Christopher Leong

With more than 15 years of executive search experience, Christopher is frequently interviewed in major business and industry publications. Being active in several professional and non-profit organisations, he is a frequent speaker at business and academic forums. Recognized for his expertise, clients from world leading financial companies entrust him with the search for potentials in the top management.

Previously from Robert Walters, a UK International Search firm, Chris helped set up and grow their Banking & Finance practice in Singapore. During his stint with the company, he was consistently the top recruiter and highest sales achiever. In 2003, he left the firm and founded Chris-Consulting Executive Search Group with several senior search colleagues. He continues to be the top biller and made it to the million dollar round table.

Achievements:

  > No.1 Revenue and Top sales in Chris Allen Search and Chris-Consulting Search for more than a decade (2003 – Current)

  > Top Biller in Robert Walters, 3 years (2000 – 2002)

Prior to his executive search career, Christopher was with Merrill Lynch in the U.S, before he joined JP Morgan Singapore in their Correspondent Banking department for Asia Pacific.

A graduate from USA, Chris holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science (Finance), and is a Member of AACMP.

David Kwok

As Founder and Chairman of The Singapore Animators Connection, David Kwok is a strong advocate for the development of the 3D animation industry in Singapore and is responsible for setting the strategic framework for the association to address the industrial and educational concerns of its 300 members.

He is currently the CEO of Tiny Island Productions and CG Protégé Animation School, a production company that produces quality CG animated productions for the international television and film market.

ADVISORY BOARDS AND COMMITTEES

• Member of Republic Polytechnic IDM Academic Advisory Committee Council
• Member of ITE Design & Media Academic Advisory Committee
• Committee member, Creative Industries Manpower, Skills and Training Council
• Committee member, IDM Taskforce for Education & Manpower
• Committee member, LLEFAC Sub-committee, WDA’s LifeLong Learning Endowment Fund Advisory Committee

Alvin Ow

Having spent the past 18 years in the IT industry, Alvin has accumulated a vast amount of experience and successes across multiple disciplines ranging from presales, product and technology management, specialist sales, and services across Asia Pacific and Japan.  Alvin has held senior leadership roles in VERITAS Software, Symantec Corporation, and RSA Security. He has a keen eye in identifying opportunities, simplifying technology, engaging with teams and CXOs, and providing insights to market trends and best practices.

Alvin is highly experienced in organizational career and talent development, and coaching to bring out the best of organizations and individuals.

INTERVIEWS AND MENTIONS

Top Ten Dangerous Internet User Behaviors, July 26, 2011

Clash Of The IT-ans: How To Stop Cybercrime, June 20, 2011

How RSA is Tackling Security in the Cloud , October 25, 2010

Managing The Risks Of Existing And Emerging Threats In Banking, [pdf link], 2010

Enterprise Storage: The Age of Petabytes, Sep 4, 2001

Veritas posts 40% SAN growth in M’sia, July 30, 2001

C. Seet

Seet has over 10 years of investment banking experience in both London and Singapore with Credit Suisse, RBS and Standard Chartered. She is currently the Country Manager of a Technology Solution company.

Seet graduated from NUS with a BA in Psychology and Philosophy and went on to study and win 2nd prize for her ACCA examinations before joining global audit firm Arthur Andersen. She then moved to London and joined Credit Suisse as a Financial Controller. Upon returning to Singapore in 2004, Seet worked with Deutsche Bank, RBS and Standard Chartered, gradually moving from accounting to IT project management. She took a break from the financial industry and taught ACCA in 2010.

However, the excitement of the IT industry beckoned her to join a fast growing Asian Banking & Finance IT vendor, Serisys Solutions (Singapore) as General Manager. She is also the director of an IT company which provides Risk and Data Management Software Solutions & Services for Financial companies in terms of managing effectively trading & financial risk exposures in real time for them.

Alex Bok

Alex Bok was previously the Managing Director at DBS Group. As the Head of Regional Consumer Banking Business Development, Alex was responsible for defining regional expansion strategy for consumer finance business in Asia, helping DBS achieve recognition as Bank of the Year (Asia) by the Financial Times Group and also as Derivatives House of the Year (Asia ex-Japan) by Asia Risk.

Here are a selection of Alex’s roles and milestones @ DBS Group:

• Project manager for a successful start-up company in the consumer finance space in India (US$24 million start-up capital).

• Project lead for a successful start-up company in the consumer finance space in Thailand (US$50 million start-up capital).

• Team member in a successful takeover of a large bank in Hong Kong (US$2.1b deal).

• Project member for business strategy and start-up of consumer banking division in Indonesia.

Alex currently manages the world’s premier professional triathlon team called teamTBB. The team has become the world’s most successful professional triathlon team in the history of the sport, reeling in 4 World Champions, 27 Ironman wins, 15 70.3 Champions, 4x Challenge wins. Furthermore, the awards include:

2007       IM World Champion – Chrissie Wellington

2008       ITU Long Distance World Champion – Chrissie Wellington

2008       IM World Champion – Chrissie Wellington

2010       ITU Long Distance World Champion – Caroline Steffen

Building a world class triathlon team is no easy feat, and Alex has done it with vision and passion. Alex is also an innovative entrepreneur, a visionary with clear goals who is willing to rethink the norm and revolutionize markets. He started various business initiatives in the sports and bike retail industry (The Bike Boutique franchise), distribution (Cervelo), event merchandise (Ironman Stores Asia Pacific) and a new partnership with the World Triathlon Corporation after a successful career spanning 17 years in banking.

Prior to joining DBS, Alex was a Senior Manager in Accenture, managing projects and teams of consultants in the Financial Services Industry in Asia.

Alex’s education includes a Degree in Business Informatics from Fontys University of Applied Sciences and completion of Tony Robbins Mastery University.

Mentions

The very busy Alex Bok, August 2 2010

On Running Signs – Caroline Steffen, March 26 2012

2XU Signs High Performance Partnership with teamTBB, February 24 2011

Singapore-based sports organisation provides hope and opportunity to Asian underprivileged children, August 31 2007

teamTBB Charlie’s Angels make a dream come true for Asia, October 16 2007

teamTBB’s Chrissie Wellington wins Ironman World Championships on Cervélo, October 16, 2007

More are taking up cycling as a viable transport option here, November 10 2008

Richard Yeo

Richard Yeo has a wealth of experience in teaching, training and consultancy in various institutions for over 20 years. He holds a Masters of Business Administration from Manchester Business School. 

Richard was with Asahi Bank Ltd, Singapore Branch as a Deputy General Manager (Head of Operations and Compliance) overseeing Loans Administration, Back-office settlements, Remittances (Fund Transfers), Office Administration (including HR function) and Telecommunication (Including the Global Cash Management Systems) and the setting up of the Compliance Section.

Richard was also Branch Operations Manager with HL Bank, Singapore, responsible for the daily running of the branch operations.

Prior to that, he was with Armco Pacific Limited, a Merchant Bank, assisting in the establishment of a Trade Finance Department, drawing up guidelines, procedures and rules for the current and newly recruited staff.  He was instrumental in promoting Trade Financing products to SMEs and to establish Correspondent Banking relationship with Financial Institutions.

At JP Morgan, one of his roles was to provide trade expertise to both new and existing customers by making joint marketing calls with the Relationship Managers and conducting in-house training.

Richard’s former role in Sapphire Corporation Limited, a public listed company, as a Consultant was to source for facilities and funding from banks to support numerous projects, including the US$72.8 million Collar Finance and US$15 million LC Facilities.

Richard draws from his rich experience to provide real life examples. His teaching experiences since 1990s include :

• Trade Related Matters for The Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) Singapore, Kaplan Professional and Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants

   

• Risks and Frauds in Trade for the Singapore Police Force (Commercial Affairs) – He was an invited speaker to conduct a seminar on “Risks and Frauds in Import/Export Procedures” to the Singapore and ASEAN Police Force held in the Commercial Affairs Headquarter, Singapore

   

• Treasury and Foreign Exchanges including Trade Finance (ToF) for Manchester Business School

   

• Principles of Management and Organizational Behaviour for the University of Canberra

   

• Principles of Banking and Finance Module for Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) Global Education (GE) Programme – University of London.  He also was the course developer for SIM’s “Imports and Exports Operation & E-commerce” course for the Diploma In Business (DIB)

   

• Conducted Workshops for Singapore Furniture Institute Council Institute (SFIC) for the International Institute of Export and Import (IIEI), offered by the Dunlap Stone University (DSU), USA

   

• Consumer Banking for the Diploma in Banking and Finance, Singapore Human Resources Institute Academy (SHRI).

   

• Tutorial classes for the Master’s Degree Programme at the Manchester Business School.