The recipients of the Asia Teochew Entrepreneur Award are selected by a prestigious and independent panel of judges, comprising leading figures from the Singapore business community as well as government agencies.
The judging panel provides the independence needed to select the award recipients. The judges, drawing from their breadth of experiences and successes, will award recipients that characterize the spirit of entrepreneurship.
President, Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan
Dr. Derek Goh Bak Heng founded Serial System as a sole proprietorship in 1988, incorporated Serial System Ltd in 1992 and was the founding Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer when Serial System Ltd was listed in 1997. Derek relinquished his directorship as Executive Chairman of Serial System Ltd on 5 October 2021.
As Group Chief Executive Officer, Derek leads the management team in executing strategies to achieve the goals set by the Board of Directors.
In 1996, Derek won the “Entrepreneur of the Year Award”, organised by the Rotary Club of Singapore and the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, supported by the Trade Development Board. In 1997, Derek was elected the National President of JC Singapore and was conferred the Singapore Youth Award (Individual) for entrepreneurship, the nation’s highest honour for youths. In 1999. Derek was conferred the ASEAN Best Young Entrepreneur Award 1999 by the ASEAN Secretariat, and the World Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME) Special Honour Award by the World Association of Small and Medium Enterprises on 29 March 2000. In 2004, Derek was awarded the Public Service Medal (Pingat Bakti Masyarakat) by the President of the Republic of Singapore and in 2010, the Public Service Star Medal (Bintang Bakti Masyarakat) on the National Day Honours 2010. In 2010, Derek won the “Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year” organised by Enterprise Asia and APF Group Pte Ltd and in 2011, he won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2011 Singapore Award for the Electronic Components Distribution Category.
In 2014, Derek was elected the President of JCI Senators of South East Asian Nations. In 2015, Derek was awarded the International- Singapore ASEAN Leading Brand International Entrepreneur of the Year at the ASEAN Outstanding Business Award 2015 and was named the “UN Asia Pacific Most Prominent Entrepreneur” co-organised by the Trade and Industry Association Singapore and the United Nations Association of Singapore. He was also awarded one of the “Top Outstanding Leaders in Asia 2015” in the Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability Awards 2015. In 2021, Derek was awarded the Public Service Star (Bar) Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (Lintang) on the National Day Honours
2021. In 2023. Derek is also elected as Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan President.
As at 31 March 2023, Derek holds 365,997,970 shares (40.45%) in Serial System Ltd. Derek is a substantial shareholder of Serial System Ltd.
Vice-President, Teochew Poit Ip Huay Kuan
Mr Lennon Tan is the Group Chairman of ADERA Group. Lennon started his career as an engineer in the Petrochemical industry before spending 10 years with the American Multinational 3M. In 2001, he decided to pursue his dream of being an entrepreneur. After taking over a small smart card manufacturing business in China, he tapped on emerging technologies and innovation to transform the manufacturing outfit into the top 10 global smart card producers in the world, and thereafter transforming the company’s capabilities to lead in fields of transformational financial services automation, biometric authentication, Al and data analytics. supporting major sectors ranging from banks, insurance, goverment, healthcare, telecommunications and transport in Asia. The group was awarded ASEAN Business Award Overall Winner for Priority Integration Sector (ICT) in 2018.
He was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Financial Technology Enablement) from global professional services firm Ernst & Young in 2017. A year prior, Lennon was awarded the Inaugural Techew Entrepreneur Award.
He is currently serving as the President of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation as well as several other associations and social enterprises.
Lennon has a Bachelor Degree (Chemistry) from National University of Singapore where he graduated with Merit. He also attainted Master of Business Administration from University of Wester Michigan.
Affiliations:
• President of Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF)
• Vice President of Singapore Techew Poit It Huay Kuan
• Chairman of Social Affairs Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Association (SFCCA)
• Council member of Mindef ACCORD Employer and Business Counci
• Council Member for Singapore-Guangdong Collaboration Council (SGCC)
• Council Member for Chengdu-Singapore Collaboration Council
* Industry Advisor for China-Singapore (Chongging) Initiative (CCI) for ICT
Henry Tan, Group CEO & Chief Innovation Officer of CLA Global IS has been serving as advisor to clients in Singapore and the region. As Group
CEO, he manages the firm and grows its footprint to a major player in the market.
Henry assisted companies especially entrepreneurs since 1993 to grow their business in Asia through IPO, M&A, Accounting & other advisory. He has many years of experience in China market. Henry also sits on the board of a number of listed companies.
Other Professional Experiences:
Assisted number of entrepreneurs to grow their business to an IPO in Singapore, London, and Hong Kong Exchange.
Advisory to German company expansion into 7 countries in Asia Advisory to a top Chinese shoe retailer and fund raising through private equity and then subsequently IPO
Taxation advisory to companies entering into Singapore and Chinese market in respect of structuring of business.
Restructuring advisory to number of Chinese companies for doing business and fund rising outside China.
Credentials:
Graduated from National University of Singapore with First Class Honours in Bachelor of Accountancy
Attended Tsinghua University (Beijing) School of Economics & Management Executive Development Program
Council Member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants Chairman of Awareness Subcommittee on Sustainability Reporting of ISCA
Member of Corporate Reporting Committee of ISCA (2016-present)
ISCA Financial Forensic Professional
Chairman of Nanyang Business School Dean’s Alumni Advisory Board
ASEAN Chartered Professional Accountant (ASEAN CPA)
Fellow of the Insolvency Practitioners Associations of Singapore Limited Fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia & New Zealand
Fellow of the, Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants Fellow of CPA Australia
Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Directors
Associate Member of the Institute of Internal Auditors
Accredited Tax Advisor (Income Tax) – Singapore Institute of Accredited Tax Professionals
For the full list, please refer to https://www.cla-ts.com/team/mr-henry-tan/
Ms Yeo Wan Ling is a Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol Group Representation Constituency, Grassroots Adviser to Pasir-Ris Grassroots Organisation and Vice-Chairman of the North-East Community Development Council.
Ms Yeo Wan Ling joined the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) in August 2020 and is currently the Director of U SME and U Women and Family. She is also an Advisor to the National Taxi Association and National Private Hire Vehicles Association. Representing workers and the Labour Movement, Wan Ling was appointed as a union representative in the Tripartite Workgroup on Lower-Wage Workers in 2020 and serves as the Chairperson of both the Tripartite Cluster on Retail Trade and Tripartite Cluster on Food Services. She is concurtently a member of the Future Economy Council Advanced Manufacturing and Trade Sub-Committee, the Advisory Committee on Platform Workers and an alternate member of National Wages Council representing NTUC. She is also a member of the Council for Board Diversity and Global Compact Network Singapore.
Before joining NTUC, Wan Ling was the founder and CEO of Caregiver Group, a global company specializing 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, USA and North Asia.
Prior to founding Caregiver Group, Wan Ling 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 has lived and managed EDB’s operations in Chicago, Shanghai and Hong Kong as Centre Director and Regional Director. Before 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 Bachelors of Social Sciences (2nd Class Upper Honours) in Sociology and Political Science.
