40 UNDER 40: DARE TO DREAM

Whether they advocate through the arts or food, or champion the marginalised, these revolutionaries from our annual list break the status quo

EVY WEE, 39

Managing director, head of financial planning and personal investing, and head of cash equity with the Singapore Consumer Banking Group at DBS Bank

Evy’s passion for empowering Singaporeans with financial planning know-how is fuelled by personal experience. When she was growing up, her family went through a difficult time and was evicted from their home. After graduation, she became the breadwinner at just 23 years old.

Today, she shares the bank’s vision of equipping the nation with the right skill sets for financial and retirement planning. “This has become an important national challenge which must be addressed so more people can enjoy their silver years without financial anxiety.”

In her role, Evy seeks to democratise wealth management through technology. She is involved in the bank’s efforts to lower barriers of entry into investing with initiatives such as NAV.SG, a knowledge portal for anyone to learn about the foundational pillars of financial plans. She was also part of the task force that mapped the blueprint for the Sgfindex, which allows customers to easily connect their financial information from across participating banks and government agencies to obtain an overview of their finances. “My vision is to enable all Singaporeans to do financial planning regardless of their life stage. I hope to make money management a core life skill for everyone.”

DELVIN GOH, 26

Co-captain of Singapore’s national basketball team and player for Singapore Slingers As a professional basketball player, Delvin’s role is not just about winning games, although he has already won two bronze medals in the SEA Games. The athlete also counts inspiring aspiring young talents as a mission. After all, he was one himself and joined the men’s national team when he was 15.

Delvin regularly conducts clinics at schools, and is also involved in the Activesg Basketball Academy where kids from five to 14 years old can learn to play basketball at very affordable prices. At these clinics and workshops, children are taught the right values in sportsmanship. Delvin is also passionate about community work, which Singapore Slingers, the professional basketball team he plays for, is active in.

Outside of his basketball training, Delvin also wears other hats. The newly-wed is also an ambassador for Diamond Ateliers – just to name one of them. Despite his busy schedule, Delvin is constantly seeking to broaden his horizons and pick up more skills so as to avail himself of other career options should life throw him a curveball in the future. He is currently studying for a property agent licence.

WOON TIEN YUAN, 34

Director of Killiney Group

Tien Yuan is the second-generation leader managing the Killiney Group, a family-run F&B heritage brand. Since assuming his role in 2019, he has been working to grow Killiney from a local household name to an international brand. He initiated the collaboration with local formulation food tech company Hoow Foods, where he is now director, to formulate Killiney-branded instant beverages, and spearheaded the set-up of a new manufacturing facility here within just six months to make the products.

“With a nimble team that focuses greatly on R&D and speed-to-market, we have managed to launch about 10 beverage products in just over a year. There are many more upcoming products in the pipeline,” he says. Initially, Tien Yuan had difficulty marrying the traditional Killiney business with a young start-up like Hoow Foods, but he is now part of the company and counts the ongoing R&D work between Killiney and Hoow Foods as one of his biggest achievements.

Last year, Tien Yuan launched the official Killiney e-store and extended the brand’s presence to many e-commerce platforms including Lazada, Shopee and Fairprice Online. He is also involved in his family’s Woon Brothers Foundation and other businesses in art collection, real estate and construction. The avid art collector and patron also founded Ajaya Gallery to promote ancient devotional art.

CRYSTALLA HUANG, 30

Brew master of Reddot Brewhouse, and a founding member and secretary of Singapore Brewers Association

She is well known as the only woman in a small group of about 15 brew masters in Singapore but Crystalla downplays the accolade. “I earned the professional recognition over the years, like how any other male brewer would. There is no gender bias in beer. Before the industrial revolution, women brewed beer at home. Ancient Egypt worshipped beer goddesses.”

Years before she attained certification from the worldrenowned Versuchs-und Lehranstalt für Brauerei (VLB) in Berlin, she had been learning the ropes as a child. “Brewing is like cooking for me,” she sums up. “It was laborious, sweaty and demanding but it built grit in me. I enjoyed the whole business and saw a lot of potential on the horizon.” Four years ago, she took over the reins of Reddot Brewhouse, whose top seller is the green spirulina-infused Monster Green Lager Beer.

An advocate of sustainability, Crystalla has been exploring ways of upcycling spent grains, one of the brewery’s biggest wastes. She has turned it into W0W noodles, the world’s first zero-starch noodles, and compost for the herb garden that supplies her restaurant kitchen as she looks into crafting cutlery out of the waste matter.

While she’s currently setting up the non-profit Singapore Brewers Association, she is planning to make a foray into supermarkets starting with the latest Reddot Heartlander series inspired by local flavours. “It is my vision to have every Singaporean try Reddot beers. From there, I want to build a strong Singapore brand that I can launch overseas.”

DR JESSICA LEE, 36

Conservation biologist and assistant vice-president of Mandai Nature Jessica’s childhood passion for birds bloomed into a lifelong love. In her teens, she would rarely be spotted without a book on the avian world, and spent weekends volunteering at Jurong Bird Park. Today, she wears many hats in her roles that include managing Mandai Nature’s avian conservation programmes across Singapore and Southeast Asia, and facilitating local and regional conservation research projects supported by Mandai Nature and Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS).

Being closely involved in launching Mandai Nature, a local non-profit organisation that builds on the conservation work by WRS over the past decade, was a milestone. “This was no easy task considering the upheaval and financial constraints that came with the pandemic.” Despite the challenges, it proved timely.

In 2019, Mandai Nature worked with Ecosystem Impact Foundation (EIF) and other stakeholders after the IUCN-SSC Asian Songbird Trade Specialist Group declared that the endemic Barusan Island group of songbirds required urgent conservation attention. “EIF had no experience in the keeping of birds under human care, and there were initial plans for our staff to travel on-site and train EIF staff.”

While travel restrictions changed these plans, they developed an ex-situ conservationlinked breeding programme for the Barusan songbirds in 2020. Breeding aviaries were established with five pairs of Barusan shamas and bird-keeping training sessions were conducted remotely via calls. Less than five months into the programme, the first Barusan shama egg was laid. “This was a massive achievement for everyone given the limitations.”

Jessica stresses that the necessary redirection of resources to alleviate the pandemic’s health and economic impacts has affected biodiversity conservation and the communities protecting it. Her hope is to see more investment in environmental protection: “It is a win-win situation for humans and nature.”

LEANNE ROBERS, 37

Co-founder and CO-CEO of She Loves Tech

Leanne and her co-founders at She Loves Tech are committed to changing today’s tech entrepreneurship space that is still very much male-dominated. Operating in over 40 countries, She Loves Tech is the world’s largest start-up competition and accelerator programme for women-led and women-impact tech start-ups. As co-founder and CO-CEO, Leanne and her team are working to build an ecosystem for technology, entrepreneurship and innovation that creates opportunities for women and closes the gender gap in start-up funding.

Since She Loves Tech was founded in 2015, more than 5,000 start-ups have joined the competitions and gone on to raise more than US$250 million (S$340 million). In recognition of her work, Leanne has won awards such as Booking.com’s Technology Playmaker of the Year and was honoured by Infocomm Media Development Authority in the Singapore100 Women in Tech list. In 2019, she was selected as an Obama Foundation Leader in the AsiaPacific leadership programme and met the Obamas to share about the work of her firm.

By 2030, She Loves Tech aims to support women entrepreneurs by catalysing US$1 billion, through building a digital fundraising platform for women. “I’m trying to support a new generation of entrepreneurs who are shaping what that future will look like,” she says. “It will be a better future when there are more diverse minds and voices contributing to it. We are championing a new generation of innovation and new ways of doing things.”

GABRIEL TAN, 39

Creative director and founder of Gabriel Tan Studio, Studio Antimatter and Origin Gabriel’s career started when he co-founded the Singapore, Barcelona and Buenos Aires-based design collective Outofstock Design in 2007. After exhibiting furniture prototypes at the Milan Furniture Fair for about two years, Outofstock went on to design for international furniture brands such as Ligne Roset, Blå Station and Bolia. Under his co-stewardship, Outofstock won numerous accolades including Maison & Objet Asia’s Rising Talents 2015, Japan Good Design Award 2015, Concurso de Diseño Interior Buenos Aires 2013, Elle Decoration Spain’s Young Talent of the Year 2009 and Singapore’s very own President’s Design Award.

In 2016, Gabriel ventured into his solo practice with product design studio Gabriel Tan Studio and interior design consultancy Studio Antimatter, which are based in both Singapore and Porto in Portugal. Representing the former, he has since designed for labels all over the world, including Japanese design brands Ariake and Ishinomaki Lab, Scandinavian furniture brands Menu and Blå Station, as well as American furniture retailer Design Within Reach and British furniture retailer The Conran Shop. At Studio Antimatter, Gabriel dreamt up showflats for big names like Duo Residences and Marina One.

“I love immersing myself in another culture, learning about an unfamiliar craft or tradition and offering a fresh perspective,” he says. In 2018, after discovering underrated craftsmanship of exceptional quality in Porto that convinced him to set up base there, he founded Origin, a handcrafted objects brand in Portugal. Origin is now retailing in some of the most prestigious design stores across the world such as the Noguchi Museum Shop and the Herman Miller flagship store in New York.

Outside of his design practice, Gabriel has also guest lectured at Lasalle College of the Arts, National University of Singapore, University of Oregon and Pratt Institute, and was an invited jury member at the Cannes Lions Festival and Core77 Design Awards.

ADA YEO, 30

CEO and co-founder of Shuffle

When Ada was growing up in Singapore, tech was not yet a popular career to pursue and there were not many thinkers in this space that she could talk to. It was her discovery of podcasts that made her finally feel like she had found her tribe.

“It was mind-blowing when I discovered that I could hear directly from the smartest people in technology, for free! That’s when I really fell in love with the medium and realised the power of democratising information to the world,” says Ada, who is now based in San Francisco.

However, she and her co-founder found that while there were many passionate podcast fans, there was no place for them to gather and exchange ideas. This led to the 2019 birth of Shuffle, a Us-based start-up that has raised money from top Silicon Valley investors such as First Round Capital, and executives from Instagram, Facebook, Uber and Coinbase.

“Our vision is to be the destination where podcast fans listen to and react to their favourite podcasts,” she adds. “Think listening to the podcast, with thoughtful comments, funny memes and flying emojis flying past. We want to become the largest podcast platform and to make podcastlistening really fun and interactive for hundreds of millions of people.” While the app is still in its beta phase, Shuffle already has 15,000 downloads so far.

NADIA AHMAD SAMDIN, 31

Counsel and project leader at social impact consultancy Tri-sector Associates, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ang Mo Kio GRC

Community service has been central to Nadia’s life since she was 15 years old. After volunteering for some time, her community work portfolio evolved while she was practising law to include serving on boards and committees of charitable bodies such as National Youth Council and Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations (Women Register), as well as the Youth Courts as a panel adviser.

Upon taking on the role of MP in 2020, it became clear to Nadia that she needed to think about the impact of initiatives and policies in a more strategic way. “When the opportunity came to join Tri-sector Associates earlier this year and do work that contributes to systemslevel change, I took it. It was a tough decision to leave legal practice but the leap would allow me to develop other skills that could benefit the social sector and community.”

Just before she left TSMP Law, she was recognised on Singapore Business Review’s 21 Most Influential Lawyers 40 and Under list. “It felt bittersweet and was a testimony to the training and culture of the team at the law firm. I was the first in my family to go to university and never thought law was even a possibility for me.”

For Nadia, purpose eclipses passion. “I wanted to spend more hours a day working on tough social issues. I feel grateful that I get to do that with a team of people who do impactful work every day.” At Tri-sector Associates, she works with the people, public and philanthropy sectors, and on projects spanning issues such as conservation, generational poverty, employment for persons with disabilities and skilling for youth who are out of the school system.

Nadia is also conscious of her role in minority representation. “Before the Class of 2020, there were four Malay women parliamentarians since Singapore’s independence. Beyond service to my residents to try and make their lives a little better, or raising issues in Parliament or other platforms, I carry a sense of amanah (Malay for moral responsibility) towards my community.”

LIM KIAN CHUN, 29

CEO and co-founder of Ebb & Flow Group, and managing partner and co-founder of Cerana Capital After graduating with a law degree from King’s College London in 2016, Kian Chun set up a venture fund called Cerana Capital with two partners, focusing on early-stage investments in Southeast Asian start-ups like Fundnel and Moneymatch. Two years later, after several F&B investments through Cerana, they consolidated these investments and went all-in into the F&B sector, starting a technology-driven F&B group called Ebb & Flow Group (E&F), which now operates 15 brands including Chin Mee Chin, The Dragon Chamber and Tigerlily Patisserie.

Over the past year, they have also ventured upstream into import/export, sourcing for various food products from Japan, China and Malaysia. Last month, E&F launched the Tabletop app, a food discovery platform that allows users to explore, share and order from unique F&B concepts and up-and-coming chefs in Singapore.

“We want to empower exciting chefs and brands, allowing them to connect directly with their customers and to improve the overall buying experience,” he says. “We hope to create an ecosystem in which chefs, brands and customers have a more personal and direct relationship, and where chefs and brands can easily tap into different streams of revenue.”

In addition, one of the main causes E&F supports is ending food insecurity. Throughout the pandemic, the group worked with Food Bank, Gojek, Deliveroo and Advo to deliver meals to those in need.

KIM LIM, 29

Founder of Kelhealth Group

Kim is proof that your biggest struggles can become your greatest assets. Preoccupied with her body image, the heiress had sought out all kinds of cosmetic procedures in the last decade, which made her a connoisseur of the industry.

In 2019, she opened Papilla Haircare, a hair loss treatment centre backed by Korean dermatologists, hair transplant surgeons and scientists. In 2020, she expanded Papilla’s offerings with a scalp-focused product line and launched three more businesses. They were medical spa Illumia Therapeutics, aesthetics clinic Illumia Medical, and anti-ageing skincare brand Illumia Skin. Earlier this year, she also opened Polaris Plastic Surgery, led by Dr Adrian Ooi, alongside an orthopaedic surgery clinic with Dr Mizan Marican.

Besides running her various businesses, the entrepreneur ensures that her holding company contributes meaningfully to communities at large. The Kelhealth Benefactors Platform, to date, has built houses in Mongolia, worked with local programmes to provide food and home essentials for underprivileged groups, supported animal welfare organisations, and donated time and money to frontliners.

TANIA CHIN, 36

Partner at Withers Khattarwong

Since getting called to the Bar in 2009, Tania has been prolific in both blue and white collar criminal cases and investigations. To date, the criminal litigation partner has defended numerous clients charged for capital offences such as murder and drug trafficking, having been the one who set up the investigations arm at her firm.

Her impressive portfolio also includes several in-house investigations for corporate and individual clients for fraud, criminal breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duties and other misconduct including alleged sexual misconduct by employees.

Work aside, Tania is active in running advocacy workshops that help to maintain the high standards of the Criminal Bar. In 2020, she was the only Singaporean lawyer to be ranked and recognised as a “Future Star” in the practice area of White Collar Crime by Benchmark Litigation Asia-pacific, the only publication in the market focused exclusively on litigation work.

When asked about her next project, the mother of two young boys shares that she is working on giving young women lawyers the confidence to be first chair in criminal cases. Tania’s vision is to break the glass ceiling for female criminal lawyers – just as her mentor has helped her to achieve that.

LORIN WINATA, 28

Founder and CEO of Melati Drinks

In less than a year of its launch, Melati, otherwise known as Asia’s first non-alcoholic aperitif, is listed on Michelin-starred menus in the likes of Odette and Nouri, among some of Singapore’s best restaurants and bars. “Each empty glass which once held a Melati Spritz is a win for us,” says creator Lorin.

Made in Singapore, Melati was conceived as a non-alcoholic alternative adult tipple without the guilt, empty calories and adverse effects. It allows people to abstain from alcohol yet partake in social drinking with a refreshing aperitif that is fruity, floral and spicy. Free from artificial flavours, colours or sweeteners, the uplifting drink is infused with a blend of 26 Asian mood-boosting or detoxifying botanicals such as hibiscus, goji berries, cacao and ginger. Crafted with only 12 calories per serving, Melati advocates a modern way to drink.

It is a truly zero-alcohol aperitif as its extraction process does not include ethanol. Modern facilities cold-press and extract each botanical in a water-only process, which demands 20 times more botanicals and ingredients, and takes up to six weeks to extract maximum potency. It ensures a 0.0 per cent alcohol drink with restorative health benefits. Only a small batch of 500 bottles are blended and bottled by hand at a time, promising optimal freshness and quality.

Lorin believes this is just the beginning of non-alcoholic spirits. “I am excited to see how the category evolves in the coming years.” Her priority is on building Melati’s reputation in Singapore as she prepares to launch a sensational addition soon.

SAMUEL WONG, 38

Creative Director of The TENG Company

For four years, Samuel and his team took a deep dive into the music of Singapore’s early Chinese migrants – interviewing, documenting and learning from first-generation masters, luthiers, instrument dealers and proteges of various dialect musical groups. The result is The Forefathers Project (theforefathersproject. com), which comprises a documentary series and a one-night-only concert titled Heirlooms that saw The TENG Ensemble performing eight new works with folk instruments such as the nanpa, the gaohu and the qinqin.

It is but just one thing in Samuel’s grand scheme of keeping Singapore’s Chinese music alive. Besides overseeing The TENG Company’s performance, academy and research divisions, Samuel, who holds a PHD in Ethnomusicology, lectures and supervises dissertations at various institutions and has written important books. His latest work, coauthored with fellow musicians Chow Junyi and Wang Chenwei, is a seminal guide to equip composers, scholars and music enthusiasts worldwide with the necessary knowledge to work with Chinese musical instruments.

Currently, he is partnering the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre on a research project that fuses Chinese instruments and binaural beats to induce relaxation in listeners. “We are working at the cutting edge of arts, tech, wellness and, if successful, would yield wideranging benefits.”

SHAUN HON, 29

Co-founder and general partner at Motion Ventures Having cut his teeth in the automotive industry as a solutions-driven engineer, Shaun started Motion Ventures, a fund that supports the tech innovation of maritime start-ups, in February this year. “The maritime industry is one worth investing in,” he writes in an op-ed for tech platform e27. “While 80 per cent of global trade volume moves by sea, it only creates 2.2 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.”

Motion Ventures is part of Rainmaking, the venture builder firm where Shaun also holds directorship. European transport and logistic conglomerates Wilhelmsen and HHLA as well as Seeds Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, are debut investors. The $30 million, consortium-driven fund aims to improve the maritime industry’s biggest problems like decarbonisation, and supply chain resilience and safety, by bringing together corporate partners and start-ups into its portfolio.

“Motion Ventures wears an investment lens to ensure mileage and longevity to the start-up’s business, while our corporate partners wear the customer lens to ensure that the start-up’s product solves pressing pain points.”

Large shipping and port businesses are notoriously resistant to change, thus getting them on board the fund is a big win for Shaun. “The willingness to collaborate not just ensures the rapid adoption of technologies, but also the chances of survival for start-ups as they iterate faster to solve a market need. I’m excited to continue proving our hypothesis of accelerating technological adoption with our corporate consortium. We’ve seen early signals of product-market-fit for a few startups through work with both Wilhelmsen and HHLA, and we’re keen to keep testing the scaling element of our hypothesis.”

BALLI KAUR JASWAL, 38

Novellist

There is a fearlessness to Balli’s novels, in which she takes on complex issues from race and mental health to sexuality and dysfunctional family dynamics.

Her books have been published to critical acclaim. Inheritance, Balli’s debut novel about a traditional Punjabi family grappling with issues surrounding castes, gender, sex, identity and belonging, earned her The Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelist Award. Her second novel Sugarbread, which highlights minority experiences in Singapore, is a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize 2018 and the 2015 Epigram Books Fiction Prize.

The provocatively titled Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, released in 2017, was selected by Reese Witherspoon’s book club, with screen rights sold to filmmaker Ridley Scott’s production company. She is currently consulting on the US television series adaptation of her 2019 novel The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters, and working on her upcoming title about three Filipina domestic workers setting out to prove the innocence of another domestic worker, who has been accused of murdering her employer.

Beyond novels, Balli has written essays and opinion pieces for The New York Times, Cosmopolitan.com, Harper’s Bazaar India and Salon.com, among other publications. The former writing fellow at the University of East Anglia also teaches extensively, at YALE-NUS College, Nanyang Technological University and workshops around the world, on creative writing, pursuing an artistic career, the power of storytelling, global citizenship and social injustice advocacy through literature.

Many would think her achievements are the awards and recognition for her books, but Balli considers otherwise. “Completing my PHD was a major milestone,” she says. “My dissertation was on rebellious South Asian women in contemporary diaspora literature. Being able to analyse my own creative process and consider the theoretical frameworks behind the work that I love to read and write was a valuable process.”

RAYNER KAY JIN TAN, 32

Postdoctoral fellow at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Project-china (Guangzhou), and visiting research fellow at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and National Centre for Infectious Diseases

As a socio-behavioral researcher, Rayner examines the health of vulnerable and minority populations in the areas of sexual and mental health. There are some 30-odd peer-reviewed scientific journal articles to his name.

Last year, he was also involved in investigating the impact of Covid-19 on sex workers in Singapore and providing policy recommendations that address their health and social needs. The initiative was part of Project X, a non-profit organisation that provides social, emotional and health services for people in the sex industry, and where Rayner currently serves as president.

In addition, he is the director of research at substance addiction recovery centre The Greenhouse Community Services and the treasurer for the Society of Behavioural Health Singapore. He actively contributes to discourse on mental health policies in Singapore through SG Mental Health Matters. “I believe in not just conducting research of or about the community, but alongside it. I’d like to see an empowered civil society that can self-sufficiently articulate and advocate for solutions to issues they face on the ground.”

FUND LEE, 35

Executive director of Tea Chapter Trading

The youngest son of one of 13 tea enthusiasts who founded Tea Chapter in 1989, Fund took over the tea house business about nine years ago and has been championing a revival of traditional Chinese tea drinking. Located in a quiet heritage shophouse on Neil Road, the tea house is a sanctuary where customers can immerse in the traditional tea drinking experience as well as attend tea appreciation courses and workshops.

Unlike its heyday in the early 2000s, Tea Chapter was not doing so well at the time he took over the reins, but Fund saw potential for a comeback. Despite being from the second generation, Fund did not receive much mentorship or guidance when he took over. He had to learn the ropes by himself such as by taking tea courses to expand his knowledge and obtaining a master’s in Business Administration and Management.

Over the last few years, the 35-year-old has led a revamp and rebranding of Tea Chapter, along with a new and improved website as well as ramping up digital marketing efforts to successfully bump up the business twofold. His goal has been to modernise the business and appeal to a younger, wider audience while still preserving tradition. In the future, he hopes to expand Tea Chapter overseas and consolidate more varieties of tea from different parts of the world to showcase to fellow tea lovers. “Traditional Chinese tea has set roots in other parts of the world other than China and Taiwan,” he says. “I hope I will be able to bring it to tea enthusiasts around the world as well.”

OLIVIA LEE, 35

Principal designer and director of Olivia Lee Studio Curiosity and wonder – these are the twin pillars that Olivia Lee runs her multidisciplinary studio on. The studio’s work, that spans sectors such as luxury, technology and craftmanship, is defined by an agile and distinct approach.

For Olivia, one of her biggest milestones was the studio’s appointment as scenographer for the Hermès Petit h pop-up store. “I was flown to Paris and had the opportunity to visit their archives as well as tour Hermès private museum above their Rue du Faubourg Saint-honoré flagship store.” For the popup, her team and her transformed two storeys of the Singapore flagship store into a space exploration-themed planetary that blurred the boundaries between set and retail design.

At the end of 2020, Olivia was invited to be a design ambassador for Super Design Festival, a hybrid digital and physical showcase of the region’s best in design and architecture. Having anticipated teleconferencing fatigue, her studio counterproposed a physical exhibition in Sydney. “The festival organisers thought we were crazy and said yes immediately.”

Working with stone supplier partners Neolith and CDK Stone, a miniature golf course made of sintered stone had materialised in a showroom in Australia two weeks later. “Everything came together quickly because we were all galvanised by a similar desire to dream big and dare to be crazy again after a challenging year grappling with the pandemic.”

Olivia, who was recently nominated for the INDE.AWARD Prodigy for the second time, has multiple exciting projects up her sleeve. She is currently designing a flagship store for a beauty brand, art directing and creating an inaugural collection for a glass-based brand, and working on a public art installation over the coming years. “I hope to continue to bring wonder through design, subvert expectations of what is possible and instil as much extraordinary in the ordinary.”

BENEDICT TEO, 33

Co-founder of Metamo Industries and music curator of Ritual Gym He may have retired Zushan the competitive turntablist and battle DJ in December 2020, but Benedict is not resting on his laurels. His versatility in different music genres and technologies, coupled with technical prowess, have taken him across the globe to perform in major music festivals, hold residencies at top clubs and win Zouk Singapore’s Phuture DJ Battle and Pioneer Digital DJ Battle Singapore Championship.

He is set to blaze new trails with Metamo Industries, a digital and immersive media production house that develops dynamic audio-visual experiences, where he juggles multiple roles as production manager, sound designer and music producer. When he is not curating music for Ritual Gym’s global locations or its Ritual FIT app, he is working on a fulllength album with his long-standing music outfit Owe Money Pay Money (O$P$), due to launch this year. “This release goes with a major project at Metamo Industries, which develops a new way of presenting music in the community, and creates a virtual world where we tell our story of Singapore, through an animated series accompanied by O$P$’S music.”

His passion in grooming promising artists is evident in his hopes for Singapore to recognise her top talents. “We hope to create a platform in the form of a metaverse where artists unite and excel together as one. With the pandemic forcing the world to pivot towards digital and virtual mediums, we hope that this will help us bridge the gap between our tiny nation and the rest of the world.”

EDWARD YEE, 27

Co-founder of Givfunds Social Ventures and co-founder of Masref

Singapore’s first Rhodes Scholar in 14 years, Edward works at the intersection of finance and social impact to drive change. He co-founded Givfunds to help neglected social enterprises gain access to catalytic capital.

“I’m humbled to have supported the most incredible changemakers with over 50 deals – we were the first investor in more than 80 per cent of them. Our social enterprises have raised major multi-million-dollar followon funding from various impact funds, including Acumen Fund and TPG’S Rise Fund. Most importantly, our work has directly impacted more than 45,000 lives, indirectly impacted over 900,000 more and helped our social enterprises generate in excess of US$10 million (S$13.5 million) in incremental revenues.”

Edward is currently working on Masref, an innovative Swiss-based digital bank that aims to democratise access to safe banking services previously accessible only to high net worth individuals. By leveraging Switzerland’s open banking infrastructure along with technology and artificial intelligence, it provides international digital bank accounts to everyday people, starting with Lebanon.

“From rising global inequality to existential threats such as global warming, we as humanity (in particular high-income countries), must change how we live. I hope to help build a more equitable and sustainable future, where the purpose and measure of success for businesses is not just to make profits, but to change and improve lives.”

NURL ASYRAFFIE BIN MOHAMED SHUKOR, 30

Chef and founder of Arang

Leading the evolution of Malay gastronomy is chef Nurl Asyraffie, who is one of a handful of young Malay contemporaries spotlighting their food cultures through nuanced and diverse portrayals. Having amassed nine years in the field, with working experience at reputable finedining restaurants including Corner House and Iggy’s, Asyraffie is starting on his own dream – one that he pictured back in 2016 fresh from a stint at Gaggan.

“The idea was to start a halal steakhouse, with a Burnt Ends type of concept, of grilled and smoked meats,” he says. Years later, after a two-week trip through Malaysia in 2020 and encouragement from his mentor (Mano Thevar of Thevar) he launched Arang, a series of pop-ups that pairs Malay food and its familiar flavours with luxury ingredients and modern techniques.

“Malay food is as good and tasty and can be presented in the same way as French, Spanish and Italian cuisines. Our flavours are there but no one has ever done it before,” says Asyraffie. The plates he serves are delicate and refined, such as kuih berlauk, a traditional savoury pancake with minced ground meat, liberally topped with crab fat, uni and caviar.

Asyraffie is currently single-handedly managing all the operations alone, from the marketing and guest queries to research and development. With positive reception from F&B industry insiders, food critics and diners, he is motivated to turn Arang into a fullfledged restaurant. “I’m very excited to be able to present Malay cuisine in a contemporary fashion, expand its reach and hopefully put it back on the map.”

ANDY TAY, 31

Presidential young professor in biomedical engineering at National University of Singapore (NUS) Less than a year into his appointment as an assistant professor in NUS, Andy has received $2 million in competitive research funding for developing new materials and technology to improve cell manufacturing for cancer immunotherapy.

To this end, Andy leads a lab that focuses on developing the relevant technologies. The projects he is working on include devising a more efficient method to deliver DNA into immune cells and engineer them into super-soldier cells to fight cancer, and creating artificial lymph node tissues to support immune functions in patients. Building on his research which has been selected as the “Most Influential Paper” in 2020 by industry journal Advanced Therapeutics, the scientist also hopes to make cancer immunotherapy more affordable and effective.

Last year, Andy was the only Singaporean selected for the World Economic Forum Class of Young Scientists, and he has also received multiple international recognition, including Forbes 30 Under 30 (US/ Canada), the Helmsley Fellowship and the Toshihiko Tokizane Award.

Besides research, Andy is an advocate of science outreach. He has partnered with Temasek Junior College, his alma mater, to provide a platform where NUS PHD students can present their research and mentor students interested in taking up science, technology, engineering and mathematics in university. In recognition of these efforts, he was selected by the National Youth Council for a national campaign feature called Impact Index this July.

VAL YAP, 33

Founder and CEO of Policypal Group

Val learnt of her mother’s cancer diagnosis in 2013, while working in London as a risk assurance consultant at PWC. “I quickly moved back to Singapore to be with her. It was a stressful time relocating, caring for her and consolidating her insurance policies. When her insurance claim for her treatment was rejected, I realised that most people don’t understand their policies as well as they should. This was the pivotal moment that spurred me to establish Policypal in 2016,” recalls Val.

Asia’s leading Insurtech start-up, Policypal is a free app that simplifies the daunting process of policy management, helping users organise and keep track of all their insurance products on a single platform. In its first year, Val bootstrapped the company and scaled it to be the first graduate of Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Fintech Regulatory Sandbox, in addition to receiving seed funding from Fenbushi

Capital, 500 Startups, Altara Ventures and Paypal. “Within five years, we served individuals and SMES with over $1 billion in coverage and transacted $50 million in premiums.”

One of Val’s biggest milestones was when Policypal was acquired by Hong Kong-based fintech firm AMTD Digital last June. “That was one of my proudest moments as it’s a testament to our relevance as a company and the culmination of my team’s hard work.” Despite the severe economic downturn caused by the pandemic, 2020 saw an impressive 40 times year-on-year growth in premiums placed in short-term insurance savings plans from 2019 on Baoxianbaobao, an insurance brokerage firm and subsidiary of the Policypal Group.

“Over the next few years, I hope to launch Policypal on the Asian stage with the AMTD Group before going global. Our vision is to increase protection coverage for all.”