SIM CENTRE FOR SYSTEMS LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE 2022

Ernest has extensive HR and OD experience. He is the Senior Manager (Corporate Development) in Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) and used to lead the Shared Resources Department there. He was a Director in IRAS for more than 15 years covering HR, Training & Knowledge Management, Organisation Excellence and Tax Academy. He was a graduate of “Learning Organisation : Developing Leaders for Learning Programme” (Institute of Public Administration and Management) and was instrumental in IRAS’ learning journey in the 20s. Ernest was also a Sr National Business Excellence Assessor and was in the private sector before joining IRAS.

He finds satisfaction in helping others and had a stint as a volunteer with the S’pore International Foundation for the UNITAR Hiroshima Fellowship for Afghanistan Programme. During the Circuit Breaker, he was involved in producing lab-tested face masks and created small jobs for those who needed an income. He enjoys fishing and holds a Masters (HRM) and a BBA.

Ms Jacqueline Wong is the Dean of the Centre for Systems Leadership.  With over 25 years of experience in the field of Leadership and Organisation Development as a process consultant, facilitator, coach and teacher, she is an optimist about the power of systems leadership to transform organisations, restore communities and enable human flourishing. 

Alphonsus is the Director of the Centre for Systems Leadership. He is passionate about organisation change and transformation. Across public and private sectors, from Defence & Security, Infocomms, Telco, Judiciary and Education, he has more than 25 years of experience pursuing organisation performance and systems change.

He currently contributes to the boards and committees of Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore University of Social Science, Singapore Computer Society, and the Institute for Human Resource Professionals.

Alphonsus is an Honorary Fellow of the Singapore Computer Society and Distinguished Alumni of the Institute of Systems Science, NUS.

Dennis Ng is the Faculty Lead of the Centre for Systems Leadership at the Singapore Institute of Management. Prior to this role, Dennis was the Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore and a practitioner in the field of organisation development. He successfully led and transformed public and private enterprises through organisational intervention programmes to steer business performance. Dennis was a business transformation facilitator of A*STAR and facilitated SMEs in the industry wide transformation programme. He has also helmed executive leadership positions in the public sector and in the recreational club industry.

Dennis has vast experience in collaborating with Board members, business owners, executives and HR partners in government agencies, MNCs, SMEs, Institutes of Higher Learning as well as Government-to-Government projects with Qatar. In the domain of executive coaching, Dennis coached business leaders and young talents in Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe. He is a certified Action Learning Coach by the World Institute for Action Learning, an Executive Coach of Linkage Asia and the Singapore Armed Forces. Dennis is also a certified associate with Emergenetics International and WSQ certified adult educator in Learning and Performance (ACLP).

Andre is the founder and principal consultant for Serve2Lead. He has more than two decades of experience as an organisational leader, coach, and facilitator. His areas of specialisation are leadership development, group facilitation, organisation development, change management, and systems thinking.

Having clients from a diverse group of private, public, and people organizations gives Andre unique perspectives into the business drivers of profit and non-profits organisations.

In his work, Andre has demonstrated his ability to apply the practice of Systems Leadership to create a safe and engaging environment where participants uncover deep insights through collective thinking and inquiry.

The workshop and conversations he facilitated over the years are especially effective for leadership development, shared visioning, team building, team learning, and staff engagement.

Andre strongly believes in the philosophy of Servant Leadership, where the first and essential role of a leader is to steward their people and organisation well.

Anthony has over 20 years of public sector experience, and is currently the Deputy Director for Learning & Development with the Housing & Development Board (HDB). His passion and commitment has been in developing people and enabling them (as individuals and teams) to be ready, relevant and resilient in the face of transformation. His experiences include design & delivery of facilitative processes to guide senior management in their strategic planning, implementation of organisation-wide change management programmes and public engagement sessions (e.g. HDB Remaking Our Heartlands conversations).

Endowed with a positive, authentic and personable disposition, Anthony is masterful in his facilitation and engages well with people of all levels. He is genuinely caring in his interactions which enables him to build connections and relationships. He is certified in Ontological Coaching from Newfield and WSQ-Advanced Certificate in Training & Assessment (issued by Institute of Adult Learning).

Fred Tan is the Managing Director and Co-founder of Genium & Co. who has more than 25 years of experience in driving performance across multi-disciplinary functions in Planning & Operations, Leadership & Organisational Development (L&OD), and Human Capital Management.

As the SAF’s Head of Centre for Leadership Development (CLD), Fred holistically implemented a top-of-class leadership system for a pipeline military leaders that won the HRM Asia’s “Best in Leadership Development Award”.

With excellent communication and interpersonal skills, coupled with his passion to develop trusted and effective leaders who can inspire commitment and build high-performing teams, Fred decided to take his knowledge and experience to the marketplace by co-founding Genium & Co. in 2018. Guided by the vision to inspire excellence and a strong belief that one can be our own genius to achieve great success in life and at work, Fred has supported many organisations in their transformation journeys by enhancing the quality of leadership through consultancy projects and developmental programmes.

Dennis Tay is a Leadership Coach and Facilitator, who is passionate about enabling leaders and teams to grow and create positive impact.

For past 18 years, he has vast experience in the design and implementation of coaching structures and systems leadership at all levels. He serves C-suite and team leaders in coaching areas of Personal Mastery and Peak Performance, and partners organisations to facilitate large scale change and transformation journey. He thrives in environment of cultural diversity, uncertainty and difficult conversations, and his leadership programme delivery includes zones of natural disaster and areas of civil unrest.

He is certified in ontological coaching, and includes health and wellness in his practice. Fluent in English, Mandarin and German, he believes that learning is for life and has integrated his love of sports, travel and photography in ways that would enable people, teams and organisation for mobility and greatness.

Hong Wee is Director and co-founder of Wei Forward, a leadership consultancy specialising in thinking skills, change management and team dynamics. He has vast practical experience, having helped many organisations apply Systems Thinking and Design Thinking to their workplace problems. These include government agencies, financial services, healthcare and manufacturing sectors.

He is also passionate about sharing and enabling everyone around him realised their full potential. His workshops are always full of actual application stories, as he believes real life is the best teacher.

Hong Wee is also an accomplished author, having published 2 books (‘Leader As Coach, Leader As Facilitator’ and ‘Be Smarter Than Your Problem – The Art of Systems Thinking’)

Kian Seng has had distinguished 25-year career with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). He is a motivational leader with experience in strategic, operational and change management roles. In his military career, he has had multiple experiences in leading large-scale operations, and strategising and implementing organisation-wide change. Through his work, he has developed a deep practice-oriented professional interest in strategic and organisational leadership, knowledge management, organisational learning, systems thinking and organisation development. Kian Seng is currently the Principal Consultant of Open Seed Consulting, a leadership and organisation development consultancy firm he founded in 2010 as a means to pursue his passion in helping leaders and organisations develop the necessary systems leadership capabilities to thrive amidst complexity and pursue their boldest and highest aspirations.

Yau Choon is a Managing Director and co-founder of Genium & Co, a leadership and organisation development consultancy. Previously, as a senior military leader, including in the Special Forces, he nurtured numerous leaders and effective teams, and led transformations of important institutions in the Armed Forces. He understands what it takes to lead and thrive in high-stake, highly complex missions and environments. Subsequently, with his leadership consultancy, he trained hundreds of leaders / managers and assisted many organisations across various sectors. He is a strong advocate of system leadership. His experiences show him that leaders, teams and organisations are best poised to achieve excellence, with passionate people who feel the meaningfulness, when they pursue aligned purpose, understand systems, and could harness the strength of systems for the common desired outcomes.

Andre is Deputy Director (Operations Strategy) at Child Protective Service (CPS), Ministry of Social and Family Development. He is currently leading various teams that drive the process innovation, digital transformation and organizational development efforts in CPS. He is a social worker who is trained in organisational development, change management and business administration. As a person-centered futurist and optimist, he believes that social work, systems leadership and business/digital transformation can be integrated to create practical, impactful systems-level changes in families, organisations, leaders and communities. Andre is a social work practitioner, civil servant and lecturer with over 15 years of experience in the public and social service sectors. He has worked on many national level initiatives to improve social service delivery in Singapore. This includes setting up the first Social Service Office, deepening service delivery integration across multiple government agencies, launching the first National Anti-Violence Helpline, and leading digital automation and data analytics efforts in child protection work.

Irene Chia is the Executive Director of Whitespace Management Consulting. As an Organisation Development practitioner, she had co-driven organisation-wide transformation in two statutory boards before she joined the private consultancy in 2006. She has coached, consulted, and facilitated programmes for over 100 organisations in the public, private and social service sectors. Seeing the multiple linkages and inter-connected parts in the system, she enjoys connecting them to each other for synergy to form a healthier whole. Irene is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credentialed by the International Coaching Federation. She has coached over 1,800 hours to date and sits in the Executive Committee of the Asia Pacific Alliance of Coaches to build the coaching capability in this region. As a Breakthrough and Strengths Coach, she is most motivated when she witnesses the best in people giving back to the greater good in the community and across the globe.

Kenneth’s experience spans across the banking, sports, and education sectors. He presently helms SIM’s Student Development Division comprising the Student Care and Student Life teams. Aside from wellness and counselling services, the division contributes to the transformative process of students through purpose-driven and creative programmes to develop well-rounded and balanced individuals mentally, socially and intellectually. Additionally, he also leads the Student Conduct Secretariat ensuring that the campus is a conducive place to study, work and play, in an atmosphere of friendship, respect and courtesy.

Kenneth’s brief exposure to career coaching and CPR & first-aid skillsets have augmented his role to guide and support students.

Showing care, gratitude and being gracious are traits that Kenneth embraces deeply in his core.   He believes that learning transcends the classroom; it is an opportunity to create better versions of ourselves.

Kenneth’s favourite quote is one from Theodore Roosevelt – “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”.

Lydia has had a range of exposure in the world of work and service to others, where she used to apportion time for missions work and youth development.

Landing a role in SIM’s Student Development Division only sealed her conviction to stay put in an environment where she could dedicate time and effort to develop initiatives that benefit students beyond the classroom.

 Lydia’s desire to better support students motivated her to acquire knowledge and skills in the areas of life coaching, facilitation and career guidance.

Lydia finds it a privilege to be given the opportunity to fuel what she is passionate about – PEOPLE! She sees herself as a catalyst in this learning journey and to provide support to anyone who is willing to come on board. 

When asked what her favourite quote is, Lydia will quip with passion: “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”

Marilyn is the Senior Manager from the Experience Design Division in SIM. She leads the team to discover opportunities to improve in the business processes and systems so as to enhance customers’ experience while ensuring that they are efficient and effective. She is a firm believer that Behind every problem, lies an opportunity to learn. She is a Lean practitioner with background in Total Quality Management and had worked with organizations in the contract manufacturing, electronics and mechanical engineering industries on process improvement. The core of her career thus far had always been to seek out ways to create an positive impact to the people, processes and systems; carrying her thru that is her personal mantra “Not to worry about failures, but worry more about the chances I’ll miss if I do not even try.”

Dr Aaron Tan is currently the Director of SIM’s Learner Advisory & Career Centre. He has more than 25 years of experience in the education field, and as an educator at heart, he is passionate about learning, developing, and serving people so that they might “become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous more likely themselves to become servants” (Greenleaf). Aaron holds a Doctorate in Education (Durham University) and a Professional Certificate in Coaching (SMU). He is also a Certified MBTI practitioner, and a Senior Adult Educator (Curriculum Development) under the IAL where he is a member of the Adult Education Network. Outside of work, Aaron enjoys running, Nordic walking, photography, talking to young adults, and spending time with family and his two cats.

Jai is the Director of the Child Protective Service (CPS). He has 20 years of social service experience advancing policies for persons with disabilities, youth at risk, children and families in need.  A fervent game changer and trailblazer, Jai transformed the CPS team to deliver child-centred practice through evidence and a digital-by-default service. He also pioneered the first Social Service Office in Singapore and developed the local community planning model for social services, leading the charge for others to grow. 

With a love for teaching, he has taught social policy for over a decade at SUSS. He is passionate about building sustainable communities to address social challenges and grooming a future generation of social service professionals to be systems thinkers. He is energised to be where change needs to happen. 

Jai is a social worker with a specialisation in organisation development and a certified FIRO-B practitioner. 

Dr Timothy Chan is the Vice Provost of the Singapore Institute of Management.  Timothy has more than 35 years of teaching and management experience at institutes of higher learning in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom.  He has been an advisor and expert panelist for a number of higher educational institutions, government agencies and professional bodies.  He has provided consultancy and training in Design Thinking and Experiential Learning to over 1,000 professionals in China, Taiwan, Indian, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.  As a fellow of CPA (Australia), Timothy is a member of its Education Committee in Singapore.  He also currently serves as a committee member in the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants and Youth Corps Singapore. He is a fellow of the Singapore Computer Society.   Timothy holds a PhD from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.  He received his 25-year long service award from the Ministry of Education in 2011.

Trained as a social worker, Bee Lian has many years of experience in policy making, program design and operations in the social service sector. She has seeded and developed policies and programs to grow the sector and the social work profession in Singapore. A practising lifelong learner, she has applied her brain-based coaching training from the NeuroLeadership Institute to enable and support the development of leadership. She enjoys and has over 20 years of experience in being part of the growth and development of social purpose entities through organisation development and corporate social responsibility efforts. She is currently also the Director-General of Social Welfare in Singapore.