Our Advisory Board

Jermaine is a Sloan Fellow and has an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also an alumnus of the Technical University of Munich, where he received his master’s degree in electrical engineering.

Prior to her current appointment, Weng Si was Senior Vice President, Industry Manpower Development. In this role, she led manpower planning, policies and strategies, and oversaw the implementation of workforce development programmes to ensure a strong talent pipeline for Singapore’s key industries.

Weng Si previously served as Director, Successful Ageing in the Ageing Planning Office at the Ministry of Health. There, she led teams that worked with multiple stakeholders to define, plan and execute national strategies to harness the potential of Singapore’s ageing population, under the Action Plan for Successful Ageing and AgeWell SG.

Weng Si started her career in EDB in the Biomedical Sciences division, before becoming Centre Director of EDB’s New York office, where she led EDB’s engagements of Technology, Media, Healthcare and Engineering companies across the Eastern United States. She also served as Director, Healthcare at EDB, overseeing the development of the Healthcare industry in Singapore across established sub-sectors like Pharmaceuticals and Medical Technology, as well as emergent areas like Digital Health.

Weng Si has a BSc in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Economics from Columbia University, and MSc in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University. She has an Executive MBA from INSEAD.

She has two decades of experience in public and private sector trade agreements, policymaking, partnership development and industrial strategy in Asia and Europe. She honed her business and commercial acumen in the shipping industry at PSA Corporation, and put that to good use subsequently at the Singapore Economic Development Board attracting the world’s top companies to invest in the country to drive economic growth.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in International Relations from Georgetown University and a Master of Science from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Dawn has presented on the power of design across international platforms such as the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, SXSW, ChangeNow Summit, Intercorp Festival of Innovation, Singapore Design Week, as well as with partners like JLL, Stagwell, Deloitte Centre for the Edge, WGSN. She is a UK Design Ambassador, advisory member to the Seoul Design Award and has been invited as a jury member on a wide range of design platforms.

John brings with him over 20 years of experience at Dyson. He joined as a Graduate Design Engineer in 2001, and has helmed key projects such as the Dyson Airblade™ hand dryer and the second generation of handheld products. Since then, he has played an integral role in the development of over 50 products and technologies spanning different technologies and categories including floorcare, environmental care, professional, and robotics.

In 2012, he relocated to Southeast Asia, assuming the role of Design Director. He was then responsible for scaling Dyson’s technologies and bringing together all elements of the product development process – ranging from manufacturing, New Product Development, New Product Innovation, through to championing new technologies within Dyson teams.

John graduated with a BSc in Industrial Design from Brunel University in 2001. Today, he is hugely passionate about collaboration, and inspiring the next generations of design engineers. As a father of two young children, John enjoys making cardboard models with his two young children and training for triathlons over the weekend. He is proud to call Singapore his home for the last decade.

In 2010, she founded charitable organisation Ibasho, dedicated to co-creating socially integrated, sustainable communities that value their elders, embodying in the Japanese concept of a place where one feels at home being oneself. Her current focus is on creating socially integrated and resilient cities where elders are engaged and able to actively participate in their communities.

She has published journal articles and book chapters in Germany, Japan, Switzerland and the United States; and has done pre-design programming including for senior housing and addiction treatment centres.

Emi holds a PhD. in architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Master of Architecture and Master of Science in Horticulture Therapy from Kansas State University. She has received fellowships including the Loeb Fellowship at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, the Rockefeller Bellagio Residency Fellowship and the Atlantic Fellowship for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute at University of California, San Francisco.

Emi is currently based in Singapore and incorporating Ibasho into the Health District@Queenstown. The pilot programme aims to design an age-friendly community by creating integrated solutions to enhance the health and well-being of residents across their life stages.

Debra has a proven track record with businesses of various sizes. She served as President of DKNY JEANS International, overseeing operations in all non-US markets, and was President APAC for Borderlinx, a global e-commerce enabler. Earlier in her career, she co-founded an online health and wellness platform with philanthropist Michael Milken and held a business development role for the Hearst Corporation’s international division.

Debra is a US and New Zealand citizen and a Permanent Resident of Singapore.

Sze Ling started her career in the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and has a decade of international customer engagement experience, especially in healthcare industry development and investment promotion. She subsequently shifted her focus internally as Organization Development (OD) consultant and worked with leaders of both the EDB and the Municipal Service Office (MSO) in driving transformation efforts to become more effective organizations for its people, customers and stakeholders. Prior to her current appointment, as SVP of EDB’s Customer Experience and Marketing, she led transformation efforts in the areas of business model innovation, digital marketing, tech and service experience.

Sze Ling graduated with a Masters in Pharmacy from King’s College London. She is a trained OD practitioner with certificates from NTL and iGOLD.

He is also a World Cities Summit Young Leader alumnus, a visiting lecturer at the National University of Singapore, and leads Arup Singapore’s Markets & Clients strategy.

A committed advocate for the profession, he served as a member of the Board of Architects and has been part of Singapore Institute of Architects for 20 years–serving as President between 2018–2020 and advancing the Industry Transformation Map. Passionate about design education, Chee Huang spearheaded the National Design Project initiative with the Design Education Advisory Committee. He continues to actively shape built environment discourse through publications, forums and sits on numerous design and institutional advisory panels.

Melvin is married and father of two teenage daughters and serves as board member of Methodist Girls School and is the Chairperson of his church board.

His myriad of interests including both digital and analogue photography, playing the acoustic guitar and bass in his church worship band. He is a self-professed petrolhead who accepts that the push for sustainability would mean the impending doom of the internal combustion engine.

During her stint in the Ministry of National Development, Zsin Woon oversees efforts to promote housing accessibility and affordability, the rejuvenation and upgrading of public housing estates, delivery of municipal issues and international cooperation.

Zsin Woon has also done previous postings in the Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Manpower, Workforce Development Agency, People’s Association, Ministry of Health and Ministry of National Development.

Chooake has 20+ years of design experience in institutions such as DBS Bank, where he was the first Chief Design Officer who led the Group Design in elevating the overall banking experience. Prior to that, he led PayPal’s Design team in APAC and was in charge of expanding payments for the Asia-Pacific market and also led the Global PayPal Checkout at their Headquarter. He also worked for Motorola, where he led the multimedia application team that designed the early iTunes App; as well as Morningstar, where he created digital equity reports and early stage of financial applications.

His work experience spanned across locations different markets such as US, Japan and Singapore. In addition to driving the CX strategy across both digital and physical touchpoints, he also shaped employee experience to further enhance external customer experience.

Chooake holds a Master of Fine Art, Visual Communication from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.