About

Dr Mark Hon

Dr Mark Hon is a serial entrepreneur and accredited private investor with experience in leading early stage companies from ideation to IPO. He is founder of Sugar Ventures in Singapore and venture partner at Garage Technology Ventures in the United States. A former professor of finance in Madrid, he was also visiting professor to universities in Oxford, United Kingdom and Deggendorf, Germany.

In the private sector, he has formulated R&D commercialisation strategies for The Boeing Company and consumer electronics procurement road maps and mobile application strategies for France Telecom. Featured in Whos Who in the World, and Whos Who in America, he was also the past chairman of the Business Angel Network South East Asia (BANSEA) and serves on the evaluation panels of public sector funds that support entrepreneurship.

Mr James Tan

James Tan is Managing Partner at Quest Ventures, a leading venture fund for technology companies that have scalability and replicability in large internet communities. Prior to this, James was co-founder and COO of 55tuan, a NASDAQ listed e-commerce group that grew to more than 200 cities and 5,000 employees across China.

As the first Singaporean and one of the rarefied few foreigners to found a public listed internet company in China, and for his investments in the next generation of entrepreneurs, James was recognised as an outstanding overseas Chinese by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council of China. For his outstanding global contributions, James received the Alumni Award from the University of South Australia.

James currently serves as advisor, board member or trustee on the Applied Innovation Institute, Business Angel Network of Southeast Asia, Beijing CYL Joint Committee on Entrepreneurship Development, National Research Foundation CGAP Fund, Social Impact Catalyst, Sports Excellence Business, and Vietnam Angel Network.

Mr Saurav
Bhattacharyya

Saurav Bhattacharyya (“Shau-Rav”) is the CEO and a Co-founder of Quantum Inventions, a company focussing in Mobility Intelligence.  He raised over S$5m in funding for QI before it was wholly acquired in 2017 by Continental Corporation – an automotive supplier, with over S$64B (40B Euros) in global sales.  At the point of acquisition, QI had subsidiaries in Malaysia, Indonesia, and operations in India.

QI has grown to be a formidable company in ITS solutions, dynamic traffic information services and connected navigation and covets the Young Innovator Award under the Land Transport Excellence Awards, which it won in 2010 (by the Ministry of Transport of Singapore).  Close to his industry, he has served ITS Singapore in various capacities, currently, as President.

Ms Lim Qing Ru

Qing Ru cofounded Zopim, a live chat software, which was sold to Zendesk (NYSE:ZEN) in 2014 when she was 28 years old. Since then, she has been an active angel investor, with close to 20 companies in her personal portfolio. Currently, she’s a Partner at True Global Ventures 4th Fund which invest exclusively in blockchain startups. She was the commencement speaker for NUS FASS in 2015.

Qing Ru has been a board of advisor for NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Science since 2017. She is also an executive committee member with LadiesFirst, an organisation that does charity for the underprivileged in Singapore.

Mr Lim Kok Kiang

Lim Kok Kiang is the Principal & CEO of Ngee Ann Polytechnic. 

Before joining Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Kok Kiang was the Executive Vice President and Member of the Executive Committee of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). He was responsible for EDB’s International Operations as well as EDB’s strategies in Advanced Manufacturing. 

Prior to this, Kok Kiang held various posts in EDB, including Assistant Managing Director (Engineering Cluster Group), Executive Director, Transport Engineering and Asia Pacific. He spent six years in Japan as both Centre Director and Regional Director, Japan Operations during his time in EDB. He joined EDB in 1996. 

Dr Goh Mong Song

Dr Goh Mong Song is the Deputy CEO (Lifelong Learning & Digital Services) at the Institute of Technical Education. He is responsible for leading workplace and workforce learning initiatives, digitalisation, student services, student entrepreneurship and alumni programmes.

Dr Goh is passionate about developing a new generation of skilled workforce through working closely with the industry on the ITE’s Work-Study Diploma initiative. Prior to joining ITE, he worked in the private sector where his experience centred primarily on managing and growing international logistics business in Asian and European markets.

Mr Marcus Tan

Marcus is a co-founder at Carousell. Since the launch of Carousell in August 2012 together with co-founders Quek Siu Rui and Lucas Ngoo, he has been deeply involved in product design, brand, and community, and build the app’s first interface as a self-taught designer. His role has since expanded to encompass many operational aspects of the organisation. Today, he focuses on developing Carousell’s Culture and People, helping to direct the growth and development of employees, and the company culture.

Prior to Carousell, Marcus spent a year at Oracle as a consultant. He has also spent some time as a product manager at Wikinvest, and has held various marketing roles at DDB, Yahoo, and Coca Cola. Marcus read Business Administration and Entrepreneurship at the National University of Singapore and Stanford University (under the NUS Overseas College Program in Silicon Valley, California). In his free time, he
loves photography and plays football.