Ex-Nasa, GIC tech heavyweights join Gojek and fintech start-up TranSwap
RIDE-HAILING giant Gojek and fintech start-up TranSwap have both named tech industry veterans to top executive roles based in Singapore, the companies announced separately on Tuesday.
Gojek has appointed seasoned US information and cybersecurity executive George Do as its chief information security officer.
Having moved from San Francisco to Singapore, Do will oversee Gojek’s cybersecurity, including its portfolio of apps, products and services. He will also manage the company’s strategy for governance, risk and security compliance.
Do has over 20 years of experience in the industry, including as an engineer with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa). At the US space agency, he was based at the Ames Research Center in California and tasked with investigating security incidents and protecting government information assets.
Do was most recently chief information security officer at Nasdaq-listed real estate investment trust Equinix, where he worked for more than a decade. Prior to Equinix, he held security leadership roles at tech firms including New York-listed cloud company CenturyLink, TiVo, Exodus and Savvis.
He is an adviser to YL Ventures, a California-based venture capital firm that supports cybersecurity entrepreneurs. He also serves on customer advisory boards at cybersecurity firms such as Palo Alto Networks.
Do reports to Ajey Gore, Gojek’s group chief technology officer (CTO). Gore said: “When a company grows as fast as ours, it must constantly scale up its information security to ensure the business can continue to operate and users can continue to trust that their information is safe with us.”
Meanwhile, Singaporebased fintech start-up TranSwap on Tuesday announced that Gary Tan, a former senior vice-president of technology at GIC, has joined as CTO.
Tan brings with him 22 years of experience in delivering tech solutions for financial and asset management.
At GIC, he was responsible for developing multiple IT projects for 10 offices worldwide. He was also instrumental in laying the technological foundation for GIC as it grew to become one of the largest sovereign wealth funds.
TranSwap runs a proprietary cross-border payments platform to help businesses, especially small and mediumsized enterprises, seamlessly manage and execute payments globally while reducing foreign exchange costs and complexity.
In his new role as CTO, Tan will develop IT strategies and innovations for the company, while delivering new products to maintain TranSwap’s competitive advantage.
TranSwap said he will create a robust technology framework, by overseeing product management, fostering operational excellence, and shaping the engineering team in Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia to drive continuous innovation.
TranSwap co-founder and CEO Benjamin Wong said: “We are reaching an inflexion point in our growth with the upcoming expansion into our third country and a pipeline of industry-changing partnerships.”
“Gary’s years of insights, expansive programming knowledge and experience leading the IT department will help strengthen our engineering capabilities and speed up our future growth,” Wong added.