ARTC Steering Board

Prof. Lam Khin Yong is currently one of the Co-Chairmen of ARTC. He guides NTU’s university-wide research and its implementation as the Senior Vice President (Research). He was previously NTU’s Acting Provost (March–December 2017), Chief of Staff (2011–2017), Acting CEO of NTU Innovation (2012–2013), Associate Provost for Graduate Education & Special Projects (2008–2011), and Dean/Chair of the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (2006–2008).

He is a strong proponent of the Triple Helix Framework as well as research and innovation partnerships involving universities, industry, and public agencies. Together with his colleagues, he drove many of NTU’s collaborations with major industry and academic partners, including the setting up of corporate labs and joint labs on campus with Continental, HP Inc., Singtel and Surbana Jurong, as well as the NTU-Alibaba Joint Research Institute and the Sino-Singapore International Joint Research Institute (SSIJRI). In his previous role as Chief of Staff, he oversaw the operations of the President’s Office. As Associate Provost, he played a strategic role in growing NTU’s graduate and research programmes and spearheaded joint research programmes with top universities globally, including the Technical University of Munich, the University of Cambridge and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has also contributed to NTU’s world-class positioning within the National Research Foundation’s Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) initiative since 2007.

Before joining NTU, he was the Founding Director of the NUS Centre for Computational Mechanics and the NUS-MINDEF Underwater Shock Laboratory, Programme Director of the IHPC-MINDEF High Performance Computing Centre, Founding Executive Director of the Institute of High Performance Computing and Founding Executive Director of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Graduate Academy.

In addition, he held directorship positions in the then NSTB and A*STAR Holding companies as Director of ETPL Investment and KRDL Holdings. Professor Lam was also the Technical Advisor to the Executive Chairman of ETPL, Programme Advisor for the High Performance Computation Programme of the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) and Deputy Director of SMA. He worked with the MD of A*STAR and Executive Chairman of ETPL to set up the Managing Director Office and ETPL at A*STAR.

In 2017, Professor Lam was awarded the French National Order of the Legion of Honour (Chevalier) for advancing research between Singapore and France. Other accolades include the Honorary Doctorate from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Honorary Professorship Diploma award, the highest honour and recognition from Lomonosov Moscow State University, and the Shandong University Honorary Professorship in recognition of his research achievements and the links that he had established with the industry. In 2018, he received the prestigious President’s Science and Technology Medal, which is awarded to outstanding individuals who have made a distinguished contribution to the development of Singapore through the promotion and management of R&D. He had also received the Singapore Distinguished Service Award from the National Supercomputing Centre Singapore (NSCC Singapore) for his long-term service and contributions to HPC. He was also the first academic to lead a research team to win the national Defence Technology Prize.

He chairs various steering and governance committees, which include the HP-NTU Corporate Lab Governing Board, among others. He obtained his BSc with First Class Honours in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London and his Master’s and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mr. Peter Tan is currently one of the Co-Chairmen of ARTC. He is the founder and Managing Partner of JP Asia Capital Partners and the former President and Managing Director of Flextronics Asia. He has more than 35 years of operating experience in Asia and Silicon Valley and has built up expertise and business relationships with world-class manufacturing and technology companies. He is a member of the International Evaluation Panel for the Singapore National Research Foundation’s Competitive Research Programme.

Mr Tan was the Executive Director of JIT Electronics, a Singapore-based contract manufacturer when it was acquired by Flextronics in 2000. He successfully led the integration of the two companies and subsequently presided over the management of Flextronics Asia as President and Managing Director. Under his leadership, Flextronics Asia has grown to become the largest and most profitable region for Flextronics. At the end of June 2007, Mr. Tan retired from Flextronics to focus on other activities involving emerging technologies and supply chain management.

Besides his investment activities at JP Asia Capital, Mr. Tan sits on the boards of Dialog Semiconductor PLC in the UK and Innotek Limited, SMRT Corporation, and Exploit Technologies in Singapore. He was also a non-executive director of Vacuumschmelze Luxembourg SA and VariOptic in Lyon, France. Both companies were divested in 2011. Mr Tan is also an advisor for MIR Investment (Australia), SolarEdge Technologies (Israel), the BTech Programme at the National University of Singapore. and a council member of the Singapore Manufacturers Federation. A veteran in the electronics industry, Mr. Tan has accumulated more than three decades of manufacturing and operations experience. Prior to joining JIT Electronics in 1997, Mr Tan served as Managing Director, Asia Pacific Operations for Apple, and previously as General Manager and Managing Director at Molex Singapore, a manufacturer of electronic, electrical, and fibre-optic interconnection products. Preceding his five-year term at Molex, Mr. Tan spent eighteen years with National Semiconductor Asia Pacific, where he held various regional positions in manufacturing, materials management, operations and product line planning.

Mr Tan received his Graduate Diploma in Management Studies from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and his MBA from Golden Gate University, San Francisco.

Sachin Mirashi leads multiple disciplines of supply chain organization (comprising of 10200+ team members) as Regional Chief Supply Officer of P&G’s Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa business, based at Singapore, effective 1st May’23. Before this, Sachin led North America’s Fabric care business of Procter & Gamble based out of Cincinnati (USA) for 3 years, through challenging times of pandemic, supporting accelerated growth & value creation. He has proven track record of transforming supply chains to accelerate value to P&G business globally over last 25+ years!

He started his professional career as Mechanical Engineer at Tata Motors (India) in 1994 & joined P&G in 1997 in India after post-graduation in manufacturing management from SPJIMR (Mumbai). He has experience in supply chain management in developed & developing markets globally (India, Japan, Singapore, Australia & United States) with different retail landscapes (Modern Retail, High Frequency Store/ Distributor environment, Digital commerce etc). His expertise is in creating effective & efficient supply solutions for business problems in FMCG industry to deliver end to end synchronized & resilient supply chains. Specifically, his core competence includes ‘end to end’ planning (demand, supply & business planning), Supply Network design, Manufacturing & Supply Chain Integrations.

He is seen as a thought leader on adoption of technology & Digital tools in Supply Chain management for P&G and has been a successful key note speaker & panelist at many reputed international supply chain conferences at Singapore, Sydney, India, China, United States etc. He has also been featured in many manufacturing & supply chain publications viz. National Manufacturing Magazine & Supply Chain Review monthly (Australia), ISB Journal (India) to name a few.

Professor Lim Keng Hui is the Assistant Chief Executive Officer of the Science & Engineering Research Council (SERC) at A*STAR. He drives the implementation of A*STAR’s strategies and initiatives in the Science and Engineering domains to create industry and societal impact, and to build long term R&D capabilities for Singapore. With more than 2,500 scientists, engineers, project and admin managers under SERC, the R&D portfolio he oversees includes advanced manufacturing, urban and sustainability solutions, transport, digital and medical technologies.

Professor Lim was the former Executive Director of the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) in A*STAR, where he led the research institute to create science and technology impact in artificial intelligence (AI), computational modelling and simulation. He was also concurrently the Executive Director of the Artificial Intelligence, and Social Sciences and Technology Horizontal Technology Programme Offices in A*STAR, where he drove and coordinated research in these two fields across all A*STAR research institutes. He was also the founding co-lead of the National Quantum Computing Hub in Singapore.

Prior to A*STAR, Professor Lim was the Director of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)’s Digital Manufacturing & Design Centre (DManD), where he co-led the research centre to develop leading edge capabilities in digital manufacturing and computational design. Concurrently, he was the Director of the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC) at SUTD, where he established and led the translational research centre which focused on additive manufacturing R&D with companies, standards development, and outreach.

Professor Lim has also previously held several key appointments in A*STAR, including as Director of the SERC Engineering Cluster where he established and managed strategic programmes in Future of Manufacturing, Marine & Offshore, Urban Solutions and MedTech. Professor Lim’s industry experience includes positions as Head of Product Development at a Singapore manufacturing company; Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of two medical imaging and robotics start-ups in Singapore and Boston.

Professor Lim holds adjunct positions at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU), and his R&D interests are in AI, digital manufacturing, and the management of technology. He sits on numerous boards and national-level R&D committees in domains such as advanced manufacturing and digital technologies.

Professor Lim holds several patents, and is the recipient of numerous technology awards, including the Innovator’s Award from the Prime Minister’s Office. He was educated at Imperial College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the National University of Singapore, and INSEAD.

Hamid is currently the SERC Advisor of the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research and a member of the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre’s steering board in Singapore. With over 35 years of experience in the Automotive and Aerospace Sector, Hamid is an internationally acclaimed industrial leader. In his 35 years, he has held senior positions in a number of disciplines, including Product Engineering, Business Strategy, Business & Operations Leadership, Manufacturing Engineering & Technology, Supply Chain Management and Product Development for large-scale programmes. 

In 2000, Hamid joined Rolls Royce from the BMW Group, where he was Director of New Product Programmes. In his most recent industrial role as Director of Global Manufacturing at Rolls-Royce plc, Hamid was responsible for leading the company’s manufacturing strategy across its four main Businesses – Civil, Defence, Marine & Power Systems. This included the development, deployment, and leadership of the overall strategy and application of leading-edge Manufacturing Methods, Processes, Technologies, Systems, and Lean Principles and Practices to achieve ‘Best in Class’ performance. He was also responsible for the professional development of the manufacturing community within the company. 

In 2014, Hamid received an OBE in the New Year’s Honours for services to Innovation, Technology and Manufacturing. 

Hamid also has an Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering, BA in Mathematics and Technology, MSc. in Advanced Engineering & Management and a Doctorate in Industrial Systems.  He has also been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the universities of Hertfordshire, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Strathclyde. 

Having a keen interest in the fast-evolving global industrial trends, he contributes regularly to professional bodies in his capacity as Professor of Engineering and Manufacturing and External Professor of Manufacturing at Cranfield, Hertfordshire, and Sheffield Universities. He is a Chartered Engineer, winner of the International Manufacturing Gold Medal, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, IMechE, and IET, Advisor to A*Star SERC and Steering Group Member of A*Star Advanced Re-Manufacturing & Technology Centre, Board Member of the Unipart Group, and Chair of the UKRI’s and Scotland’s Industrial Steering Groups. 

Hamid passionately believes in the social and economic value of industrial growth and business success and has played a leading role in the advancement of competitive industrial bases by promoting defined strategies, collaborative partnerships, and programmes of leading-edge technologies, best-in-class industrial practises, a global network of Advanced Manufacturing Research Centres, the formation of the UK’s HVM Catapult, and cross-sector education and training for industrial leaders. 

As the Assistant Chief Executive (Manufacturing & Engineering) of Enterprise Singapore, Leng Wan leads various teams to champion enterprise growth in Singapore’s manufacturing and engineering industries. 

Prior to this, Leng Wan spent seven years in the Ministry of Trade and Industry. As the Senior Director (Industry Division) between 2017 and 2021, he led his team to formulate policies and initiatives to ensure the competitiveness of the Singapore economy as well as the vibrancy of Singapore as a global city and tourism destination. His teams worked closely with the Economic Development Board to anchor significant foreign investments in Singapore’s manufacturing sector, as well as with the Singapore Tourism Board and Sentosa Development Corporation to develop iconic tourism projects in Singapore. Between 2006 and 2009, he was Deputy Director (Resource Division), where he led his team to develop manpower initiatives to support enterprises in meeting their labour and talent needs. 

Land use and economics have a strong nexus in land-scarce Singapore. Between 2012 and 2017, Leng Wan was Senior Director (Strategic Planning) in the Ministry of National Development in charge of reviewing Singapore’s land use plans and development strategies. Some of the notable publicly accessible projects include the Singapore Land Use Plan (2013), the Master Plan 2014, the Singapore Sustainable Blueprint (2015), and the Future City Sub-Committee Report (2016) under the auspices of the Committee on the Future Economy. 

Leng Wan had also served in various portfolios dealing with public policy formulation in the Ministry of Defence and the then-Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. 

Leng Wan has a Master of Science (Civil Engineering) from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Civil Engineering from the National University of Singapore.

Ms Cindy Koh is the Executive Vice President of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). She oversees EDB’s Accounts Group that works closely with top local and international companies from a wide range of industries and corporate segments to facilitate their investments into Singapore, transform their operations here and help them succeed in Asia via Singapore.

Prior to her current appointment, Cindy was responsible for EDB’s international operations which spans over 20 locations outside of Singapore.

Before being appointed as Executive Vice President and a member of EDB’s Executive Committee in 2021, Cindy held the post of Senior Vice President and Head of Consumer. In that role, she worked closely with leading global Consumer Packaged Goods and Lifestyle companies to develop and execute their regional and global strategies through Singapore. She also held a concurrent appointment as Senior Vice President and Head of Region for Americas and led EDB’s operations in North and South America.

Cindy previously held positions as Director for Chemicals from 2015-2018 and Director, Resource Development Division (Planning & Policy) from 2013-2015. She was also the Centre Director of EDB’s Washington DC Centre from 2005 to 2009. She joined EDB in 2002. She received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the National of University of Singapore in 1999.

An engineer and researcher by training, David leads both ARTC and SIMTech with a mission to uplift Singapore’s manufacturing competitiveness through the adoption of advanced manufacturing, sustainability, and digital solutions.
 
David established the ARTC from a concept of a public-private partnership programme in 2012 to a full-fledged A*STAR Research Institute in 2017. The ARTC focuses on innovative translational advanced manufacturing and remanufacturing R&D. Today, ARTC works with 98 industry members across Aerospace, Land Transport, FMCG, Energy and MedTech pillars.
 
In 2019, David rejoined SIMTech, a research institute that develops high-value manufacturing technology and human capital to enhance the competitiveness of Singapore’s manufacturing industry, in particular small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SIMTech works with over 200 SMEs annually, as well as LLEs, and covers a wide range of manufacturing technologies.
 
David started his research career in the UK and subsequently at SIMTech, where he developed from a laser materials processing researcher to the Group Manager for Machining Technology.
 
He received the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) Borderless Team Awards in 2007 and 2016. He also received the prestigious Sir Henry Royce Team Award for Engineering Excellence in 2012. David received the MTI Exemplary Firefly Award (Gold) and the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
 
David has published over 50 journals, conferences, patents, and book publications. While his last publication was in 2007, his publications have attracted over 1400 citations with an H-index of 21.
 
David is a member of the board of governors at Singapore Polytechnic and is currently an Adjunct Professor at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He is a Fellow and Chartered Engineer of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and a Senior Member of the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES).
 
David received his PhD and Bachelor degree (First Class Honours) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Technology (UMIST), now known as The University of Manchester. He received his Executive MBA from INSEAD and Tsinghua University in 2014. He is also an alumnus of the Stanford Executive Programme (SEP).