there are many forms of IQ but society has a tendency to measure only academic IQ. Darwin is often misquoted: What he really said is that those most capable of adapting to change will survive. And society will continue to be that way. There is no one model, system or standard that will survive forever. What I hope will survive forever are the basic values, the guide of conduct.”

JAN– MAR 2016

17

$2.5m

O N C E U P O N A M E M O RY Of her time at the Bukit Timah campus at the then University of Singapore, Ms Tan says, “It was a time of carefree days when studying was last on the agenda! I learnt to hang out, failed to learn how to smoke, and started drinking copious cups of coffee. And yes, picked up the kiasu habit of how to chope a place in the library by ‘checking in’ and leaving neat stacks of files and books at a seat – which may then be unoccupied the whole day long.”

SYLVIA TAN ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ’69

COST TO BUILD THE SCIENCE TOWER WHICH HOUSED THE SCIENCE FACULTY’S DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

TOWERING TALES

PANTAI VALLEY

Campus

Haunts

SCIENCE TOWER

It took some time to be built and when it was completed, pairs of students would go up to the top of the tower, the highest point on the campus, to take in the views. They were always in pairs and they said the views were even better at night…

It was the ‘60s and university life at Bukit Timah was carefree for Ms Sylvia Tan, Singapore’s prolific food writer.

UNION HOUSE

WITH CURRENTLY NINE COOKBOOKS

Graceful arches define the Upper ‘Quad’, as it was popularly called.

to her name, Ms Sylvia Tan is probably Singapore’s most prolific food writer.

The books range from accounts of her eating adventures collected in the Mad About Food series, to Singapore Heritage Food and Modern Nonya which explore the Singaporean and Peranakan culinary heritage, to compilations of recipes from her low-fat Asian cooking column Eat to Live in the books, Eat to Live and Taste.

Before her full-time involvement in food writing, Ms Tan was a newspaper journalist for more than 20 years. Aside from her regular Eat to Live column, you can follow her eating and cooking adventures on www.facebook.com/ SylviaTanMadAboutFood.

Dinner and dance at Union House, 1966, Bukit Timah Campus.

1 JULY 1966

OFFICIALLY OPENED BY Mr Lee Kuan Yew, then Prime Minister of Singapore.

6,500 SQM Its floor area was given over to various rooms and laboratories for students and staff.

10

It was reputed to be the TALLEST

UNIVERSITY TOWER in the

region then, at 10 storeys. The building displayed innovative modern features for its time, such as aluminium moveable screens and recessed windows designed as sun-breakers, to reduce thermal transmission into the building.

Now known as the Tower Block, it is used as an administrative office and for research purposes by various centres, one of which is the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI), a research centre at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS.

THE UPPER QUADR ANGLE

I loved the graceful arches that lined the cool, covered corridors bordering the grassy square. Some would cut across the green to shorten their walk to catch tutorials at the English department, but walking along the corridors often yielded evidence of the activity that had taken place the night before!

Photo courtesy of Toh Hun Ping © 2014

18

Open day and night, it was where you could eat, catch up with friends, grab 40 winks between lectures and yes, gamble the night through! The food was not that great but the atmosphere was lively and welcoming, and it was the place where you could catch up on the latest gossip.

Science Tower

«

(or ‘seaside valley’ in Malay) It was so named although there was definitely no seaside within close vicinity! On the road to the women’s residential college, Eusoff College, this was a little depression however that could be described as a valley (of sorts), and there a sarabat stall (pushcart coffee, tea and snacks stall) had set up business. It was smaller and certainly cosier than Union House.

Opening of Union House at University of Singapore, 1963.

JAN– MAR 2016

19

CHA N GEMA K ER

A Legacy of Service

PSYCHIC INCOME — THE EMOTIONAL SATISFACTION DERIVED FROM REALISING VALUES THAT ARE ATTUNED TO YOUR OWN LIFE — IS JUST AS (IF NOT MORE) IMPORTANT AS REAL INCOME. Mr Then KimYuan

At 29, Mr Then Kim Yuan (Arts and Social Sciences ’12), Administrator of the Lee Ah Mooi Old Age Home, already has generations of experience on his side.

Q

Mr Then enjoys spending time with residents, despite his busy schedule.

BY WANDA TAN

What is your earliest memory of the nursing home?

You've worked at the nursing home since 2007. How did that come about?

At the time I had just finished National Service and my father was recovering from heart bypass surgery, so he asked me to supervise the staff in his stead.

But the thought of helping out had already been on my mind since I was in secondary school. Seeing how my family had persevered and kept the nursing home open – despite being on the verge of bankruptcy during economic downturns, with patients’ families unable to pay the monthly fees — inspired me to contribute.

That meant you were working and studying for your History degree at the same time. Was it difficult juggling the two?

It wasn’t easy but I scheduled my modules such that I could spend as much time at the nursing home as possible. I sometimes regret having to forgo exchange-programme opportunities, but working at the nursing home had other payoffs. For

20

example, when learning about the history of Singapore, I gathered oral-history accounts from residents who had lived through the Japanese Occupation. Listening to their stories served as a reminder that patients are not just bed numbers, but human beings.

HOME TRUTHS Running the nursing home must be very stressful. How do you cope?

How has your job scope evolved over the years?

It was a steep learning curve for me at first. I had to learn everything — from how to bathe patients to understanding the workflow — on the job in a short space of time.

Now the nursing home runs like a mini hospital, and we engage the services of hospitals to assess our operations and make Right Mr Then recommendations (in white) with for improvement. (from left) his

our family’s social mission to keep things affordable without compromising on the quality of care, rather than see the nursing home become corporatised and profit-driven. Psychic income — the emotional satisfaction derived from realising values that are attuned to your own life — is just as (if not more) important as real income.

cousin, uncle

In 2014, you attended and father the 10-day General Management Programme (Executive Education) at NUS Business School. What insights did you take away from it?

The course taught me how to use statistics to make informed business decisions. It also exposed me to different ways of securing funds.

I’ve since made use of government grants to improve staff benefits and purchase IT equipment.

Implemented in 2015 for billing and clinical activities, the IT systems will

Do you see a fourth generation of Thens taking over?

hopefully reduce our manpower and operational costs.

Have you ever been tempted to sell the nursing home?

We have in fact received lucrative offers from people wanting to acquire it. After all, Singapore’s ‘silver tsunami’ has made eldercare services a moneymaking industry. But we rejected the offers because it’s not about dollars and cents for us. We want to preserve

Main Photo Hong Chee Yan

I spent much of my childhood here, mainly during weekends and holidays.

Our annual Christmas and Chinese New Year family gatherings were also held here, and I remember my late grandmother (Mdm Lee Ah Mooi, who founded the home) giving me a hongbao every Chinese New Year at the front lobby. My father and uncle were already running the nursing home then, but they still reported to my grandmother every day. She passed away when I was six years old.

I can’t afford to think that far ahead!

Because we operate on a tight budget, maintaining cash flow is a real concern for us. My focus is on ensuring that the nursing home survives under my supervision. But even if it were to shut down, I hope the family legacy of contributing from the heart and serving the community without expecting anything in return will continue.

I can’t do everything on my own.

Instead of centralising authority, I trust and empower my staff to take on more responsibilities. Having family support also helps. My father and uncle may have relinquished day-to-day management, but they still oversee kitchen activities and drop by for afternoon visits. Another uncle comes here every morning to do the laundry, while my cousins handle paperwork and other administrative duties.

What advice would you give to aspiring social workers?

The job entails more than caring for patients’ emotional and physical wellbeing; you also have to counsel their families. So when tough times occur — and they will — you need to be mentally strong and resilient. Do not be disheartened about the things you can’t do for them because you can help in other ways.

And when you do encounter a setback, treat it as a learning opportunity.

LEE AH MOOI OLD AGE HOME IS A PRIVATELY-RUN RESIDENTIAL NURSING HOME THAT CATERS TO LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME FAMILIES.

1963

FIRST ESTABLISHED at Mdm Lee Ah Mooi’s Kampong Chong Pang residence. A nurse, Mdm Lee took retired samsui women and former amahs into her own home.

1971 MOVED TO a bungalow at Jalan Kayu.

1984

RELOCATED TO current premises at Thomson Lane (formerly Lee Kuo Chuan Primary School).

110 CURRENT NUMBER OF AGED RESIDENTS

50

NUMBER OF HIGHLYTRAINED HEALTHCARE STAFF

JAN– MAR 2016

21

ALUMNI SCENE

Ms Sarah Ong (right) with Dr Noreen Chan who was Key Speaker at the Seminar Series on Advance Care Planning organised by NUSNA on 17 October 2015.

TEXT BY CHIA EE KHIM

(NURSING)

GOING ABOVE AND

BEYOND

The NUS Nursing Alumni takes it upon itself to raise the professional standing of nurses in Singapore.

I

NUSNA sent a team of alumni to Phetchabun, Thailand in January 2015 to set up mobile clinics and distribute daily necessities to the rural community.

22

t is a young alumni group of only four years but the NUS Nursing Alumni (NUSNA) is resolved to shape the future of nursing in Singapore. As the first local graduate nursing school alumni group, founded in 2011 by Ms Lim Chi Ching (Nursing ’10) of the pioneer cohort of nursing degree undergraduates, NUSNA encourages camaraderie among graduate nurses through formal and informal sharing sessions as well as the mentoring of juniors.

To this end, the alumni group has rolled out several core events, such as the annual conferencestyle Career Development Day held on Kent Ridge Campus.

NUSNA is also recognised for its SIMulation Professional Learning

(ECONOMICS)

Environment (SIMPLE) programme, its first major event of every year.

In this collaboration with the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (ALCNS), alumni are invited back to take on co-facilitator roles in clinical simulation classes for the graduating class. They share advice and updates from the front lines, providing valuable insight for students preparing for their final assessment and hospital attachments.

NUSNA President Ms Sarah Ong (Nursing ’12), who took over the reins from Ms Lim in 2014, is also keen to include a wider range of unique nursing practice talks, personal career development workshops and networking meals with industry experts for the alumni group’s 400 members.

She hopes to see more active alumni in the coming years. “I know that there are many things our alumni wish to accomplish for our nursing community and to give back to the community.

NUSNA can be that governing body through which such good causes may be supported,” says Ms Ong. “We already have an overseas community arm and we are ready to serve our local community beyond what we already do every day in our work. Alone we are but a drop, but together we are an ocean.”

Join Us!

ALL NURSING GRADUATES are automatic members of NUSNA. Visit facebook. com/groups/NUSNA or nusna.wordpress. com or email nusnursingalumni @gmail.com to find out about NUSNA events.

Economics alumni at the year-end Dinner & Home-coming 2015 on 28 November.

LEADING BY

From left Ms Lim Chi Ching (Nursing ’10), NUSNA Founding President; Assoc Prof Victor R Savage (Arts and Social Sciences ’72), OAR Director; Prof Emily Ang, ALCNS Head; Ms Sarah Ong (Nursing ’10), NUSNA President; and Ms Chua Tse Lert (Nursing ’10), former NUSNA Vice-President at the 4th Career Development Day 2014.

EXAMPLE

Join Us!

Helping undergraduates is a big part of the NUS Economics Alumni’s mission.

B

eyond the usual bonding and networking sessions for its alumni, the NUS Economics Alumni is very much focussed on supporting Economics undergraduates. Since setting up its Alumni Bursary in 2010, three years after the group was first established, it has helped 16 financially-needy Economics undergraduates. This year, the alumni group aims to get the fund endowed — their target is to raise S$250,000 and so far they have received donations of S$170,000 in total.

The NUS Economics Alumni also has plans to expand its Mentorship Programme, which pairs a mentor alumnus with a number of undergraduate mentees.

The mentor meets up with the mentees on a regular basis to give them advice on career and other issues.

Having been with the alumni group since its inception, Ms Chang Rui Hua (Arts and Social Sciences ’12) hopes more alumni will step up and help Economics undergraduates, especially the underprivileged ones. “The more alumni who join us, the more people we have to help spread the cause — and it becomes a virtuous cycle,” says Ms Chang.

As for deepening the relationships between Economics alumni, the group continues to do so through various activities and two key events every year:

INTERESTED TO BE PART OF THE NUS ECONOMICS ALUMNI? Drop Ms Chang Rui Hua an email at ruihuamon79@gmail.com.

the Chinese New Year Lo-Hei and Year-End Dinner, where old friends can catch up over a meal in a relaxed environment. In mid-February 2016, the Chinese New Year Lo-Hei will be held at China Club and previous guests-of-honour who attended past NUS Economics Alumni dinners will all be invited.

NUS ECONOMICS ALUMNI BURSARY Every year, the fund disburses three awards of S$3,000 each to financially-needy students in the Department of Economics who have a per capita household income of S$500 a month or less.

JAN– MAR 2016 23

ALUMNI SCENE GIVING

ormer President of Singapore and former Chancellor of the National University of Singapore (NUS), Mr S R Nathan (Arts ’54), has established two bursaries at NUS in honour of his late mother and late father-in-law.

Mr Nathan was himself the beneficiary of financial aid as a student at the University of Malaya, NUS’ predecessor institution.

The Abhirami Sellapan Bursary and the K P Nandey Bursary will be awarded to students in financial need, with preference given to Social Work and Law students.

Mr Nathan’s mother, Madam Abhirami Sellapan, was left to bring up seven children alone after the premature death of her husband. “It is difficult to find words to describe all she went through to give us her best. She had few opportunities in life yet she taught us several lessons of life and gave us inspiration. This bursary is dedicated to her memory by her grateful children,” shares Mr Nathan.

His father-in-law, Mr Kirti Prakash Nandey, who came to Malaya from India and worked as a managing clerk in a lawyer’s office, evokes similar admiration.

“How he managed life, without much training and much experience, we do not know. How he brought up a wife MR S R NATHAN and four children, we have no answers. Lawyers, young and old, often came seeking his advice. He gave us the best in education and life, and lessons of life. Yet, he was only a lawyer’s clerk,” says Mr Nathan.

Mr Nathan completed his O Levels through selfstudy, while holding down a full-time job at the same time. Thanks to financial aid from Shell, he enrolled as a mature student to study for a Diploma in Social Work at the University of Malaya. Mr Nathan’s personal experience has shaped his attitude to giving. “I entered university late in life. It was at university that I realised of the vast mass of knowledge that lies ahead of me, and of which I was ignorant. Furthermore,

It was at university that I realised of the vast mass of knowledge that lies ahead of me, and of which I was ignorant.

CHERISHING MEMORIES, AND BENEFITTING STUDENTS Former recipient Mr S R Nathan honours parents through bursaries 24

HELPING OTHERS TO HELP THE NEEDY Orthodontist paves way for future social workers Mr Nathan’s mother Madam Abhirami Sellapan (left), and Mrs Nathan’s father, Mr Kirti Prakash Nandey.

this NUS education would not have been possible for me without that scholarship.”

“My wife and I therefore felt strongly that others should likewise be enabled to further their studies at NUS, with such bursaries. We thus felt that there were no better ways to help students and cherish the memories of our loved ones, than by establishing bursaries in the names of our beloved ones. We hope that future recipients will benefit from these bursaries, as I did in life, and from an education at NUS,” he says.

“DO WHAT YOU CAN, AND GIVE WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD.” This is Dr George Yi-Wei Soh’s (Dentistry ’80) vision for a kinder and more charitable society. The Dentistry alumnus recently made another gift to establish the George Y Soh Social Service Study Award at National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Department of Social Work.

Of his decision to give to Social Work, Dr Soh says, “Globalisation, technology-related job losses, and an ageing population widen the income gap causing social inequalities. We will need social workers to alleviate the suffering of those affected. The social sector is expected to grow rapidly, but there is a dearth, currently, of social service professionals in Singapore.”

Dr Soh recognises the need to groom social work professionals

When your contributions nurture good people, they will in turn nurture others.

DR GEORGE Y SOH

in Singapore and his gift seeks out individuals who have compassion for the underserved to become social service professionals. “Their contributions will alleviate poverty, achieve greater social equity and maintain social stability in the society,” he says.

With a belief that he bears a social responsibility towards the needy in society, Dr Soh began his volunteer work 29 years ago when he set up a clinic to provide free dental services at the Woodlands Home for the Aged.

He also served on its management committee. Since then, he has continued to work closely with various voluntary welfare organisations to improve the lives of the aged and destitute persons living in welfare homes.

Dr Soh also hopes to encourage fellow alumni to give back to their alma mater. “NUS provided me the opportunities to develop professionally. Having served as an academic staff member at NUS for more than 11 years, I know that the University always aims to provide the best education for its students. NUS also offers the best programmes in educating and training social service professionals in Singapore, as well as in the region.”

Previously, Dr Soh made a gift to establish the George Y Soh Scholarship at NUS to support outstanding Dentistry students. “Giving to education is building human capital for economic growth for the country and improving living standards for society. Education is also the way out of poverty for those who have the potential to contribute to society but do not have the necessary resources.

When your contributions nurture good people, they will in turn nurture others,” he says.

JAN– MAR 2016 25

PU R S U IT O F E XC E L L E NC E

Human

Dr Teh being ‘hugged’ by the T.Jacket.

TOUCH Count Dr James Teh ( Engineering ’05), founder and CEO of local start-up T.Ware, as a proponent of the humanising power of technology.

BY WANDA TAN

THE ADVENT OF WEARABLE

technology — sensor-laden clothing and accessories embedded with wireless connectivity — has heralded all manner of applications. From wrist-worn fitness trackers to virtual-reality gaming headsets, the possibilities are endless. And now there is even a locally-developed Bluetooth-enabled vest that is controlled by a smartphone or tablet; at the press of a button, deep touch pressure is activated to envelop the wearer in a comforting hug. Called the T.Jacket, it looks like a typical sleeveless hoodie — except it is designed for people with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other sensory-processing problems.

Launched in 2011, the T.Jacket is the brainchild of researcher-turnedentrepreneur Dr James Teh, 34.

It was not an overnight creation, but rather the culmination of a decade-long period at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

that allows humans to touch their pets remotely [with the aid of a specially-constructed pet jacket],” he recalls. After graduating in 2005 with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Computer Engineering, he went on to obtain a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Those postgraduate years saw him delve into human-computer interaction, which Dr Teh describes as “a blend of computer science, psychology and industrial design”.

Based on the premise that children are more responsive to touch than voice recognition, he built on the work done for Pet Internet to develop the Huggy Pajama, a system that

HOW THE T.JACKET WORKS 5

Dr Teh’s interest in touch technology was piqued while conducting his final-year undergraduate project. “I was involved in research on the Pet Internet, a system 26

• Using an iOS or Android app, airbags inside the garment are inflated to apply pressure to the body.

This simulates a hug, reducing the wearer’s anxiety and improving his or her attentiveness during seated activities like reading.

• The app interface features five different pressure levels for enhanced flexibility.

The user can either choose from a range of automated pressure programmes or customise the intensity and duration of pressure applied.

• Built-in sensors monitor the wearer’s T.Jacket usage and movement activity.

The data is recorded and stored in the cloud, enabling long-term tracking of the user’s progress and sharing of information with parents and therapists.

Main Photo Wilson Pang Others Courtesy Of T.Ware

PETS TO PEOPLE

military personnel suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.

2016 looks set to be a big year enables parents to hug their kids for T.Ware. In January, it will launch remotely via wearable pyjamas. From a brand-new product called the Aira there, it was simply a matter of using jacket; aimed at the mass market, the the technology to help people with Aira provides targeted point pressure autism and attentional difficulties. on the upper and lower back to Bringing the novel technology to produce the sensation of a massage. market was another matter altogether The company also plans to roll out a — especially for Dr Teh who had no lighter, more breathable version of the prior business experience. But he was T.Jacket later in the year. In time, undaunted. “Anything you take on as component costs fall and the is a risk, be it becoming an academic volume of production rises, the price or starting a business,” he says of his of the T.Jacket — now US$599 decision to pursue the latter route. (about S$840) — will fall as well.

“I wanted to impact more people, not Ever the optimist, Dr Teh believes just the academic community, with that growth in remote communication my invention.” technologies will bring people closer In 2010, Dr Teh was selected as a together rather than drive them apart. recipient for the inaugural NUS Extra “The wearable-tech industry enables Chapter Challenge, a six-month scientists and healthcare professionals fellowship for PhD students who to understand humans beyond the intend to commercialise their thesis clinical setting, resulting in better inventions. While developing his provision of care,” he says. “And that’s business plan, he received monthly what you want to do as an inventor: stipends and sat in on MBA classes. to impact and improve lives.”

Indeed, the programme would serve Interacting with the as a crucial springboard for the special-needs community establishment of T.Ware in has also put his own life 2011 — just one month after into perspective. “The completing his PhD. challenges and obstacles faced by entrepreneurs IMPACTING LIVES are nothing compared Like most startups, to what parents of T.Ware began with a small autistic children go team of three people. through,” says the father Dr Teh credits NUS of two. “As long as you have Enterprise for providing tenacity, grit and belief in much-needed help during AIRA JACKET what you are doing, no problem those early days, especially with is too difficult to overcome.” public-relations issues such as engaging with the media and revising press releases. Today the T.Jacket is purchased by parents of autistic children, occupational therapists and early-intervention centres not only in Singapore but also in Japan, Belgium, Germany and Norway.

The company currently consists of eight full-time staff and a couple of interns, among whom engineering, product-design and sales/marketing responsibilities are evenly split.

Manufacturing work is outsourced, while partnerships are formed with distributors in other countries to Dr James Teh reach out to the global special-needs community. It is also carrying out trials of the T.Jacket with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, to test its effectiveness on

ANYTHING YOU TAKE ON IS A RISK, BE IT BECOMING AN ACADEMIC OR STARTING A BUSINESS. I WANTED TO IMPACT MORE PEOPLE, NOT JUST THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY, WITH MY INVENTION.

JAN– MAR 2016 27

U@LIVE

U@live Going Global The long-running series develops a higher profile in keeping with NUS’ international standing.

BY WANDA TAN

ON 27 JANUARY 2011, THE NUS OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS launched the U@live initiative as a platform to showcase the many accomplished members of the NUS community.

Five years and 49 sessions later, the series has gained a loyal following — and is now getting a highly-anticipated revamp.

Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Arts and Social Sciences ’83), NUS Alumni Advisory Board member and U@live moderator since its inaugural session, first mooted the idea a few months ago. “NUS has arrived in the big leagues; it is not just a good university but is also at the frontier of new thought processes,” he says. Having garnered sufficient clout on the world stage, now is thus a good time for his alma mater to “cast a wider net” by attracting globally-recognised leaders.

But as Mr Viswa clarifies, “Our core objective remains the same: to inspire people to break the mould and be gutsy in making a meaningful difference in society. We are not moving away from the raison d’être of U@live, but rather lifting it up a few notches.”

Spotlighting Global Thinkers

Whereas previous U@live speakers comprised notable NUS alumni, faculty and board members, the new and improved U@live: Lifting Thought Leadership initiative will feature people beyond the NUS fraternity who have achieved global standing.

They may hail from any of these four categories: •

Those who possess domain knowledge at a global level in their respective fields of expertise, such as Nobel Laureates;

We are not moving away from the raison d’être of U@live, but rather lifting it up a few notches.

MR VISWA SADASIVAN 28

U@LIVE THEN AND NOW PREVIOUS SESSIONS

NEW SESSIONS

MOSTLY NOTABLE ALUMNI

GLOBALLYRECOGNISED LEADERS

SPEAKERS

MONTHLY

QUARTERLY

100 PEOPLE

200

1

1.5

FREQUENCY

AUDIENCE

DURATION

•

•

•

HOUR

WISH LIST non-governmental organisations.

“We are [also] considering reserving some seats for junior college and polytechnic students as well as those from other universities,” discloses Mr Viswa.

In a move befitting the higher calibre of U@live guest speakers, the NUS Office of Alumni Relations will ramp up its publicity efforts through local and foreign media coverage as well as live webcasts of the sessions. It will also actively promote U@live to prominent universities outside of Singapore with whom NUS enjoys close ties, such as the University of Cambridge and Yale University.

Breaking The Taboo

The 50th U@live session — or rather, the first session in its new incarnation — will take place on 21 January 2016, with 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner Professor Ada Yonath as the

PEOPLE

guest speaker. Instead of turning it into a scientific lecture, Mr Viswa plans to bring up broader issues such as how the Israeli’s life-saving breakthrough in ribosomes — protein-bulding structures central to life that are found in all living cells — has led to a revival of hope and self-determination, and whether her award raises hopes for gender neutrality or for people from other small countries like Singapore to do likewise.

Amid concern that today’s young may be overly focussed on excelling academically and getting a good job, Mr Viswa envisions U@live as a forum that will reinforce NUS’ collective ethos. “We need to nurture people who are bright and energetic in making a difference, curious to learn more beyond their domain knowledge, and nimble and flexible in changing the course of their lives,” he says.

WHO MR VISWA WOULD LOVE TO HAVE:

B I LL C LI NTON

NA RE NDRA MODI

FORMER US PRESIDENT

INDIA’S CURRENT PRIME MINISTER MA RI NA MA HA THI R

MALAYSIAN SOCIO-POLITICAL ACTIVIST AND DAUGHTER OF FORMER MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER, MAHATHIR MOHAMAD

RI C H A RD B RA N S O N

VIRGIN GROUP FOUNDER

JA CK MA

ALIBABA GROUP FOUNDER

HOURS

‘Captains of industry’ or renowned entrepreneurs from the international business community; Government leaders from Singapore as well as abroad, such as former or current Presidents and Prime Ministers; and Changemakers or advocates who have created waves worldwide in the social sector.

Given the more selective criteria for U@live speakers, the frequency of sessions will accordingly be scaled back from a monthly to a quarterly basis. More seats will be allocated at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House Auditorium — the same venue as before — to accommodate the doubling of audience size, and the hour-long sessions will be extended by 30 minutes.

The composition of the audience will also be tweaked although the bulk of seats will still be open to alumni on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Out of the 200 participants for each session, 20 will be made up of invited VVIPs like Cabinet ministers and former NUS Vice-Chancellors to add gravitas to the occasion; while 40 to 50 will comprise those who have a vested interest in the specific topic or speaker, such as PhD students, A*STAR researchers and staff from

U@live is a quarterly speaker series that showcases global thought leaders. Apart from having a live audience, U@live will also be webcasted live. Viewers can send in real time comments and questions to the speaker.

U@live Speaker Series is moderated by Mr Viswa Sadasivan, Chairman of the U@live Organising Committee and Member of the NUS Alumni Advisory Board.

Organised By:

21 JANUARY 2016

I

THURSDAY 7PM

SHAW FOUNDATION ALUMNI HOUSE

Professor Ada Yonath

Nobel Prize Winner for Chemistry (2009)

Prof Ada Yonath is one of the most revered global scientific personalities. She dedicated her life towards the study of the structure of ribosomes, for which she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009. She is the only woman in Israel to win the coveted award. Ribosomes are large complex particles within each cell that translate genetic information – the basis of life itself. Her breakthrough research continues to be fundamental in developing antibiotics to fight the growing problem of bacterial drug resistance. Prof Yonath believes in the importance of curiosity, passion and early childhood education: “If one has curiosity, then one stands the chance of attaining a high level of scientific inquiry… [but] it’s not enough to be curious – one has to really love what one does as science is demanding and there are many, many dark periods, low periods… [My journey began when] my kindergarten teacher encouraged me to learn.”

Reserve Your Seats: www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet Join Us Online: www.nus.edu.sg/ualive Partner Event Of:

JAN– MAR 2016 29

U@LIVE

In Defense of Passion

M S R A N I S I N G A M ( L A W ’ 94 )

ONE SPEAKER. 10 MINUTES. BOUNDLESS I N S P I R AT I O N .

As of January 2016, U@live, our guest speaker series, will showcase global thought leaders.

Hosted by Alumni Advisory Board member and veteran TV presenter Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Arts and Social Sciences ’83) at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House, the 1.5 hour session will also be streamed live on the U@live website.

To register for future U@live events, visit www.nus.edu.sg/ualive.

Lawyer-turned-singer Ms Rani Singam reflects on the ‘aha!’ moment that changed her life.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE between a life of mere contentment and a life of passion? As Ms Rani Singam told her U@live audience, it can be discerned from “the feeling you get on a Sunday night”.

If you dread going to work the next day, your life is obviously not one filled with passion. “I used to get the Monday blues on a Friday night,” said Ms Singam of her former career in the legal profession. “That’s not joy.”

The life I have chosen for myself is a life of passion and true excitement MS RANI SINGAM

30

Those days now seem like a lifetime ago. In 2001, she and her husband welcomed their first child and she took an extended break from work to take care of her newborn. Whilst busy with feedings and diaper changes, Ms Singam also took time to take stock of her life — and her previously-buried childhood ambition to be a singer resurfaced. Her love of singing rekindled, and what was meant to be a year-long hiatus eventually led to a radical career change.

Thirteen years on, the now mother-of-two is an internationallyacclaimed jazz chanteuse with two albums to her name. She has collaborated with renowned artists — including Singapore’s own Jeremy Monteiro and American jazz legend, the late James Moody — and is named in The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide, an encyclopaedic overview of great jazz vocalists.

Although challenges remain in forging a lucrative singing career, Ms Singam has no regrets: “The life I have chosen for myself is a life of passion and true excitement,” as she told her audience.

None of this would have been possible, however, without the support of her family and friends — especially her husband. His encouragement emboldened her to take the plunge and give up an illustrious law career, which had included stints as a Deputy Public Prosecutor and State Counsel. In addition, she received valuable mentorship from seasoned local musicians who helped in the recording of her first demo.

Ms Singam also credits her success to providence (good luck) and preparation. In particular, the rigorous discipline acquired through her legal training proved useful when attempting to master the jazz genre. “To build my jazz repertoire, I YouTubed multiple interpretations of jazz standards and memorised one song every week,” she explained. So despite studying law simply because it was “highly coveted” and a “safe choice”, she is grateful for the education she obtained.

A huge fan of the singer, U@live session moderator Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Arts and Social Sciences ’83) brought up the issue of freedom of choice — or the lack thereof — in pursuing one’s passion. If not for her husband, a well-paid engineer, Ms Singam most likely would not have made the career switch. “Money does matter,” she acknowledged. “But what gave me the most comfort was not that I could depend on my

husband, but that I could [return] to the legal profession if I failed. I had something to fall back on.”

Mr Viswa also asked for her views on whether enough is being done to promote multiple pathways to success in Singapore’s education system. “Singing and acting are considered ‘soft-option’ professions and — compared to lawyers, engineers and doctors — are still seen as pejorative,” he lamented.

Based on her experience, Ms Singam was honest about the difficulty of earning a lucrative income from a career in the arts.

However, a high income — a typical benchmark of success — does not necessarily equate to a life of value or meaning.

“You can only make so much money before it fills you up,” she said. “As a mother of two school-going children, I think it’s encouraging that multiple pathways are available to them.

I see [the diverse opportunities]

as a breakthrough, even if only in theory.”

Ms Singam — who, as a special treat, sang snippets of several songs throughout the Q&A session — also answered questions posed by the audience.

“It is never too late [to pursue your passion],” she said to an older member of the audience.

Indeed, retirees are in many cases the ones with the financial capacity and free time to do so.

“But there is nothing wrong with leading a life of contentment,” she added. “It depends on your personal equilibrium — whether you prefer peace of mind or true joy.”

When asked whether she would encourage her own children follow in her footsteps and pursue an alternate pathway, Ms Singam replied in the affirmative. “If there is more than a modicum of talent, and [as long as] there is passion, I believe every child should be given a chance.”

BY WANDA TAN Ms Singam spoke on 19 October 2015.

JAN– MAR 2016

31

MEGA U@LIVE

If you missed this session of Mega U@live, you can watch the video at http://ualive. nus.edu.sg/ Event/nus_ what_do_we_ stand_for

Alma Matters NUS was the centre of attention in a special panel discussion among alumni. BY WANDA TAN 2015 WAS MEMORABLE IN more ways than one — the same year Singapore celebrated its 50th year of independence, the National University of Singapore (NUS) commemorated its 110th anniversary. To mark this doublymeaningful occasion, the NUS Office of Alumni Relations held a one-off Mega U@live forum on 23 September 2015 featuring not one but four guest speakers.

Together they discussed the topic, ‘NUS: What Do We Stand For?’.

The carefully-selected panel comprised four prominent alumni, each hailing from a different generation and excelling in a different field: Ambassador Gopinath Pillai (Arts ’61), Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large and Special Envoy to Andhra 32

Pradesh; Mr Johnny Tan (Science ’82), Chairman of the NUS Alumni Students Advancement Committee and an NUS Alumni Advisory Board Member; Dr Gillian Koh (Arts and Social Sciences ’88), Senior Research Fellow at the NUS Institute of Policy Studies; and Mr Soh Yi Da (Arts and Social Sciences ’14), President of the NUS Students’ Union Alumni.

Regular U@live session moderator Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Arts and Social Sciences ’83) led the special event at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House. Before an audience of 150 alumni that included NUS President Professor Tan Chorh Chuan (Medicine ’83), the panellists spoke about their hopes

and aspirations for their alma mater.

employee. The researcher and political commentator highlighted NUS’ role in hosting think tanks such as the Institute of Policy Studies. “NUS is not just an academic institution, but a public sphere or informed platform for people to exchange views about Singapore’s future and what makes good governance,” she said. “I hope NUS will continue to dedicate resources to these think tanks so that Singapore’s success story will continue.”

She also lauded NUS’ meritbased, needs-blind admission policy.

“NUS stands for social mobility for individuals and their families,” said Dr Koh. Because those who study at NUS typically go on to enjoy bright futures, it should not be reserved exclusively for the elite. As she said, “Children from the lowest income stratum should have an opportunity to study at NUS and change the trajectory of their families.”

Mr Tan agreed with Dr Koh’s assertion that an NUS degree is a

One Institution, Four Views

As the oldest of the four panellists, Mr Pillai’s university experience was a far cry from that of the others.

He enrolled in NUS — then the University of Malaya — in 1957.

Back then, he recalled, the University was a “hotbed of revolution”. And as an active member of the Socialist Club, Mr Pillai was among those leading the nascent nationalist movement.

“I wanted to understand why there was a lack of egalitarianism in some societies,” he explained. The would-be future diplomat pushed the envelope in his semi-political activities, at times clashing with University administrators. But since his time, over the years NUS has been making a concerted effort to improve ties with the student body and alumni community. “NUS’ evolution in terms of its relationship with alumni is good and should be [maintained],” said Mr Pillai, Past President of the NUS Society (NUSS) (1977 – 1980).

Dr Koh approached the issue from a different perspective — that of an NUS alumni as well as

M R G O P I N AT H PILLAI ARTS ’61

key indicator of social mobility, pointing to himself as an example.

“If not for my NUS education, I would not have secured my first job,” said the business leader.

“University education is about learning to learn. It’s about developing analytical thinking skills and a questioning mind.”

Having benefitted from his tertiary education, Mr Tan is passionate about giving back to NUS and adding value to society.

The NUSS Immediate Past President (2008 – 2012) currently chairs the NUS Alumni Students Advancement Committee which raises funds to help needy students. “Alumni engagement should not just be for engagement’s sake,” he said. “It must have a purpose — to do more for the common good and uplift society.

I want NUS to be a university with a warm heart.”

Mr Soh, the youngest of the panellists, spoke briefly about his undergraduate years

NUS’ evolution in terms of its relationship with alumni is good and should be [maintained].

Alumni engagement must have a purpose — to do more for the common good and uplift society.

M R J O H N N Y TA N SCIENCE ’82

DR GILLIAN KOH ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ’88

NUS is not just an academic institution, but a public sphere or informed platform for people to exchange views about Singapore’s future and what makes good governance.

I hope enterprising students and supportive alumni will help NUS to [climb up] the rankings.

MR SOH YI DA ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ’14

with the NUS Students’ Union Executive Committee (2012 – 2014). While representing NUS at global conferences, he met many students from developing countries who expressed a desire for their universities to emulate — or overtake — NUS’ consistently-high achievements in international ranking exercises. “We cannot afford to rest on our laurels,” Mr Soh urged. “I hope enterprising students and supportive alumni will help NUS to [climb up] the rankings.”

But boosting NUS’ global stature is not the only way for young alumni to contribute to their alma mater. For instance, Mr Soh suggested, they could mentor students or conduct research on issues relevant to the general public. “NUS was founded by the community for the community,” said the fresh graduate. “It must continue to embody that.”

Promoting Exceptionalism

When asked by a member of the audience about NUS’ role in nation-building, Mr Viswa invited Prof Tan to share his thoughts on the matter. “NUS is of particular value to Singapore and the global community in two [related] dimensions: through time scale of relevance, and as a broad brain trust,” said Prof Tan. Although NUS has to address current issues, Prof Tan stated that it is equally vital to adopt a longer time scale and do things that are not immediately necessary or obvious. For example, NUS had introduced courses on Islamic studies — before the 9/11 attacks in the United States — to broaden its knowledge base. “It’s hard to predict the future; we don’t know which areas of study will be important,” he said. “The ‘blue sky’ things we do now must be seen as an investment for the future.”

This in turn requires “a culture of exceptionalism”, which Prof Tan defined as “an ingrained instinct to continually self-improve at all levels”. Only then will NUS produce socially- and politically-conscious leaders with the character and acumen to excel.

JAN– MAR 2016 33

U@LIVE

“I Make

what she has sans a university degree. As U@live moderator Mr Viswa Sadasivan (Arts and Social Sciences ’83) said, “One of the most fascinating things with NUS is that we have the courage to have someone who doesn’t have a degree to be on the board of trustees of a university that gives away degrees. She has given away a lot of degrees.” To which, Ms Chew interjected, much to the delight of the audience, “But you know, I’ve got PHD — passion, hunger, drive!”

Things Happen”

IN A POWER-PACKED 60-MINUTE TALK, social entrepreneur Ms Elim Chew gave her audience a zip-in, zip-out peek into her life, starting from the time she went to London to train as a hairdresser. She had not done well in secondary school, but when she returned from abroad, Ms Chew went on to open her hair salon, and then her trailblazing retail shop — 77th Street — and then to set up other ventures.

“So what I’ve shared with you is 27 years of my life!’ she chortled, just five minutes into her talk, much to the amusement of the audience. Ms Chew, however, humbly glossed over the fact that starting her retail store 77th Street in 1988 was a groundbreaking move that revolutionised the streetwear and fashion accessories retail scene in Singapore.

She also co-founded the Singapore Street Festival in 2001 to showcase local talents in the visual and performing arts, entertainment, sports, fashion and lifestyle sectors.

In 2004, she became the first retailer in Singapore to open a shopping complex — 77th Street Plaza in Beijing’s Xidan Cultural Square.

Ms Chew has also added food and music businesses to her list of ventures. In 2014, she started I’m KIM Korean BBQ restaurant with her family and in that same year, partnered Black Eyed Peas’ singer apl.de.ap to start the music label BMBX Entertainment — which she refers to as “Boombox” — to talentspot singer-songwriters in Asia.

DOING IT FAST

In August 2015, Ms Chew went into the courier business with the FastFast Delivery app, an idea that came about because she had found it difficult to get documents

34

MS ELIM CHEW

Ms Elim Chew, Advisory Board Member of the NUS Business School Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship & Philanthropy, and Former Member of the NUS Board of Trustees, on what it takes to be a changemaker. delivered quickly without having to do so herself.

Ms Chew is also a founding member and director of the Social Innovation Park (SIP), a nonprofit organisation that supports the business solutions of social entrepreneurs who champion social change. As such, her talk on the winning qualities of a changemaker was all the more appropriate given her vast experience in the area. She stated, “You can be, all of us here can be, a changemaker. And I am going to share how you can change your own life and how you can change others.”

For Ms Chew — the final U@live guest for 2015 — the first quality of a changemaker is that of commitment. When she set her mind to do something that she loved, “everything was about commitment.”

However, she believes that putting heart and mind to accomplish something is possible only if hard work is part of the equation. The younger Elim Chew had thought she was not successful because she lacked talent. But her outlook changed when she read Canadian journalist and bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell’s Outlier, a book on factors that contribute to high levels of success. His theory about putting in 10,000 hours in doing something one is passionate about resonated with her. With persistent practice — putting in time and effort — a person would eventually do that “something really well” quoted Ms Chew.

Another ingredient necessary to create success is attitude. That, said Ms Chew, is exemplified by her friend the motivational

I would go out there, find ways to make money, find ways to start my own things because I don’t leave it for things to happen. I don’t wait for rules to change, for policy to change.

I do what I can.

MS ELIM CHEW

DEGREE MATTERS

speaker Nick Vujicic who has Phocomelia, a rare disorder that causes one to be born without all four limbs. Mr Vujicic inspired her to see the word “impossible” as an affirmative “I’m Possible”, and that disability is only in the mind. She shared how Mr Vujicic — who used to earn a lowly US$500 (about S$700) speaking engagement fee — constantly honed his speaking skills so that today, he commands a handsome US$125,000 per engagement.

However, Ms Chew cautioned that everything takes time, and finding support, mentors and inspiration are important. She explained, “If you ask me why I am always among young people, it’s because they are very inspired and they want to do a lot of things and I join them because then I feel inspired.”

She also said that it is important to never give up and to keep on dreaming. So she has yet another ‘dream’ project coming up – Asia

Fashion City and Asia Fashion Gateway in Kuala Lumpur, a 20,000 sq ft space for designers and emerging designers. Currently in development, the project is scheduled for opening in September 2016.

MULTIPLE AWARDS

Ms Chew has scored many successes and garnered an impressive list of awards.

Currently, she sits on over 20 boards and committees of public service, youth and community organisations such as Mediacorp; School of The Arts; and the Singapore Film Festival. Her awards include ‘Most Promising Woman Entrepreneur’ in 2001 by the Singapore Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, and she is honoured as a ‘Forbes Asia Hero of Philanthropy 2010’. In 2011, she was awarded the ‘Singapore Public Service Medal (PBM)’.

It may surprise some then that Ms Chew has accomplished

When asked by Mr Viswa what would be the first thing she would change if perchance she were to become the prime minister one day, Ms Chew cheekily countered that the idea of a person not being able to become a prime minister because he does not have a degree, must change. On a more serious note, she pointed out that while many can get a degree, it is important to look at people individually and find ways to develop their talents. She “would open up education” with different ways of educating people but not necessarily academically.

When asked by a member of the audience to pinpoint the moment she realised she has talent, Ms Chew replied she was not sure if she has talent because “I’m not good in academics but I’m really good at going

BY JERENA NG to the ground, and working it”. She Ms Chew spoke on related how she used her experience 11 November 2015. in retail to create a marketplace at VivoCity where the disabled and disadvantaged can sell their own creations. Today, this venture has turned in a profit of more than US$1million for them.

Calling Ms Chew a ‘miracle of chance’, Mr Viswa said that not many people would have the opportunities to do what she has achieved. To which Ms Chew replied, [that even in the absence of opportunities] she would still have gone “out there, [to] find ways to make money, [to] find ways to start my own things because I don’t leave it for things to happen. I don’t wait for rules to change, for policy to change. I do what I can.”

“I make things happen,” she said.

JAN– MAR 2016 35

ALU MN I H A P P E NI NGS E V E NT S BEM CLASS OF 1985 30TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION DINNER The School of Design and Environment (SDE)’s Building and Estate Management Class (BEM) Class of 1985 celebrated its 30th Anniversary on 9 October 2015. Some 80 alumni turned up for the reunion dinner at The Scholar restaurant in the NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House.

At the dinner, Professor Willie Tan (Design and Environment ’88), Head of the Department of Building (DOB) presented an update of recent developments in SDE and DOB, and thanked BEM alumni for their generous contributions to the Departmental Scholarship Fund.

Apart from the BEM alumni, the reunion dinner was also graced by former lecturers from both the Building and Estate Management programmes.

NOTE: The BEM Class of 1985 is made up of alumni from both the Building and Estate Management degree programmes, which have now been renamed Project and Facilities Management (PFM) and Real Estate respectively.

Cheque presentation ceremony at the NUS Business School 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner.

NUS BUSINESS SCHOOL LEADERSHIP FORUM AND GALA DINNER Some 500 industry leaders, alumni and faculty came together on 28 October 2015 as the NUS Business School celebrated the finale of its Golden Jubilee at the Leadership Forum and Gala Dinner.

The event was the culmination of the School’s year-long 50th Anniversary celebrations and its drive to raise funds to assist students facing financial difficulties. Together with initiatives such as the NUS Bizad Charity Run, NUS Biz50 Charity Golf Challenge, Gobi Desert Challenge and the Liang Zhu Charity Concert, the School raised a total of S$1,050,000.

The Leadership Forum featured four of the School’s distinguished alumni as

36

panellists, who discussed the relevance of university education in the changing world order and the factors behind Singapore’s success as a knowledge economy. They were Mr Hsieh Fu Hua (Business ’74), Chairman, United Overseas Bank Limited; Mr Ronald Ong (Business ’80), Chairman and CEO, Southeast Asia, Morgan Stanley; Ms Janet Ang (Business ’82), Vice President, Systems of Engagement and Smarter Cities, IBM Asia Pacific; and Mr Chia Boon Kuah (Business ’88), Former Group President and CEO, GuocoLand Limited. The panel discussion was moderated

by Ms Jeanette Wong (Business ’82), Group Executive, Institutional Banking Group, DBS Bank Limited.

In his speech at the Gala Dinner, Guest-of-Honour Deputy Prime

Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies, spoke about the need for Singapore to create an innovative economy and society, as well as how creativity and innovation can help Singapore earn its place in a constantly changing world. Mr S Dhanabalan (Arts ’60), a member of the Council of Presidential Advisors and Chairman of the School’s Management Advisory Board, also highlighted the value of ethics in today’s business world.

“We will continue pushing the boundaries of excellence and produce future-ready graduates as we lead from Asia,” said Professor Bernard Yeung, Dean and Stephen Riady Distinguished Professor, NUS Business School.

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK HONOURS ITS FIRST ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENTS Three distinguished alumni from the Department of Social Work — Ms Koh Wah Khoon (Arts and Social Sciences ’77), Dr S Vasoo (Diploma in Social Studies ’69) and Mr Udhia Kumar (Arts and Social Sciences ’94) – were the inaugural recipients of the ‘Ann Wee NUS Social Work Alumni Award’.

The Awards were given out on 22 September 2015 at an event

held in conjunction with the annual Appreciation Tea for the Department’s field educators.

Launched at the Faculty’s 85th Anniversary Dinner celebrations in November 2014, the award recognises alumni who have made major contributions to the social work education and practice.

It is also affectionately named after Mrs Ann Wee, the longest-serving

Head of Department of Social Work, who has inspired many with her selfless contributions to the sector.

Dr Rosaleen Ow (Arts and Social Sciences ’71), Head of Department of Social Work, says, “the award is for alumni, with a similar spirit to Mrs Wee, who ‘serve without seeking rewards, give without seeking recognition’, in their work for more than 20 years.”

From left: Assoc Prof Chang Tou Chung (Arts and Social Sciences ’89), Ms Ang Bee Lian (Arts and Social Sciences ’77), Ms Florence Neo (Arts and Social Sciences ’93), Mr Udhia Kumar (Arts and Social Sciences ’94), Ms Koh Wah Khoon (Arts and Social Sciences ’77), Dr Vasoo S (Diploma in Social Studies ’69), Dr Rosaleen Ow (Arts and Social Sciences ’71), Mrs Ann Wee and Dr Peace Wong (Arts and Social Sciences ’95).

JAN– MAR 2016 37

ALUMNI HAPPENINGS EVENTS

NUS ACCOUNTANCY NETWORKING NIGHT 2015

NUS NURSING ALUMNI WELCOME TEA Senior alumni from the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies met with fresh graduates at their annual NUS Nursing Alumni (NUSNA) Welcome Tea sessions. The Welcome Tea sessions were held from September to October 2015 across six hospitals to cater to the differing work schedules of alumni as a result of rotating nursing shifts.

This year, 56 out of 84 graduates attended the sessions and received welcome gifts from the NUS Office of Alumni Relations. Senior and junior alumni reminisced about student life, shared their work experiences and built a support network in a casual setting over food and drinks.

Following the success of the first NUS Accountancy Networking Night in 2014, the event made a much-anticipated return on 22 September this year. 20 alumni and 55 students turned up at Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Australia at One Raffles Place. As per the previous year, the event was based on a ‘speed-networking’ concept.

The students were given a variety of alumni perspectives and insights into numerous industries throughout the night.

Alumnus Ms Fang Hui (Accountancy ’11) provided a view of life at Deloitte, one of Singapore’s Big Four Accounting firms.

The night was further enlivened by engaging speeches delivered by distinguished guests, Mr Melvin Yong, CEO of CPA Australia, Mr Lucas Lam, Senior Relationship Manager from CPA Australia and Professor Ho Yew Kee, NUS Head of Accountancy.

Current student Ms Chooi Jynn Chee said, “There’s such a broad spectrum of fields to explore with this degree. Getting first-hand accounts from alumni on what it’s like working in the industry will really help in selecting the right career after graduation.”

Prof Ho Yew Kee, Head of Accountancy, NUS, giving a speech during NUS Accountancy Networking Night.

Let's

Chill Out!

NUS Faculty of Engineering 60th Anniversary Gala Dinner From Left: Former deans, Prof Andrew Nee, Prof Goh Thong Ngee, Prof Poo Aun Neow (Engineering ’68); Mr Wong Ngit Liong (Engineering ’65), NUS Chairman; Dr Yaacob Ibrahim (Engineering ’80), Minister for Communications and Information; Prof Chua Kee Chaing (Engineering ’87), Dean of Engineering; Prof Chan Eng Soon (Engineering ’80), former Dean of Engineering; and Prof Victor Shim (Engineering ’83), Vice-Dean of Engineering.

More than 600 alumni, guests, faculty and staff came together on 16 October 2015 to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the NUS Faculty of Engineering. Held at Shangri-La Hotel, the gala dinner was graced by Guest-of-Honour Minister Dr Yaacob Ibrahim (Engineering ’80).

Prominent industry leaders and alumni such as Mr Tang Kin Fei (Engineering ’74), Group President and CEO of Sembcorp Industries Ltd; Mr Teh Bong Lim (Engineering ’80), Group Managing Director of MMI Group of Companies; and Mr Quek Gim Pew (Engineering ’81), Chief Executive Officer of DSO National Laboratories, also attended the event.

Professor Chua Kee Chaing (Engineering ’87), Dean of the NUS Faculty of Engineering said, “The

28 january 2016

(PG-13)

25 february 2016

(PG)

Engineering alumni in Shanghai

For enquiries, please contact Mr Kyaw Win Shwe at kyawwinshwe@nus.edu.sg or 6516 5769.

Engineering alumni in Beijing 38

the gala dinner. Mr Seah Cheng San (Engineering ’82) received the ‘Engineering Alumni Service Honours’.

‘The Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award’ went to Dr Shahzad Nasim (Engineering ’76), Group Executive Chairman of Meinhardt Singapore Pte Ltd.

From left: Prof Chua Kee Chaing; Dr Shahzad Nasim, recipient of the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award; Dr Yaacob Ibrahim; Mr Wong Ngit Liong; Mr Seah Cheng San (Engineering ’82), recipient of the Engineering Alumni Service Honours; and Prof Victor Shim.

ENGINEERING ALUMNI GET-TOGETHERS IN CHINA 2015

Admission is FREE Venue: Shaw Foundation Alumni House Auditorium Time: 7.30pm Register at: www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet

Faculty could not have made such rapid progress through the years without the strong support from our alumni, friends and colleagues, to whom I express our sincere thanks.”

In keeping with the Faculty’s tradition, two alumni were honoured at

The NUS Faculty of Engineering has been holding annual reunions with alumni in China since 2009. In 2012, Engineering alumni chapters in Shanghai and Beijing were established.

This year, the annual get-togethers were held on 28 and 30 August, in Shanghai and Beijing respectively. Professor Victor Shim (Engineering ’82), Vice-Dean for External Relations, together with Assistant Deans, Professors Lim Kah Bin (Engineering ’78) and Lu Wen Feng, updated alumni on the latest happenings and developments at the Faculty and NUS, highlighting SG50, NUS’ 110th anniversary and the Engineering Faculty’s 60th anniversary.

They thanked Shanghai Chapter Chairman, Mr Wang Xiangqi (Engineering ’07) and Beijing Chapter Chairman, Dr Liu Moubin (Engineering ’03), for organising activities and keeping the chapters active.

JAN– MAR 2016 39

ALUMNI HAPPENINGS EVENTS

OVERSEAS CHAPTERS ALUMNI HAPPENINGS AUCKLAND

NUSBSA Women’s Wing Sharing Session

(Left): Ms Joey Gan (Business ’86), Chairlady of Women’s Wing and Vice President of NUSBSA presenting a token of appreciation to Ms Teo Ser Lee (Accountancy ’88).

The inaugural AWWsome Sharing Session of the NUS Business School Alumni Women’s Wing got off to a roaring start on 2 October 2015.

A total of 30 attendees packed the venue at the Marina Bay Financial Centre on a Friday evening to glean some entrepreneurial insights from the speaker, Ms Teo Ser Lee, (Accountancy ’88) – beauty-queen-turned-entrepreneur extraordinaire and founder and director of Protocol Academy Pte Ltd, Singapore’s pioneer in etiquette and protocol services.

All attendees had a great time as they participated in ice breakers, listened to Ms Teo recount entertaining anecdotes from her beauty pageant days, and enthusiastically answered pop quizzes on etiquette.

Standard Chartered Bank sponsored the venue and reception for the night.

NUS POLITICAL ASSOCIATION ALUMNI ANNUAL GATHERING The NUS Political Association Alumni co-organised its first annual gathering together with its student counterpart, the NUS Student’s Political Association (NUSPA) on 21 September 2015. Held at the multi-purpose function room Top Deck, alumni and the current student committee engaged with one another

40

through games, music and food.

Newly founded in 2015 by a group of former club members, the NUS Political Association Alumni aims to create a strong network of individuals who share a passion for current affairs.

BY OW YAU LOONG (Arts and Social Sciences ’14)

OUTREACH 2015 Alumni from the NUS Auckland Overseas Chapter gathered at the Auckland International College for the NUS Information Sharing Seminar on 21 August 2015.

SG50 CELEBRATION

MELBOURNE OVERSEAS CHAPTER DINNER The NUS Melbourne Overseas Chapter held a reunion dinner on 24 October 2015 at the Shanghai Dynasty Restaurant in Melbourne’s iconic Chinatown. The occasion was for alumni to get together and to meet up with Associate Professor Victor R Savage (Arts and Social Sciences ’72), Director of the NUS Office of Alumni Relations (OAR).

Assoc Prof Savage kicked off the event with news about NUS and its rising profile on the world varsity stage. He highlighted the important role alumni in various cities play in raising the profile of their alma mater through various contributions to alumni activities and the bursary fund.

Approximately 120 alumni including Dr Teo Choo Soo (Dentistry ’73), a previous OAR Director, attended the dinner.

MELBOURNE

Not to be left out of Singapore’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, alumni from the NUS Auckland Overseas Chapter met on 15 August 2015 at Banque Oyster Bar & Eatery for a night of fun, feasting, music and reminiscences.

Dressed in red and white to represent the Singapore flag, the attendees were in high spirits as the event coincided with the highly-anticipated Bledisloe Cup showdown between New Zealand’s All Blacks and Australia’s Wallabies.

SCIENCE ALUMNI SINGLES NIGHT

Alumni Singles Night was held on 30 October 2015. The event brought together more than 30 Science alumni to the Science Centre Singapore for an evening of fun and learning. This was the second run of the annual Singles Night which is co-sponsored by the Social Development Network.

The evening started off with an ice-breaker game over dinner, followed by a ‘Science of Wine’ workshop conducted by Mr Adam Teo, an educator from the Science Centre Singapore.

During the workshop, the participants learnt about the scientific processes of wine production through a series of fun experiments and activities.

The night ended with a walk to the Science Centre Observatory, where participants took turns star-gazing through telescopes.

JAN– MAR 2016

41

OVERSEAS CHAPTERS ALUMNI HAPPENINGS SYDNEY

SYDNEY OVERSEAS CHAPTER GATHERING On 30 October 2015, around 50 NUS alumni of the NUS Sydney Overseas Chapter gathered at Marigold Restaurant on George Street to reconnect and establish new ties with fellow alumni.

The Chapter welcomed the Director of the NUS Office of Alumni Relations, Associate Professor Victor R Savage (Arts and Social Sciences ’72), who was also in Australia to attend the 7th IARU Alumni Summit. The event featured a quiz, lucky draw and ample opportunities to make new friends over a sumptuous meal.

XIAMEN

Xiamen Overseas Chapter Mid-Autumn Festival and Second Anniversary On 20 September 2015, NUS alumni and their families gathered to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and the second anniversary of the NUS Xiamen Overseas Chapter at Paulaner Restaurant, Kempinski Hotel Xiamen. The event was jointly organised by the Xiamen Overseas Chapter together with six other associations and organisations of returned overseas Chinese, including the Xiamen Federation of Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs, Youth Committee of Xiamen Overseas Chinese Federation, Association of Xiamen Overseas and Returned Scholars and Home of Xiamen Returnees. The event was attended by more than 250 guests.

BY BAI WEI (Business ’10)

XIAMEN OVERSEAS CHAPTER’S VOLUNTARY EFFORTS On 5 December 2015, also known as International Volunteer Day, alumni from the NUS Xiamen Overseas Chapter brought four water purifiers sponsored

by Siyuan Water to Changkeng – a town about three hours drive from Xiamen – in an effort to let students living in the mountainous region communicate with alumni from NUS, and to understand the notion of ‘education shap[ing] destiny’.

Founded and operated by Dr Lan Weiguang (Science ’95) and Mr Lan Chunguang (Business ’10), Siyuan Water is a nongovernmental organisation and Suntar Eco City Ltd company.

Justices from Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court came to support the activity. The chairman of the local people’s congress, officers of local government, together with senior management of the schools, accompanied the delegation to attend the activity. In Chongde Middle School, Mr Charles Guo Caishun (Law ’10) gave a brief introduction of

NUS to the audience. Dr Wang Yuelong (Arts and Social Sciences ’13) delivered a speech and encouraged students to study hard for their hometown, their families and themselves. Alumni answered queries raised by the students and shared their own experiences on studying methods. The delegation paid a visit to Chong’a Primary School in the afternoon. The representative from Siyuan Water shared knowledge of water with students and fellow alumni, and justices played several games with them. At the end of each visit, water purifiers were installed in canteens and dormitories of the school separately and books were donated to the school libraries. The children also received souvenirs of NUS 110th anniversary.

BY JOSEPH MA SHENXIAO (Law ’11) JAN– MAR 2016 43

PRIVILEGES & OFFERS Your complimentary AlumNUS Card entitles you to a host of benefits and privileges!

Get your complimentary AlumNUS Card at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/alumnuscard

FASHION AND RETAIL Alyssandra

10% off storewide. Quote “AlumNUS”.

W: www.alyssandra.com

HEALTHCARE Lang Eye Centre

General Eye Screening at S$80.

Lasik Evaluation at S$140.

Lasik Surgery from S$1288 to S$2038 per eye.

Cataract Treatment Package at corporate rate.

W: www.langeye.sg

We welcome alumni business owners to come on board as our AlumNUS Card merchant partners.

Drop us a note at oarconnect@nus.edu.sg and make an exceptional offer to fellow alumni.

ART SHOWCASE The A Cappella Society

S$5 discount off standard ticket prices for all TAS productions. Quote “ALUMNUS”.

W: www.a-cappella.org.sg

PRIVILEGES ON CAMPUS Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum 10% discount on single entry tickets as well as for both Individual and Family membership.

W: lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg

HOME & LIVING AngelFlorist

10% off total bill with minimum purchase of S$80.

Quote “NUS20156”.

W: www.angelflorist.com

Olive 3

FOOD AND BEVERAGE Bay Hotel & Resort

20% off Set Lunch (Monday to Friday).

1 for 1 Weekend Lunch Buffet (Saturday and Sunday).

1 for 1 Hotpot Dinner Buffet (Friday to Sunday).

W: www.bayhotelsingapore.com

Clubvivre

$30 off all online bookings with promo code “alumNUS”.

W: www.clubvivre.com

The Wine Stable KINS Restaurant

10% off total bill and a complimentary dessert with every two mains ordered.

W: www.kinsrestaurant.sg

10% discount on all wine purchases.

Quote “NUS2015”.

W: www.thewinestable.com.sg

A. 15% off The Olive 3 Hand Bouquets/Table Arrangements.

OR B. The Olive 3 Surprise Music Delivery Package @ S$120 (UP: S$150).

Quote “ALUMNUS”.

W: www.theolive3.com

EDUCATION & SELF ENRICHMENT

ToofDoctor Dental Surgeons

Dental Wellness Package @ S$160.50 nett (Package includes: Scaling & Polishing, Fluoride Therapy, Full-Mouth X-ray (OPG) and Consultation).

Orthodontic Package from S$3,800 (Package includes: Full Mouth X-ray (OPG), Consultation, Study Model and Retainer).

TOOFIMPLANT package from S$2,495 (after medisave deduction) (Package includes dental implant with restoration).

Mouth Guard @ S$214 nett.

W: http://www.toofdoctor.com.sg

KYDZ International

15% off regular-priced items.

W: www.kydzedu.com

The Esplanade

10% off when you sign up for your Esplanade&Me White Card. Quote “EMENUSA”.

W: www.esplanade.com

National Geographic

BEAUTY AND WELLNESS Body Wellness

50% off any à la carte facial treatment.

20% off any à la carte body massage (for females only).

W: www.bodywellnesssg.com

Yum Seng Party

10% discount off total purchase. Quote “VIP10”.

W: www.YumSengParty.sg

Clay Works

One FREE Workshop (1 hour session) for every course sign-up and course renewal.

W: www.clayworks.com.sg

1 year National Geographic Magazine (12 issues) at S$48, Free World Map [newsstand: S$110.40].

1 year National Geographic Kids (10 issues) at S$44 [newsstand: S$75].

1 year National Geographic Little Kids (6 issues) at S$32 [newsstand: S$45].

1 year National Geographic Traveler (6 issues) at S$40 [newsstand: S$55.20].

W: www.mag-ez.com/promo/alumnus

The Besotted Group

15% storewide discount for all regular priced items.

Quote “ALUMNUS”.

W: www.thebesottedthings.com.sg Empowering Social Advancement

Terms & Conditions apply. The NUS Office of Alumni Relations and the AlumNUS Card merchants reserve the right to amend the terms and conditions governing the offers without prior notice. All information is correct at press time. Visit www.nus.edu.sg/alumnet for the latest privileges and promotions.

PERSPECTI VE

INTERVIEWS FAIROZA MANSOR

The Spirit of

Enterprise The entrepreneurship CULTURE in Singapore is nascent at best. There is still a strong stigma associated with failure and an emphasis on following safe, tried and tested paths.

The ENVIRONMENT is slowly changing though.”

PREM VADIVELOO, 35, Banker (Mechanical Engineering ’05)

increasingly taking to the idea of entrepreneurship.

The younger ones have a bolder attitude and are more adventurous and creative when it comes to career choices, carving identities for themselves that depart from the common narrative.”

Government grants and co-working communities exist to give start-ups a boost, but do we really have a culture of entrepreneurship in Singapore?

Young alumni weigh in.

I’VE NOTICED “ MORE LOCAL

DESIGNERS, CRAFTSMEN AND DEVELOPERS STRIKING OUT ON THEIR OWN. THEIR PRESENCE, HOWEVER, IS MOSTLY ONLINE. IT WOULD BE NICE TO SEE MORE BRICK-AND-MORTAR SHOPS BUT HIGH RENTALS SEEM TO BE A MAJOR HURDLE.” NAJEEB RAHMAT, 32, Architecture Associate (Design and Environment ’09)

Starting their own “businesses is something

people would consider now, whereas before, ‘entrepreneur’ was not exactly a career option.

In fashion and lifestyle businesses, more young people are daring to take the leap – with their parents’ blessing.”

KARMAN TSE, 37, Founder of Wear Oh Where (Arts and Social Sciences ’00) 46

“Singaporeans are

OOI BOON KEONG, 37, Photojournalist (Science ’02)

TURN IDEAS INTO BUSINESSES

My start-up, an educational service provider for pre-school children, is privileged to have been supported

by NUS Enterprise and SPRING Singapore (under ACE Grant).

It is less risky these days and more young people are willing to take the risks to pursue their dreams.

The challenge ahead would be in creating an ecosystem that supports and sustains this growth in entrepreneurship beyond start-up phases particularly in manpower, resources, continuous innovation as well as expansion beyond Singapore.”

NG RONG XIN, 26, Co-founder of Explorer Junior (Business ’12)

NUS ENTERPRISE START-UP RUNWAY SUPPORTS ASPIRING ENTREPRENEURS. HERE’S HOW:

WHAT IS IT?

A comprehensive suite of programmes and services that enables new ventures to form, grow and take flight at any point of the business.

HOW DOES IT DO SO?

PRE-INCUBATION

Entrepreneurs who are in the exploration stage of their business ideas are able to get help with market validation, user testing and gathering consumer feedback to better position the business for takeoff.

INCUBATION

Start-ups incubating with NUS Enterprise will be offered a wide range of support services such as office rooms, mentorship, talent recruitment and other basic operational support.

OVERSEAS INCUBATION

NUS Enterprise has a network of local and overseas partners to help start-ups gain access to economies abroad. Start-ups can also leverage on overseas incubation services like mentoring, networking sessions, as well as overseas grant support to kick-start expansion plans.

FUNDING

Access to funding programmes or grants to help refuel the start-up and boost the business.

JAN– MAR 2016 47

L AST W O R D

Avian adventures

D

avid Tan’s love for feathered creatures was sparked at a young age when he saw a bird building its nest in a tree on the school premises. “I realised there were many things to observe about the behaviour of birds. What really interests me is that they are ubiquitous… you can find them just about everywhere but a lot of us don’t realise that,” says Mr Tan, 26. Currently a researcher at NUS’ Evolutionary Biology Laboratory, he regularly collects dead birds whose tissue and DNA samples are used to study the genetics of birds. Armed with this knowledge, researchers like Mr Tan can better understand avian evolution, conservation and disease.

‘BIRD MAN’ MR DAVID TAN (LIFE SCIENCES ’14) EXPLAINS HIS UNIQUE JOB.

BY ASHUTOSH RAVIKRISHNAN

JA N U A R Y T O M A R C H 2 0 1 6

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

14 JAN (THU) THIRSTY THURSDAYS

25 FEB (THU) MOVIES ON THE HOUSE THE SCORCH TRIALS (PG)

21 JAN (THU) U@LIVE FEATURING PROFESSOR ADA YONATH (NOBEL PRIZE WINNER FOR CHEMISTRY 2009)

“

7.00pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/ event/UALIVEjan16 Enquiries: Mr Samuel Tan at samuel.tan@nus.edu.sg

“ T H E B I R D T H AT R E S E M B L E S M E

Bird

the most

would be the Lesser Sulfur Crested Cockatoo. It is slightly exotic, very noisy and very annoying.”

“

The Javan Myna, one of Singapore’s most common species. They are quite human-like – they can be violent and get into fights with each other, with other mynas looking on from the sidelines, almost like a wrestling match of sorts.”

48

ALUMNI EVENTS

6.30pm, The Fullerton Hotel Singapore East Garden Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/ event/TTjan16 Enquiries: Ms Cassandra Lua at cassandraluaqy@nus.edu.sg

I once saw a Lanceolated Warbler crash into a wall. It survived but was completely stunned. I picked it up and held it in my hand, wondering if I should put it out of its misery and kill it (in the name of Science), when it suddenly flew away to the kerb, only to be swooped up by a crow for its next meal.”

S I N G A P O R E ’S CO O L E ST

.Dates to Remember

28 JAN (THU) MOVIES ON THE HOUSE JURASSIC WORLD (PG-13)

7.30pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/ event/MMfeb16 Enquiries: Mr Kyaw Win Shwe at kyawwinshwe@nus.edu.sg

MARCH 14–16 MAR (MON–WED) CANADIAN FILM FESTIVAL 8.00pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/ event/CFF2016 Enquiries: Ms Gabriella Nyam at gabriella@nus.edu.sg

7.30pm, Shaw Foundation Alumni House Register at alumnet.nus.edu.sg/ event/MMjan16 Enquiries: Mr Kyaw Win Shwe at kyawwinshwe@nus.edu.sg

NUS PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ACT (PDPA) MR DAV I D TA N

As of 2 January 2014, in line with Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) Do Not Call (DNC) Registry, you may indicate your preference for receiving marketing messages from NUS on your Singapore telephone number via the various methods.

If you wish to make changes to your preference, you can update at https://myaces.nus.edu.sg/DNC/index.do.

As of 2 July 2014, in view of Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), the NUS Office of Alumni Relations would like to inform you that NUS will continue to engage you as an alumnus through the following ways: • Providing you information about the University and alumni-related initiatives and activities.

• Sending you invitations to NUS- and alumni-related events.

• Requesting you to update alumni information.

• Sending you invitations to participate in alumni surveys.

• Sending you alumni-related communication collaterals.

If you wish to withdraw your consent to be contacted, please visit https://myaces.nus.edu.sg/PSR/index.do.

All information is correct at time of print and is subject to change without prior notice.

Spotted a dead bird? Do your part for scientific research and get in touch with Mr Tan at 9176-8971.