Mentoring Programme | PSB Academy

Programme Objective

To establish a platform for PSB Academy students to learn from and leverage on experiences, insights and advice from our alumni and industry partners
To provide guidance to PSB Academy students on career path, personal development and transitioning into the working world
To encourage active networking between PSB Academy students, alumni and industry experts
To present opportunities for PSB Academy alumni to give back to the community

Areas of Mentoring

Career Advice:

Career tips and expectation of a particular job function
Advice from mentors based on their personal experience
Switching jobs / setting up their own businesses

Surviving the Working World:

What is the basic expectation of an employee in a company?
Proper Guidance: Transitioning from student life to the corporate world
Industry Experience / Entrepreneurship

Programme

Manual matching of mentors and mentees will be conducted by Career Services & Engagement team
Recommended frequency of communication will be at least once a month for six months (email, phone, social media platforms)
Mentors and Mentees to sign an agreement letter on their first session
Mentors and Mentees to complete an evaluation and submit to the Career Services & Engagement team at the end of programme

Panel Of Mentors

Alce Patricia

Communication Director at THE COPYRIGHT.CO

Alce is a Communications Director with over 20+ years of experience across the UK and SEA. Known among her peers as an innovation strategist and design thinking coach, she brings a ‘Profit + Purpose’ to client’s ambitions, developing insights from competitors, market, and trend research. Knowledgeable on the newest social media and content platforms, she communicates to targeted audiences, drives product and service transformation and design-led activities that put the audience at the heart of change. By collaborating with managers and teams globally as a subject matter expert of leadership development, focusing on presence, impact, transition, change, design thinking and effective communication, she develops key sustainable relationships.

Arun Ganapathy Chokkalinkam

Director at 1-KNOT Pte Ltd
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Arun has over 22 years of working experiences in Engineering and Management. He strongly believes that Knowledge gained if unshared is vain. During his working years, he understood that management and technical aspects are to be coupled together for a successful career. He decided to further his education and pursued for MBA from University of Western Australia in 2008. Not only that, but he’s also an active learner and pick up skills on Industrial Cloud, IoT solutions, design of water treatment systems, risk management. Having worked with various MNCs and SMEs across water, oil and gas industries, he gained experiences mainly in the Asia Pacific Region. Combining the technical knowledge and management skills he gained, led to the formation of 1-KNOT Pte Ltd in 2015. 1-KNOT Pte Ltd is a Singapore based company empowering solutions for various industries and serving customers from ASEAN and India.

Dr Low Chee Yong

Sport Administrator & Sport Physiologist at Sports Institution

Chee Yong is a sport administrator and a sport physiologist who works with the elite youth athletes in Singapore. After completing his postgraduate studies in Australia, he applied for the role of sport physiologist and led the sport physiology department for three years before taking on the role to lead the sport science programme supported by 20 sport scientists from various specialisations. His research findings include diabetes management, Ramadan and exercise, notational analysis, sleep and sport performance. His current research interests include repletion of glycogen post-exercise and sport physiology in youth training.

Chris Richards

Managing Director APAC and Middle East at Ultimate Performance

Chris is passionate about helping others achieve their true potential and being able to guide you through this journey. Having experienced the benefits of mentors during his career, he would like to ensure that others receive the opportunity to experience this to help their growth and development personally and professionally. As the Managing Director of Ultimate performance, he is experienced in growing and supporting dynamic and driven teams and individuals to provide a premium level service and strive for continued improvement. He is an active mentor with leaders within the company and has a strong track record of bringing through future talent. He studied Applied Sport Science BSc at the University of Edinburgh and has a continued passion with being fit and active to support challenging work and family commitments. Chris is also a founding committee member of the Singapore Fitness Alliance and sits on other advisory boards and committees in the business community.

Christine Looi

CEO and Founder of NRSC (NuRen Secret Club)
Alumna of PSB Academy

Christine Looi is a divorcee with 3 kids, retrenched from a high paying job, who then faced financial instability and eventually lost of hope. Overcoming all odds, the motivated and high-spirited Christine replaced her problems with an inspiration to create a community to support and empower women. She founded NRSC, which is a safe haven for women and mummies to share their stories, with the aim to create a sisterhood of like-minded, strong women on-the-go who rises together. Her key strength is having the desire to be successful in achieving targets and goals, believing that by working hard and smart, one can achieve them. Christine also believes that the keys to success are being able to multi-task and be passionate in whatever she does. These beliefs have led Christine to be disciplined and staying committed to her goals. Additionally, Christine is a strong advocate in the parenting and charity community.

Dylan Tan CY

Assistant Director of Sales in Hospitality Industry
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Dylan is the Director of Sales at Amara Singapore. He is a Hotelier and Sales & Marketing professional in the MICE industry in past companies like Reed Exhibitions, Ace: Dayton(Direct) International and Hotel Group such as Marriott International and Pan Pacific Hotel Group. He had previously served as the Assistant Honorary Secretary of the Marketing Institute of Singapore and was part of the team responsible for the communication campaign for Progress Singapore Party’s West Coast GRC team in GE2020. Dylan is also a current Council Member of the Teo Yeong Clan Association.

Edwin Foo

Financial Crime Compliance Consultant at Professional Services Organisation
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Edwin believes that whatever your goal is, you will never succeed unless you let go of your fear and self-doubt. After all, fear and self-doubt are just perceptions of your inability to succeed. He is a consultant with one of the Big Four, who specializes in providing financial crime compliance advisory to clients. One of the lessons he learnt during his career is the importance of pursuing passion regardless of where he is and the journey ahead as long as he believes in it. This very easily translates to motivation to take on new opportunities, staying grounded outside of comfort-zone so as to continuously learn and challenge himself.” Once you enjoy what you are doing, you know you are on the right track.”

Yong Hao Xiang

Associate Medical Laboratory Manager at Clinical Research Organisation

Hao Xiang is a Associate Medical Laboratory Manager in a clinical research organization. He has more than 10 years of laboratory management experience and a people manager for 7 years. During his 4 years stint with cord blood banking, he gained opportunities to further strengthen his knowledge and experiences in hematopoietic stem cell therapy transplantation. Additionally, he has numerous experiences in setting up laboratories, including initial start up of laboratories in higher and research institutions. He has also participated in several audits and is interested in quality and safety of laboratory testing as well as continuous process improvement.

Dr Ivan Tan

Head/Senior Scientist of Soft Materials Department at Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Dr. Tan lead 8 interdisciplinary research groups within his department in IMRE to advance fundamental new materials discoveries and develop advanced materials that can eventually lead to new commercial products and solutions. He also has developed advanced functional materials for various thick film coatings processes such as silkscreen printing, thermal spray, tape casting, inkjet printing, laser cladding, dip coating and air spray. All these coating processes are commonly used in aerospace, marine offshore and biomedical industry applications. To date, he has authored/co-authored 30 scientific papers in renowned journals and hold 8 patents. Concurrently, he is appointed as Industry Advisory Panel Member at PSB Academy and as Associate Faculty member at Singapore Institute of Technology.

Dr Jeffrey Tan

Managing Director at Technology Development Centric Organisation
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Dr Tan is responsible for the International Strategic Business Operations in the Technology and IoT sector. He is a technically proficient and commercially astute marketing leader with more than 20 years of experience. Over the last decade, he has been leading the go-to-market (GTM) and channel strategies for technology MNCs, establishing millions of dollars worth of online and channel ecosystems and establishing operations in the Asia Pacific. His experience includes implementing and integrating enterprise software, hardware, and system integration utilizing leading-edge technologies in a variety of vertical segments, such as aerospace, automobiles, IoT, construction, marine, offshore, and energy.

Jennifer Lim

Entrepreneur & Founder of Thy Dreams Matter Pte Ltd
Alumna of PSB Academy

Jennifer holds multiple role as an entrepreneur, author, public speaker, coach and specialises in personal growth & professional training. She is a Certificate Tetramap^®️ Facilitator, Points of You^®️ Certified Trainer (Expert) and had worked with various participants in Singapore and regional countries, including projects with corporate clients and the general public in talks, public training, and seminars. She is known for her lively, energetic expressive style and as a coach who has an infectiously bubbly personality. As an author, she wrote the book, Know Thy Self, Thy Dreams Matter^®️ Go For it. It is reflective of her desire to work with clients to help them achieve their dream lives. She believes that with every dream fulfilled, it could create a ripple effect to change the world to be a better place for everyone.

Jerald Tan

Ph.D. Student
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Jerald is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at a local university as a Research Scholar, working on identifying pathway synergies as drug targets for ageing interventions. Before pursuing his Ph.D., he spent three years at a hospital in Thailand as a graduate student with a Thai University as a Neighbouring Country Scholar; understanding medicine, aging and its relationship to the mitochondria in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. He also briefly worked as a Medical Technologist for COVID-19 and a Research Aide working on Cholangiocarcinoma. Jerald is an advocate for scientific communication, education and research.

John Ong

General Manager and Founder of Genetron Singapore Pte Ltd
Alumnus of PSB Academy

John is driven by the goal to uplift the electronic test skills of local industry. When he was a manufacturing engineer in a Malaysia factory, he felt that local engineers were not exposed to the latest knowledge and technology. With that in mind, he founded Genetron and strive to bring the latest test technology and knowledge to the customers. He believes that good test tools are important in augmenting the skills of an engineer. With that believe, John lead and manage Genetron which is now operating in 7 cities throughout Southeast Asia.

Wang Junhao

Technical Manager at An Security Pte Ltd
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Junhao’s core expertise lies in embedded system security. He dabble a lot with electronics circuit design, Register Transfer Level (RTL) design, firmware and embedded OS with focus on information security. A large part of his day to day job consists of security evaluation of IT products. The scope of evaluation encompasses product development to product delivery. The remaining parts of his job consists of performing security research on IT products. He joined the mentorship program because of his aspiration to inspire the next generation of professionals to find their own passion and purpose in life.

Karan Gupta

Wealth Manager at Sykes & Ray Equities (I) Ltd.
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Karan endeavours on creating an ecosystem, where his clients can achieve complete financial independence. Over the past decade, he has spearheaded the wealth management division at his family run organization, Sykes & Ray Equities (I) Ltd., with over SGD $100 million+ in assets under management. His team of financial planners, caters to over four thousand families – to international clients. He was featured in various newspapers and magazines, in the hopes that by bringing awareness of personal financial planning to the general public and contributing to society by guiding individuals. Karan contributes back to PSB Academy community as a Mentor and took on the role as a Global Alumni Ambassador with The University Of Newcastle, Australia as well. He describes the programme as “the right platform to inspire and kindle the minds of students seeking guidance”.

Lily Low

Vice President at UOB Group

Lily has always been passionate about helping others grow their careers and realise their own potential. Ever since she has moved into her current role working on people transformation projects, she is in a great position to do just that. On the flip side, Lily is current student at PSB Academy as well. She joined the programme as both a mentor and a mentee. As a mentee, she has benefited immensely under the mentorship programme to help prepare herself and manage her expectations for future change too.

Neel Sapre

International Growth Strategist at Google
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Neel is currently an International Growth Strategist at Google, based out of Beijing, China where he helps Chinese apps grow their businesses globally. An industry veteran in the ad-tech world, Neel was instrumental in monetizing SHAREit (World’s 8th most downloaded app in 2018), and Cheetah Mobile by establishing their sales teams across Asia. Neel was with PSB Academy and pursuing his Bachelor of Information Technology offered by The University Of Newcastle, Australia. He took advantage of the bountiful opportunities that were offered through student activities at PSB Academy and was chosen to volunteer in a cultural exchange programme in Qingdao as part of the 2008 Olympics. These opportunities indirectly opens up the pathway to where he is now.

Okkar Min

Head of Business Operations at HashTec Solutions Company
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Okkar adores helping out people who are in need and thus the mentoring program is a great fit to his personality. He does not shy away from crowd and enjoys doing presentations and hosting events. Besides that he enjoys soccer and it helps him to appreciate the impact of different tasks and its uniqueness. Since 11, he enjoys taking on the role of a goalkeeper. This role shows him that each player has a unique task and impact to the game. One single mistake can ruin the whole match and likewise a single save can bring glory to the whole team. Okkar’s strength is in Marketing & Operations and enjoy working with people who are punctual and honest. His quote, “Please follow the passion as always because the REAL joy is there.”

Paul Fang

Supply Chain Enabler at Health & Wellness Organisation
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Paul is an accomplished and hands-on executive with professional history in Food & Beverage, Retail (B&M, E.com) & FMCG industries which includes leading supply chain strategies for operations, logistics, warehouse management, and business development. He has always aim to be a visionary leader with demonstrated success in growing and strengthening organization, steering strategic projects, accomplishing challenging objectives, and driving organization improvements.

Koo Sengmeng

Senior Deputy Director at AI Singapore

Sengmeng has over a decade of experience in info-communications and interactive digital media, launching first-of-its-kind solutions for the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson. He joined the Singapore Public Service in 2012 where his team shaped the billion-dollar Asia-pacific games industry and launched the country’s first mobile experiential platform – Lab on Wheels – demystifying frontier technologies like MxR and AI/ML to students and masses. Today Sengmeng is Senior Deputy Director with AI Singapore, overseeing AI talents and certification programmes, standards development work with international bodies including ISO SC42 and IEEE AISC. He speaks regularly at Asia conferences on state strategies for AI and provided advisory to international partners such as Chulalongkorn University. His team also launched Singapore’s first national assessment and certification framework for AI Certified Engineers in 2019. Sengmeng continues his community contributions with executive appointments in Singapore Computer Society, where he co-founded the first augmented/virtual reality special interest group. He recently co-founded a new AI Professionals Association (AIP) to grow a global professional community of Chartered AI engineers and AI practitioners.

Sindi Tan

Senior Biochemist , Quality Control at Novartis

Sindi has been a Biologist with more than 6 years’ experience in the drug discovery and life science industry. She is currently pursuing her career in the pharmaceutical industry and enjoy watching drama, travelling and exercising during her free time. Her current career portfolio allows her to run testing on manufactured drug substances to ensure that it is produced at the expected potency and specifications following Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). With her past working experiences, she is competent in cell culture assays , such as flow cytometry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), molecular works (i.e cloning, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) ). Sindi look forward to meeting more people pursuing their passion in science and eventually making an impact in re-imagining and innovating new medicines for the well being of the society.

Sufian Yusof

General Manager at Aileron Wellness Pte Ltd
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Sufian has always been passionate about sports from a young age. That passion drove him to pursue a degree in Sports Science from PSB Academy, University of Western Australia. Since then he has worked with athletes and the general population and empowered them with proper training knowledge. Over the last few years, he has since become an Associate Lecturer and ACE Educator to teach the next generation of trainers.

Sunny Tan

Director, HSSE & Quality at C&W Services (S) Pte Ltd
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Sunny has spent over 30 years in the field of Occupational Safety, Health & Environmental, Operations, Projects & Training across various industries including Facilities Management, Manufacturing, Aerospace, Aviation, Waste Management and the Republic of Singapore Air Force. Not only that he is also a trained Lead Auditor for ISO 9001, ISO 14001 & ISO 45001 Management System and a registered Workplace Safety & Health (WSH) Officer with Ministry of Manpower. He has graduated with a Bachelor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety from The University of Newcastle(UON), Australia.

Thomas Bannister

Senior Financial Analyst at Medtronic
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Thomas is a member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), The Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA), and ASEAN Chartered Professional Accountant (ASEAN CPA). Currently, he works for Medtronic as professional financial analyst overseeing the budget of its largest pacemaker facility in the world. Most importantly, he was a Diploma student of PSB Academy 10 years ago. The diploma has given him opportunities to acquire an academic qualification while having full time job and begins his professional career in finance and accountancy. Graduating with the diploma, he was able to meet the pre-requisite and took the professional qualification, ACCA. Subsequently he further his studies with Master of Science Degree in Professional Accountancy. All these would not have been realized without the foundation and fundamental knowledge he acquired in PSB Academy. Thomas felt honored to be able to share his career journey with his alma mater community. He believes that it is more blessed to give than to receive. During his journey as a mentor, he learnt more than what he could offered to his mentee and made new friends. To him, “The most precious experience from mentoring is that I could witnessed my mentee working very hard towards achieving their dream and their progression.”

Tiffany Marie

Data Analyst
Alumna of PSB Academy

Tiffany has been a Data Analyst for the past 7 years. Her latest career was for one of the largest insurance companies in Singapore. She has worked as an IT Operations Analytics Analyst for AP in an oil & gas company as well. Besides having a degree in Physics; she further her studies and took on Diploma in InfoComm Technology at PSB Academy which then greatly helped in her analytics journey. Her core strength and expertise lies in Data Visualisation; Analytical Skills; Business Intelligence and she’s also a Tableau Desktop Specialist.

Dr Yasaman Nematbakhsh

CPO at Adra.ai

Dr. Yasaman has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from National University of Singapore. After graduation. Her passion for science, education, and entrepreneurship led her to co-found 42Lab, a biotech edtech startup. Their biotech educational kits were sold to schools in 4 countries as well as in the Popular bookstores in Singapore. 42Lab also won the top 5 global education startup award. Yasaman’s new venture is called Adra.ai where she and her team are developing an AI based dental X-ray interpretation aid for dentists.

Li Zhenhui

Principal Economist at Energy Market Company
Alumnus of PSB Academy

Zhenhui works in the Market Administration of Energy Market Company (EMC), which advises the Rules Change Panel through economic analysis and proposals to enhance efficiency in the wholesale electricity market. His past working experiences includes, Principal Consultant in NTT Data Business Solutions Singapore, dealing with the data analytics pre-sales activities and projects implementation; Singapore Department of Statistics working on compiling economic statistics. Gaining from his past and current experiences, he now specialises in Energy Policy, Energy Market Surveillance, Statistical Data Analysis and Modeling, Predictive Modeling, Business Intelligence, and Project Management.

Be a Mentor

For Mentors

Why you should sign up?

Want to make a difference by creating an impact to a student with your personal experience?
Do you want to experience a rewarding and meaningful relationship with your juniors?
Keen to give back voluntarily to the school and help a student transit from the school to the working world?

Be an Alumni Mentor now!

As a mentor, you will be assigned a mentee based on his or her unique developmental needs. You will be required to help individuals develop skills, competencies and the right attitude to achieve their desired learning and outcome.

Your mentee will count on you for guidance and support in the following areas:

Career Advice
Surviving the Working World

What is the key purposes of mentoring?

To enable an individual to learn and develop through the transfer of knowledge, understanding and skills based on the experience of another
To facilitate, in a given context, learning, development and performance, to help others to develop the skills, competences and attitudes to achieve the desired outcomes.
To help individuals to develop competencies to manage their learning to fulfill their potential
To provide support for the development of an individual in a given context

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is Mentoring Programme?

A: Mentoring Programme is a platform for our mentors, from diverse industries and background, to share their valuable work and life insights with young individuals. It also enables our students to envision a realistic perspective and be exposed to realities of the working world.

Q: How do I sign up on the programme and how much does it cost?

A: It’s FREE! Simply email to alumni@psb-academy.edu.sg to let us know your interest to be a mentor. A staff from Career Services & Engagement Team will follow up with you.

Q: What am I expected to do?

A: Mentors are expected to provide the mentee support and guidance during the 6 months period. You will work and come into agreement with mentee on development and improvement plan. It can be in the area of general career advice, information on higher studies, technical information, personal encouragement, and so on.

Q: Is the mentoring process time consuming / How long will the commitment be?

A: The mentoring will be for a period of 6 months. We would recommend for mentor and mentee to communicate with each other at least once a month. The mode of communication can be email or phone or social media platforms.

Q: What if my mentee does not respond to me / Relationship is not going well / Rise of concerns?

A: We encourage you to contact the Career Services & Engagement Team immediately and we will provide full support to resolve the situation in a positive and satisfactory manner.

Q: Are there any potential risks to me or my company?

A: No. It is not appropriate for mentors to engage in any business transactions with their mentees. The relationship should only involve the flow of general information and advice.

Q: Who should I contact for any enquiries?

A: Please feel free to drop us an email to alumni@psb-academy.edu.sg

Be an Alumni Mentor now!

Be a Mentee

For Mentees

What’s next after you graduate from your studies? Do you have questions about the working world? Do you want to hear real-life experiences from someone who has been through challenges in his or her workplace?

PSB Academy Students and Alumni are welcomed to sign up for the mentoring programme. This is a platform for an assigned mentor to be your support and guidance. You will get to learn and leverage on mentor’s experiences, personal insights and knowledge. It will ease your transition from school to workplace, as well as affirming your decisions for your career.

Note: This programme is not designed to help you land a job after graduation. Please do not sign up if your objective is to meet alumni who could employ you.

Benefits for mentees:

Gain career and personal insights from professionals in their respective expertise
Prepare for the transition to the working world after graduation
Get advice on professional issues and how to balance new responsibilities
Learn from a role model, develop leadership and interpersonal skills and increase competencies

What Mentors do?

Share their personal experiences, both successes and failures.
Advise individuals on complex situations that may not have a single right answer or approach. Offer observations and explanations to help individuals learn.
Guide individuals through the learning landscape, learning beyond classrooms.
Provide professional growth, development and opportunity through their own network (of professionals).
Support individuals and offer reassurance through when learning gets too overwhelmed or meet difficulties.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is Mentoring Programme?

Q: How do I sign up on the platform and how much does it cost?

A: It’s FREE! Simply sign up and register as a mentee. A staff from Career Services & Engagement Team will follow up with you.

Q: How do I match with a mentor?

A: Mentees will be matched to a mentor based on the areas of mentoring you have chosen as well as similar experiences.

Q: How long will the commitment be?

A: We ask our mentees to commit for at least six months on the same mentoring relationship and to have frequent contact with your mentor via the communication tools you both feel most comfortable.

Q: What if my mentor does not respond to me / Relationship is not going well / Rise of concerns?

A: We encourage you to contact the Career Services & Engagement Team immediately and we will provide full support to resolve the situation in a positive and satisfactory manner.

Q: Who should I contact for any enquiries?

A: Please feel free to drop us an email to alumni@psb-academy.edu.sg