The SMUAA 5 ^th Executive Committee

With a ravenous appetite for travelling, Zhong Yi took part in two inaugural BSM trips while at SMU, the first to New York City and another to Russia. He travelled to Ireland for his exchange programme, and did his overseas community project in the Min Hang district of Shanghai. For all of his travel experiences, Zhong Yi attributes them to having broadened his world views, and more importantly, helped put history into perspective.

This is Zhong Yi's second term of office with SMUAA. He previously served in the SMU Students' Association for three years while pursuing his BBM and BAcc. During his final term of office with SMUSA, he held a concurrent posting as Founding President for the SMU Special Interest and Community Service Sodality.

Driven to contribute in a meaningful manner to the environment we live in, Zhong Yi completed his Master in Public Policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, which was based at the historic Bukit Timah campus - ironically the place where his journey at SMU started. He also obtained a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University before returning to serve in the Singapore Civil Service.

The Class of 2008 graduate was quick to add that his decision to become a civil servant was not all altruistic, as he recognises that his hand in shaping Singapore's future public policies would serve as a legacy for his children and family; one which he hopes his parents can be proud of. Little can be argued that when it comes to Zhong Yi, crafting public policy is la vrai chose.

Ben Toh is currently in a management trainee program at a leading insurer. He had numerous rotations in frontline customer service, core operations and backend support functions. Being a versatile person, he has been able to excel in the multi-disciplinary job roles that he was assigned.

During his time at SMU, he led in the organization and execution of countless events, such as Patron’s Day, Convocation, GradNight 2009, Vivace, and GradTour. He also founded Strategica and helped out at People for Animal Welfare, while juggling studies and working part-time as a financial consultant.

In his new role as a Vice-President of SMUAA, he hopes to work for better benefits and create interesting events for the members. His biggest wish is to see a huge variety of events run not just by SMUAA but by ordinary members who share the passion to create a vibrant alumni network.

Recent graduate from the School of Social Sciences with double majors in Political Science and Marketing, Deborah is currently in charge of Business Operations & Development at a Marine Engineering Consulting firm. She works in the oil & gas industry handling strategic business operations and oversees all commercial aspects of the business in her job. She also wants to dabble in entrepreneurship one day and hopes to take a stab at it soon!

On the side, Deborah has a serious case of wander-lust and simply cannot stop travelling whenever possible. Getting lost in South America, freezing in Antarctica, trekking up Everest and experiencing happiness in Bhutan to name a few, are amongst her top travel dreams out of many other whacked out ideas.

Current obsessions are learning French and snowboarding which stemmed from the opportunities SMU provided through Summer Study at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; and a fall exchange program at EDHEC, Nice, France which are amongst her best memories.

One of Danny’s most memorable experiences during his university days was participating in the first ever Zero Limits cycling trip in “the beautiful and wonderful country” of Tibet where he and the team spent three weeks biking along the Friendship Highway from Lhasa to Kathmandu, his exchange program in the St Gallen Asian Management Programme (Switzerland), where he got to meet the people from the University of St Gallen. He sometimes still wonders what made him join SMU at its early days and even to lead a Youth Expedition Project group to Dili, East Timor when the country was still unstable in his second year of studies. There, he and his team helped set up an internet café for students.

If he could turn back time, he would bombard his Profs with questions - something he regrets not doing more of - as he believes that they tend to be more tolerant of inane queries than your boss. He accounts for his success with the presence of family friends and a sprinkling of “good luck”. In five years' time, he hopes to be overseas, pursing further education.

Having graduated from the School of Accountancy, Jiahui is currently pursuing her career in Barclays Capital. During her university years, she was active in the SMU Samba Masala and Gourmet Club, and also got to travel to Los Angeles with Samba Masala for its first musical exchange trip. The highlight of her university life was her exchange in Mannheim, Germany. Experiencing life in a foreign country and interacting with exchange students of other nationalities provided her with a different perspective to university life - there is more to university life than just academic studies.

Because of this, she was actively involved in many school events, participating in the organizing committees for Asoc events, Grad Night and Convocation. Now even after graduation, Jiahui is still jamming with her Samba band on weekends and she is happy for the friendship that they have shared since Year 1.

Quek Fu Jin currently holds the position of Director of Special Projects in the SMU Alumni Association EXCO. Graduating from the School of Business, Quek is presently working as a Manager, Business Consultancy and his job scopes involves the provision of mortgage brokering services as well as business finance consultation to local enterprises and individuals. His current position stands him in good stead and reveals his passion and expertise in the financial world. Moreover, he has expressed his ambitions to further his career and build an international business consulting division.

Aside from his career, Fu Jin engages in a number of sporting activities which include Muay Thai and scuba diving. Being an adept swimmer, one remarkable milestone which he accomplished was successfully swimming a relay from Batam to Singapore in 12 hours. This achievement alone clearly displays Quek’s all-rounded capabilities. His most memorable moment in SMU, however, was his trip to Vancouver on international exchange where he experienced a whole new culture and environment at University of British Columbia.

Vy is someone who believes in giving back to the society and especially the community where she received much support from. As the first recipient of the SMU AA Scholarship, she has a strong tie with SMU AA and an urge to contribute back to the school. During her years in SMU, she was the Community Service Head in SMU Red Cross, where she led various community service projects, locally and overseas.

After graduating from school, together with a few other friends, she set up Vietnam Toastmasters Club (based in Singapore), which has received the Distinguished President’s Club award after only 1 year of running. Vy currently works at Citibank as a Product Manager in Cards business. In her free time, she enjoys dancing especially salsa, cooking and learning a bit of different things such as guitar, tennis, etc.

Celine is a highly industrious and entrepreneurial individual. A graduate from the Business School Class of 2007, she prides herself on being able to spot value propositions and ideas ahead of the curve. Opening up new frontiers drives her. Previously with Credit Suisse in the first 3 years of her career, with the support of senior management, she pioneered the formation of the One Bank Junior Professionals Forum (JPF). Sitting on the Executive Committee as Head of Communications, Celine helped grow the membership base from its initial 1% to 15% of the staff population in Singapore. The newsletter produced for the Singapore office reached global readership and interest in other offices. Currently working at Goldman Sachs within the Prime Brokerage area, she co-chairs the Singapore LGBT Network under the Diversity wing.

Her vision for the continued success of the outreach to the wider SMU Alumni Community is to have a place where SMU Alumnus can gather with their family and friends and stay connected. She aims to start dialogues and discussions to lay the ground works to make such a venue happen.

When in SMU, little known to many, Celine was Vice-President of SMU Links (a tech club). A tech geek in disguise, Celine is excited about the latest technologies, gadgets and innovations.

In her personal time, Celine loves experiencing different cultures and history through food and travels. She finds road trips highly therapeutic.

Julian graduated in 2005 and is working as a consultant with a leading global management consulting firm. His desire to continue contributing to the SMU community has led him to formalize his relationship with the SMUAA in his role as Director of Special Projects. Julian will be driving an initiative to institutionalize an Honorary Alumni system to recognise non-SMU graduates who have made significant contributions to the university and its community, and with whom the SMU community would like to identify as a role model. Julian will also be responsible for looking into other special projects on an ad hoc basis.

You might find Claressa a familiar face from the alumni events that were held over the past years. She has been actively helping out as a sub-committee for SMUAA Events and now she is ready to take up the role of Social Events Director. Encouraging social events through initiatives to gather SMU Alumni from different batches, she hopes to strengthen the SMU Spirit and bond that had kept us till date so close to our Alma Mater. She is very open to ideas for events to be held and welcomes people to send her email of their social interests at any point of the day or time.

During her undergraduate days in SMU, her passion for life can be seen in her active participation in CCAs namely SMU Triathlon aka SMURTS, SMUX Biking and Trekking, Indancity, Icon, Uni-Y and also as an Events Director for School of Economics.  The highlights were the completion of a France cycling expedition Zero Limits La Connexion Française conquering 1000km of distance, scaling mountains such as Mount Rinjani and also the amazing time learning through internships in India, China and a 6 months exchange-internship in Mexico.

Upon graduation from the School of Economics, Claressa embarked on a HR Career (Recruitment) offering career development and guidance to people from all different walks of life. Her motto in life is that we should contribute back to the community which has done so much for us and give a helping hand to those who need it. .

During his time at SMU, Chiraag was actively involved with SMU Ventures: The Entrepreneurship Society, SMU-OCBC Business Centre Program, the International Student’s Association and AIESEC. He has represented the university at several international conferences across the world including Beijing, Mumbai, San Francisco and Switzerland. He also participated in the Management International Exchange Program at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York, USA for one semester.

Prior to SMU, Chiraag spent his schooling days in India and Sweden. He is well-versed in English, French, Hindi and some Swedish. In his downtime, Chiraag loves to discuss Greek philosophy, is an avid soccer coach and a martial arts enthusiast. He currently advises different organisations on key strategic and operational issues as a management consultant.

A graduate from the class of 2010, Dickson is an avid reader and derives much enjoyment from both fictional and non-fictional writing. He currently heads the editorial team for Communique, the alumni magazine as its Publication director.

He is also a keen traveller and often considers travelling to foreign countries as cultural pilgrimages. He counts Namibia as amongst the most beautiful and exotic places he has set foot upon so far. Dickson bears also an almost insatiable interest in the arts (specifically in theatre and the literary), history, philosophy, politics and the likes – none of which he readily admits he is an expert in. Nevertheless, he enjoys making conversation with people from all walks of life and welcomes strangers coming up to speak with him.

Perceiving himself as a sold-out to capitalism, Dickson is currently working at an oil company.

Known amongst his peers as "JZ", Jingzhong was the founding President of SMU Sports Union, the 1st SMU Student Association Committee and the Rock Climbing Team. He also helped to set up SMUBE, did 4 internships and went for 2 international exchanges.

JZ is currently working as a bank teller (it's true!) and when he is not busy helping out in SMUAA to repay all the good that SMU did for him, the die-hard Liverpool fan is a soccer/basketball weekend warrior and counts wanderlust, outdoor activities and an insatiable thirst for adventures as his passions in life.

JZ will manage the following portfolios:
1. Connect China Alumni (together with Frederick Zhou). This includes relationships with any China-related entities and also regular organisation of Mandarin101 and Business Mandarin classes.
2. CCA / Student Relations Portfolio for the Alumni Association. Student clubs who are interested to initiate projects with the alumni can contact JZ.
3. Alumni Community Service Projects (together with Yenzhi). We have some ideas but lack the manpower, so if you are highly interested please let JZ know.

Recently graduated from the Lee Kong Chian School of Business with a double major in Marketing and Law, Andrina is pursuing her career ambitions in the brand consulting industry. She has been actively involved in the activities of the alumni helping out at social events and such since her penultimate year.

Having completed a six-month stint at a strategic brand consultancy during which she was flown to Brunei to speak to clients, she has contributed her knowledge in a branding initiative to revitalise the image and services of the alumni. She was also part of the organising committee of the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition 2010, and one of the ambassadors to represent Office of Career Services in hosting well-known companies at school recruitment events.

Fulfilling the altruistic call to give back to her school, her objective in leading Personal Development is to provide the inspiration and resources for our alumni to keep up a passion for life, more than striking a work-life balance.