ARTC Steering Board

Prof Lam Khin Yong is currently one of the Co-Chairmen of ARTC. He oversees NTU’s university-wide research and its implementation. From 1 May 2014, he took on new responsibilities concurrently with his present appointment as NTU’s Chief of Staff. Reporting to the President, he draws on his extensive experience in the fields of research, academia and administration to help the President and Provost manage the University’s research efforts, which include research planning and policy development, research funding strategies and research infrastructure development. He has also been playing a key leadership role in the planning and running of NTU’s research activities.

Prior to his appointment as Chief of Staff in 2011, Prof Lam was the Chair of NTU’s School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and later NTU’s Associate Provost for Graduate Education & Special Projects. He has played a significant role in the establishment of NTU’s Interdisciplinary Graduate School, which offers outstanding PhD candidates a platform to pursue research in interdisciplinary areas. He also co-chairs the Advanced Remanufacturing & Technology Centre, Asia’s first industrial remanufacturing R&D centre.

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 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 relations in world-class manufacturing and technology companies. He is a member of the International Evaluation Panel for the Singapore National Research Foundation’s Competitive Research Program.

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 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 board 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), and the BTech Program at the National University of Singapore; and he is 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 fiber-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 lines 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.

Professor Huan is the Assistant Chief Executive, A*STAR (Science & Engineering Research Council), through which he sets and drives the implementation of A*STAR’s strategic plans and initiatives in the Science and Engineering arena. He was most recently Executive Director (ED) of the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE).

Professor Huan’s earliest contribution to A*STAR was when he joined the incipient A*STAR IMRE as a joint appointee in 1998, functioning as Programme Manager of the Materials Characterisation Lab, and establishing it as the premier materials analysis lab in the region. He remained in this role until 2010. He was seconded to the A*STAR Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) in 2011. In 2012, he took up the position of Acting ED of the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), later assuming the position of full ED of the institute, a role he held until 2018. He was concurrently ED of the A*STAR Graduate Academy (A*GA) from 2013 to 2017. In 2017, he also added the ED IMRE role to his portfolio. Prof Huan relinquished his appointment as ED IHPC in 2018. From 2019 to 2020, he was concurrently ED of the newly-established Urban and Green Technologies Office.

Prior to his career with A*STAR, Professor Huan had acquired considerable research and academic experience. He first took up a Lecturer position at the Department of Physics, NUS, in 1989 and was eventually appointed as Deputy Head of Department in 2004. At NUS, he worked on surface science and epitaxial thin films, understanding surface and interfacial electronic structure of high-k oxides and semiconductors. He also studied the relaxation and reconstruction on various metal and semiconductor surfaces. Between 1999 and 2000, he worked as Visiting Beamline Scientist at the Advanced Light Source in the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. In 2005, he left NUS along with some colleagues to start a new school at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) – the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS). He began as the Head of the Division of Physics and Applied Physics, and later on, added the portfolio of Associate Chair for Outreach and Admissions. In NTU, his research focused on ultrafast charge and energy transfer in organics and II-VI semiconductor nanostructures, in particular the roles of defect states and the effect of dopants, leading to rich optical phenomena exciton relaxation and charge dissociation.

Professor Huan received his education at the University of Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, working on acoustic interactions in low temperature paramagnetic insulators.

Dr Hamid Mughal is currently the SERC Advisor of ARTC. He has over 28 years of experience in the Automotive and Aerospace Industries. During this period he has held senior positions in a variety of disciplines ranging from Product Engineering to Supply Chain Management. He joined Rolls-Royce in 2001 from BMW Group where he was Director of New Product Programmes.

In his current role as Director of Global Manufacturing, Rolls-Royce plc, Hamid is responsible for leading the Manufacturing activities & strategies across all sectors of the company. These include the development and deployment of Lean practices and behaviours, methods, standards, technologies and systems to create Best in Class Manufacturing performance. He is also responsible for the professional development of the Manufacturing professionals in the company.

Dr Hamid has an Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering, BA in Mathematics and Technology, MSc. in Production Engineering & Management and a Doctorate in Manufacturing Systems. He has a keen interest in the latest developments in Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management and contributes regularly to professional bodies in his capacity as Pro Chancellor University of Nottingham and External Professor at Cranfield and Sheffield Universities. He is a Chartered Engineer, winner of the IET’s International Manufacturing Gold Medal, Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, IMechE and IET and a Board member of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult & the Advanced Manufacturing Institute.

Dr Hamid passionately believes in the social and economic value of Manufacturing. He plays a leading role in the advancement of competitive Manufacturing by promoting collaborative programmes such as the Global network of Advanced Manufacturing Research Centres, the development & application of Lean Production Systems and crosssector education and training for industrial leaders.

Dr Hamid is married and has three sons who keep him fairly busy during weekends and holidays. He does however, find time to pursue his fairly wide interest in music, swimming, cricket, travelling and Manchester United.

Mr Soh Leng Wan is currently the Assistant Chief Executive of Enterprise Singapore, the Industry and Enterprise Development agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, responsible for helping Singapore enterprises grow. 

He plays an important role in local enterprise development, with particular focus on advanced manufacturing and engineering, enhancing their strategies and fostering partnerships in order to grow into globally competitive companies. 

Prior to his appointment at Enterprise Singapore, Leng Wan have been serving the Singapore community in different departments of the public sector such as the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of National Development and Ministry of Defense. Mr Soh graduated with a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of California in Berkeley.  

Mr Tan Kong Hwee is the Executive Vice President of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). He 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 and transform their operations here. Kong Hwee also oversees Strategy divisions including Mobility and Health & Wellness.

Prior to his current appointment, Kong Hwee was responsible for developing various industry sectors, such as aerospace, marine & offshore, and space technology as an Executive Director. He was also posted overseas as Regional Director, Europe and Centre Director, Japan. Prior to joining EDB in 2006, he was with the Ministry of Home Affairs for 3 years. Mr Tan graduated with a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Kyoto University.

Dr David Low is currently the Chief Executive Officer of ARTC. He developed the ARTC from a conceptualised public-private partnership programme, focusing on remanufacturing capabilities in 2012, to a full-fledged A*STAR Research Institute in 2017, focusing on translational advanced manufacturing and remanufacturing R&D with the industry. Under his leadership, the ARTC grew from a team of 6 core staff to over 250 core staff today. David established the ARTC industry membership framework and spearheaded the signing of the legal membership agreement, spanning across an initial 19 companies in 2013 to over 70 industry members in 2019.

The ARTC membership ecosystem brings together MNCs and OEMs, technology and service providers, and SMEs from the aerospace, heavy machinery and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors. ARTC has established strong ties with over 70 industry members including Coca-Cola, DMGMORI, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, SAESL, Shell, Siemens, Zeiss, and over 30 SMEs. ARTC has co-created various solutions with its members, and in some instances, partnered with SMEs to commercialise solutions before implementation in their factories located in Singapore and around the world. Prior to joining ARTC, David was the Chief of Manufacturing Technology and the Head of Process Technology Research Centre at Rolls-Royce Singapore Pte Ltd, where he steered the organisation’s pioneering efforts to develop advanced manufacturing capabilities in Singapore for global deployment. David also spent significant time in Rolls-Royce’s global facilities in Germany, UK, US, Singapore and Sweden. For his outstanding contributions, he received the prestigious Sir Henry Royce Team Award for Engineering Excellence in 2012.

Trained as a researcher in mechanical engineering and laser materials processing, Dr Low started his research career at SIMTech in 2002 and eventually held the appointment of Group Manager for Machining Technology. In 2007, David was presented the MTI Borderless Gold Award for establishing the A*STAR Aerospace Programme. David has published over 50 journals, conferences, patents and book publications. His publications have attracted over 1300 citations with a H-index of 20.

Dr Low 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.

Dr Low is also on the board of governors at Singapore Polytechnic and an Adjunct Associate 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).