SMU-X Advisory Board

Siradej DONAVANIK

Mr. Siradej Donavanik is responsible for identifying new market opportunities and leading business development for Dusit Hotels and Resorts worldwide. His role also spans Dusit International’s broader platform, including the expansion of the group’s hospitality education portfolio and the co-development of real estate projects.

A strong advocate for sustainable growth, he plays a key role in advancing Dusit’s group-wide sustainability initiatives while also leading business transformation efforts that promote innovation and progressive management across the organisation.

Beyond his work at Dusit, Mr. Siradej Donavanik serves on the International Advisory Council of Singapore Management University. He is also a Director of Scratch First, the organisation behind Wonderfruit, a pioneering cultural festival he co-founded.

Alain Li

Mr. Alain Li has a wealth of experience in business development and international finance, gained through a series of senior positions at various multinational corporations across Europe, Africa and the Far East. More significantly, his specialty throughout his career has been in distributing lifestyle products to mature as well as emerging markets in diverse sectors, from pharmaceuticals to consumer electronics.

Mr. Alain Li started his career in the UK and lived and worked in Japan and France before returning to Hong Kong in 2001. He returned to Hong Kong to take up the position of Group Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director of the Hong Kong-listed IDT International Limited, a manufacturer of innovative consumer LCD products. He also had special responsibility as President of IDT’s upscale “lifestyle electronics” brand, Oregon Scientific.

Mr. Alain Li served as Regional Chief Executive of Richemont Asia Pacific from 2006 to 2023, when he retired. During his 17-year tenure, he was responsible for overseeing and cultivating the presence of some of the world’s most coveted luxury brands in the APAC region.

Patricia Lui

Dr. Patricia Lui is Senior Lecturer of Marketing, Assistant Dean (Alumni Matters), and TREBLE Programme Coordinator at Singapore Management University (SMU). With over 25 years of experience spanning industry, academia, corporate training, and consulting, she is a strong advocate of experiential learning and industry collaboration.

Before joining SMU, Dr. Patricia Lui built her career in media advertising, corporate training, and management consultancy. She has also designed and delivered executive education and corporate training programmes for professionals and senior management from more than 30 countries.

At SMU, she has pioneered flagship initiatives, including SMU-X and SMU-XO at the postgraduate level, leading consultancy projects with multinational corporations, government agencies, SMEs, and start-ups in Singapore and overseas.

An award-winning educator and case writer, Patricia has received the SMU Teaching Excellence in Postgraduate Professional Programmes Award, the SMU-X Excellent Teacher Award, and international recognition from The Case Centre.

Tamas Makany

Dr. Tamas Makany is part of the academic leadership team at Singapore Management University, where he also teaches user experience and design communication. He is a cognitive psychologist with expertise in educational technologies.

Before joining SMU, Tamas spent over a decade in Silicon Valley as a design researcher, developing digital learning, communication, and entertainment products. His current research focuses on human–AI communication, trust, and critical thinking in education.

Ijlal Naqvi

Dr. Ijlal Naqvi is Associate Professor of Sociology at the School of Social Sciences of Singapore Management University. He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 2021 to 2025, Dr. Ijlal Naqvi was the Associate Dean for Curriculum and Teaching at SOSS.

As Associate Dean, he led the establishment of new undergraduate and master’s programmes in sustainability, the redevelopment of the compulsory social science practicum course to highlight problem-solving and experiential learning, and the establishment of work-study and social impact electives with external partners. Ijlal has regularly taught SMU-X courses, especially in public policy, since teaching one of the two inaugural SMU-X courses in 2015.

Dr. Ijlal Naqvi’s research focus is governance and development in the Global South, with a focus on electrical power infrastructure. His next book project will examine Pakistan’s grassroots solar revolution. Ijlal’s other research interests look at how participation is organised for learning and governance.

Karen Ngui

Ms. Karen Ngui is Managing Director and Head of DBS Foundation, where she leads the bank’s efforts to create impact beyond banking by supporting vulnerable communities with essential needs, fostering financial inclusion, and advancing purpose-driven businesses across Asia.

She was instrumental in establishing DBS Foundation in 2014 and has since guided its evolution into a leading platform for social innovation and collective action, catalysing the growth of social enterprises and driving interventions to deepen the social and financial resilience of vulnerable communities. She also oversees DBS People of Purpose, the bank’s employee volunteerism movement.

As rapid demographic shifts transform societies across Asia, Ms. Karen Ngui is leading DBS Foundation’s efforts to drive a broader rethinking of ageing societies—championing new mindsets, behaviours, and solutions to help foster a future where everyone, regardless of age or circumstance, can thrive and age with dignity, purpose, and joy.

With more than 35 years of experience in the financial services sector, Ms. Karen Ngui brings deep expertise in strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, brand and reputation management, and purpose-led leadership.

Kyong Jin Shim

Dr. Kyong Jin Shim is an Associate Professor of Information Systems (Practice) at SMU’s School of Computing and Information Systems, where she also serves as Business Analytics Track Coordinator.

An industry practitioner experienced in data science, software development, cloud computing, and extended reality (XR), she worked at IBM, Thomson Reuters, and Ninja Metrics before joining SMU.

She currently leads a Ministry of Education Translational Research Fund project developing immersive XR applications for education, enhancing experiential learning and equipping students with future-ready skills. Her research spans large-scale social sensing across social networks, multiplayer video games, XR applications, and metaverses, combining statistics, machine learning, and social science theories to study how people connect, collaborate, and form communities across digital and physical spaces.

A two-time university-wide teaching award recipient, she is committed to curriculum development, student mentoring, and industry-linked experiential learning.

Yeo Wan Ling

Ms. Yeo Wan Ling is a Member of Parliament for Punggol Group Representation Constituency, Grassroots Adviser to Punggol Grassroots Organisations, and Vice-Chairman of the North East Community Development Council. She is also the Government Parliamentary Chairperson for Manpower.

Ms. Yeo Wan Ling joined the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) in August 2020. She holds the position of Assistant Secretary-General and is the Director of NTUC Women and Family (WAF). Concurrently, Ms. Yeo is the Executive Secretary of the National Transport Workers’ Union (NTWU). She is also Adviser to the National Taxi Association (NTA), National Private Hire Vehicles Association (NPHVA), and National Delivery Champions Association (NDCA).

Representing workers and the Labour Movement, Ms. Yeo is part of the Steering Committee on Autonomous Vehicles and is an appointed union representative in the Tripartite Workgroup on Lower-Wage Workers. She serves as Chairperson of both the Tripartite Cluster for the Retail Industry and the Tripartite Cluster for the Food Services Industry. She is also the Co-Chairperson of the Tripartite Workgroup on Flexible Work Arrangements (TWG-FWA), formed to develop the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests (TG-FWAR).

Ms. Yeo was a member of the Future Economy Council Advanced Manufacturing and Trade Sub-Committee, the Advisory Committee on Platform Workers, and an alternate member of the National Wages Council representing NTUC.

Before joining NTUC, Ms. Yeo Wan Ling was the founder and CEO of Caregiver Group, a global company specialising in the business of home healthcare and caregiving. Caregiver Group aggregates freelance caregivers and care services for deployment into homes, healthcare institutes, and welfare organisations. Headquartered in Singapore, Caregiver Group has a growing presence in Malaysia, the USA, and North Asia.

Prior to founding Caregiver Group, she spent over a decade at the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), where she was part of EDB’s Global Operations, managing Singapore’s key foreign direct investment accounts and business owners of family-owned conglomerates in the USA, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. She lived and managed EDB’s operations in Chicago, Shanghai, and Hong Kong as Centre Director and Regional Director.

Before joining EDB, Ms. Yeo Wan Ling started her career at the Development Bank of Singapore.

Ms. Yeo Wan Ling studied at the National University of Singapore, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Social Sciences, Second Class Upper Honours, in Sociology and Political Science.

Yeo Wee Siong

Mr. Yeo Wee Siong is the Group Director of Careers and Skills Intelligence Group at Skills and Workforce Development Agency, Singapore. He leads a team of Jobs-Skills Analysts, Data Scientists, Economists, and Futurists to identify global trends that impact individuals, businesses, jobs, and skills.

Anchoring the Agency as the National Skills Authority, his group oversees the National Jobs and Skills Data Office, which powers the jobs-skills intelligence and insights delivered through analytics reports, digital products, and solutions to serve all stakeholders in the careers and skills ecosystem.

Mr. Yeo Wee Siong and his team also actively form close partnerships with sector agencies, tripartite partners, training providers, innovation-led firms, and international partners to further understanding of the future of work, the future of learning, and future skills.

He is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council for Human Capital Development.