top of page

RESUME

Skills

Work​

experience​
 

Republic of Singapore Navy (Singapore)
Senior Lieutenant Colonel

​1995 - present

​I am a commissioned naval officer serving in the Republic of Singapore Navy. Besides the combat / shipboard postings, I have served on numerous staff appointments at the Ministry of Defence's Navy Headquarters in the Naval Operations Department, Naval Personnel Department and Naval Training Department. These include:



Directing Staff (Instructor) at Goh Keng Swee Command & Staff College (2018 - Present)

​

  • Leading and coaching the next  generation of Singapore Armed Forces Commanders (Lieutenant Colonel & Major ranks), preparing them for command and senior leadership positions.

  • Reviewed and re-designed the Navy's curriculum within the 10-month Command & Staff Course 

​

Branch Head at Naval Operations Department. (2015, 2017-2018)



  • Served two tours in the Current Operations Group dealing with Operations Other Than War and Maritime Security. Skilled in conducting real-time strategic and operational planning. Helped to deleveop the navy’s strategic and operational level plans for peactime. Also developed the framework to help systemise the way the navy deploys its assets. Started an archival system to help the navy better manage its data for better knowledge management.

  • Managed Contingency Operations such as Search and Rescue Operations i.e. Collision of US Navy warship off Horsburgh Lighthouse, AirAsia crash off Indonesia. Managed a team of personnel for crisis management, handling a wide scope ranging from operations, external relations with other agencies as well as media releases.

  • Served as policy and legal interface between Navy Headquarters and other government agencies in safeguarding Singapore's maritime interests.

​

Head of Training Development Group at the Maritime Training and Doctrine Command. (2015-2017)



  • Led the Curriculum Development Branch, Training Design & Development Branch, Plans & Innovation Branch and Training Standards & Effectiveness Branch. Redesigned the respective branches to introduce “hubbing concept”, resulting in better work flow processes and higher staff efficiency and effectiveness.

  • Responsible for providing Training Analysis, Design, Development and Evaluation services to serve the needs of the Navy. Responsible for in excess of 130 course curriculum in the navy, ensuring that they are up to date and continue to employ the most suitable learning approaches.

  • Redesigned the Midshipman (Officer Cadet) Course (9 months program) to incorporate Certificate of Competence qualifications upon graduation. This involves redesigning the entire course curriculum and method of instruction towards being more learner centric versus previously being instructor centric. With this change, it has effectively managed to reduce minimally 6 months of training time for the young officers.

  • Produced a new training masterplan articulating how the future of training for the navy will take shape, to move away from a schoohouse centric model towards a more workplace centric and modular training model. Initial trial results reported 30% increase in learner motivation.

  • Responsible for implementing LEARNET (modular self-paced interactive training packages) at the respective Naval Institutes and Schools - both in classroom and learning space design (infrastructure) as well as from the instructional approaches (androgogy). Initial results reported a reduction of 20% training time resulting from the usage of LEARNET.

​

Commanding Officer of the School of Naval Leadership and Professional Development, Naval Training Command. (2010-2011)



  • Started the school from scratch after being charged from senior leadership to put together the school as part of the navy's strategy master plan.

  • Recruited people to assist me as instructors, instructional designers and administrative staff.

  • Drafted and put together a leadership and professional development training road map for both the officers and other ranks within the navy.

  • Piloted the initial development course for naval officers, resulting in higher motivation and commitment levels. Retention rates for young officers also improved correspondingly.

  • Conducted workshops on professional development, coaching and mentoring for naval officers.

​

Training Development Branch Head at Naval Training Command, Naval Headquarters. (2008-2009)



  • Responsible for the proper conduct of all courses at the Naval Schools and Institutes.

  • Led a team of instructional designers to develop new training programs to meet operational needs.

  • Conducted evaluation exercises to ensure that courses were meeting instructional objectives.

  • Developed training development policies to guide course ware development.

​

Staff officer in the Naval Personnel Department at the Ministry of Defence. (2005-2006)
 

  • Responsible for training policies and plans in support of Human Resource Development.

  • Drafted a new training road map for junior naval officers, highlighting the different professional development needs at various stages of their career.

  • Developed Human Resource and Training policies in support of strategic aims of improving recruitment and retention of personnel for the navy. As a result of the implemented policies, the navy was able to stem the tide and turned around positively in its recruitment and retention levels and trending.

FACILITATION SKILLS:

CERTIFIED SINGAPORE ARMED FORCES LEADERSHIP & ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FACILITATOR

​

NATIONAL EDUCATION FACILITATOR

​

MEDIA/COMPUTER SKILLS

ADOBE  CAPTIVATE

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE

MICROSOFT OFFICE SUITE

PHOTOSHOP

FLASH

 

Languages

English (Written & Spoken)

Mandarin (Written & Spoken)

Basic Conversational Behasa Malayu

Basic Conversational Japanese

 

2010 - present

2010 - present

Rockman Et Al (Indiana, USA)

Graduate Intern

​June 2012 - August 2012

​Interned at the Rockman Et Al, Bloomington branch office, as part of program for the Masters in Instructional Systems Technology, from the School of Education at Indiana University.



During the internship, I had opportunities to develop instruments, interview project participants, code discussions and other types of data, seek out and summarize supportive articles, and report on findings related to a variety of evaluation activities.



  • Played an integral role in our evaluation of Citizen Sky, a citizen science project funded by the National Science Foundation and focused on studying a variable star during a rare eclipse. 

  • Developed and implemented an innovative coding scheme for the projects’ discussion forum. 

  • Interviewed several program participants and reported on the themes discovered through the data collection efforts.

  • Worked on a series of internal projects aimed at improving online data collection, participant tracking, and internal communication capabilities.

  • Identified several vendors and skillfully analyzed the information in order to ultimately make a series of recommendations.

  • Organized brief tutorial sessions to show staff how to make use of specific products.

  • Employer made a job offer as well as support for Green Card application during internship but unfortunately I could not accept as I was under bond. 

Citibank N.A. (Singapore)

College Intern

​June 1998 - December 1998

Interned at the Citibank Private Banking office in Singapore, regional headquarters for South East Asia, as part of the Bachelor of Business program I was undertaking at the Nanyang Technological University.



  • Researched into the impact of the impending introduction of the Euro dollar and its impact to Citibank's Private Banking portfolios in the South East Asia region.

  • Conducted a presentation of research findings to the bank's South East Asia leadership and regional managers.

  • Secured a job offer upon completion of the internship at Citibank but had to turn it down as I was already bonded to Singapore's Ministry of Defence as a government scholar.

Education

Indiana University (Indiana, USA)

Masters in Instructional Systems Technology

​2011 - 2012

University of Wollongong (New South Wales, Australia)

Masters in Maritime Studies

​2007 - 2008

University of New South Wales (New South Wales, Australia)

Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management And Strategy

​2007

Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

Bachelor of Business in Applied Economics

​1996 - 1999

bottom of page