Temasek Business School - Graduate Success Stories

Our students work hard – they listen, they express, they create, they experiment, and they learn. Their years of dedication and commitment all lead to the gratifying moment of graduation. But where do their diplomas lead them? Read about the Success Stories of our graduates.

Accounting & Finance Lawrence Foo Shih Ching Tan Huan Qi Zhang Fang Fang 3 A&F Graduates Achieved First Class Honours at NTU in 2007 2007 saw a whopping THREE ex-A&F students graduating with First Class Honours at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) – Lawrence, Huan Qi, and Fang Fang. Lawrence Foo Shih Ching, who graduated from TP with a Diploma with Merit in 2002, was a Gold Medalist that year. He is now an auditor with PriceWaterhouse Coopers. Tan Huan Qi was a Silver Medalist from the Diploma in A&F in 2003. She is now with Deutsche Bank under its Graduate Management Trainee programme. To top the icing, Zhang Fang Fang, a Gold Medalist from the diploma in 2003, was on the Dean’s List for her first and second year of study, and has also won the prestigious University Scholars Award at NTU in 2007. The trio has definitely brought honour and pride to A&F! more success stories...

Business Siaw Kin Khoon, Martin Siaw Kin Khoon, Martin received his Diploma in Business in 1995. Martin graduated from Cornell University, USA, with a Bachelor of Science. In 2006, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Calderonwell & Company, a boutique consulting firm. Prior to that, he was their Director of Special Projects. more success stories...

Business Information Technology Leong Mingjie Mingjie loves the sea, the waves and the sun. He used to be a trainee kayaking coach at the People’s Association Sea Sports Club. He has a Powered Pleasure Craft license and enjoys going out to sea in a boat, to just take a break from the hustle and bustle. His love for the sea has led him to achieve the award of the Sword of Honour in the Republic of Singapore Navy for the 61/05 Officer Cadet Course. Mingjie has just passed his course, and during his commissioning parade on 10 June 2006, he received the Sword of Honour from DPM Prof S Jayakumar. On top of that, Mingjie has been awarded the Non Graduating Military Training Award (NMTA) to train in UK-Dartmouth at the Britannia Royal Naval College for a year. There were only two officers who received this award and Mingjie has just left for the UK on 11 June 2006, a day after his commissioning parade. He is looking forward to an exciting year ahead in the UK. In the Officer Cadet School, Mingjie was appointed the Midshipman Wing Commander during the sailing trip to Malaysia, China and Thailand. Later, he was promoted to Deputy Cadet School Commander. When Mingjie first joined TP, his main goal was to make it to the Director’s Honour List and he succeeded every year. Now, he had also fulfilled his goals that he set for himself when he first joined the Navy. Mingjie has shown his mettle time and again in planning well, and succeeding as planned. We wish Mingjie all the best and success in achieving his goals. more success stories...

Communications & Media Management Pang Aizhen Pamela Pamela graduated with a first-class honours Bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies at the Nanyang Technological University. She belongs to the pioneer cohort of Temasek Poly’s Communications and Media Management (CMM) course and has always been a go-getter. An “A” student in TP, she graduated with a CMM Diploma with Merit in 2004, having scored a string of distinctions throughout her three-year course. Pamela majored in broadcasting and had a technical bent, which she used to her advantage by taking on a wide range of projects within and outside campus. These included a series of freelance projects for the Singapore History Museum, where she designed and produced Macromedia Flash microsites for several exhibitions in 2004 and 2005. Earlier, in 2002, she was part of a team that designed and produced an interactive Macromedia Flash corporate informational demonstration. In 2003, she created a Flash version of Communications and Media Management website. For three consecutive years, she was the co-coordinator and director of a television studio team, which demonstrated the making of a news programme to visitors to Temasek Polytechnic’s open house. She was also one of the producers of a series of 5-minute radio documentaries on doing business in China, titled “Entering the Dragon’s Gates”. They were broadcast on News Radio 93.8FM in 2004. Pamela also honed her journalistic skill by first contributing to the campus newspaper, Stop Press and later doing her internship at MediaCorp’s Today newspaper in 2003 where she won the confidence of her editors. Subsequently she did editorial and photography work for the June/July 2004 issue of “Sharing’’, Alexandra Hospital’s in-house newsletter. She had also worked full-time as a programming executive with Star Hub Cable Television from 2004 to 2005, where she was involved in the operations and content development for interactive TV channel, Hub TV (Channel 26). She had also held temporary positions as an administrative clerk, clinic assistant and sales assistant. more success stories...

Culinary & Catering Management Presenting our first batch of graduates in the second-half of 2009. Please check back again.

Hospitality & Tourism Management Tang Xiangru Background Tang Xiangru was a student at Temasek Polytechnic from 2000—2003. She graduated with a Diploma in Tourism Management with Merit and received the Singapore Tourism Board Course Gold Medal for being the top student of her cohort. Education (2003—2006) Xiangru graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Travel Industry Management with Highest Honors and Minor in Economics at the University of Hawai‘i at Mânoa in August 2006. She also finished her three years in university with a perfect GPA score. Achievements (2005—2008) Manager of the Quarter, Sheraton Kauai Resort (2^nd Quarter, 2007) Chairperson, Pacific Asia Travel Association Hawai‘i STIM Satellite Chapter (2005-06) Vice-President, Eta Sigma Delta (2006) Pacific-Asian Tuition Waiver (2005-06) International Institute of Peace Through Tourism Scholarship – Best Paper (2005) Hawaii Travel Academy Scholarship (2005) Outstanding Senior in Tourism (2005) Vice-Chairperson, PATA Hawai‘i STIM Satellite Chapter (2004-05) Dean’s List (2004-05) Asia Pacific Tuition Differential Exemption (2004-06) Work Experience After obtaining her Bachelors’, Xiangru joined Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc as a revenue management trainee at Sheraton Kauai Resort in Hawai‘i. This one-year training not only equipped her with strong revenue management skills in areas such as forecasting and pricing skills, but also developed her leadership potential through assisting her Director in managing the hotel’s Reservations department. This experience won Xiangru the “Manager of the Quarter” award, which was nominated by the hotel’s associates and selected by the hotel’s management team. Having her eyes set on the rapidly growing Asian market, Xiangru quickly proved to be ready for her new assignment in China as a Revenue Manager at the newly opened Sheraton Shenzhen Futian Hotel. Her intensive training and strong team support helped Xiangru settle well into her new position and saw the hotel outperforming its competitors consistently. Just after 6 months, Xiangru was promoted to the Director of Revenue Management at this property. Xiangru’s interest in marketing and strategic planning traces back to her three internships in school. During her final year in TP, Xiangru spent a semester in the Sales and Marketing department and Reservations department at Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. The seven-month experience strengthened her customer service skills as well as exposed her to developing marketing plans. Keen to explore tourism planning at a national level, Xiangru completed a 10-week internship at the Singapore Tourism Board in 2004. As an intern in the Plans Analysis and Integration department, Xiangru helped her team in formulating a roadmap for Singapore’s travel industry. A year later, her experiences in Singapore earned her a six-month internship at the Hawai’i Visitors and Convention Bureau. As a Market Trends intern, Xiangru worked closely with her superiors in several projects involving competitive assessments and tourism statistics analysis. more success stories...

Hospitality & Tourism Business Melvin Ng Kian Chai If there were three things that set Melvin apart from his fellow students at The Tourism Academy @ Sentosa, they must have been his abundant energy, his leadership qualities and his pleasant personality. Not contented with merely doing well in his studies (and ‘well’ he did, topping his pioneering cohort, winning the prestigious Sentosa Leisure Group Gold Medal Award and graduating with the first-ever Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Business with Merit in 2006), Melvin also took time to spearhead and help The Tourism Academy establish the Hospitality and Tourism Business Interest Group (IG) and the Wine Appreciation Club. Reminiscing about the good old days, Melvin said,”I will always treasure my attachment with Raffles Hotel for the annual Wine Food Arts Experience (WFAE) and the World Gourmet Summit. My internship with Cathay Pacific is also one experience, money cannot buy. All these experiences exposed me to the real world and its challenges at an early stage and helped me perform in my current job.” After graduating, Melvin joined Commonwealth Travel Service Corporation (CTC Travel) as the company’s first Management Trainee before leaving to join his current employer, Genting International (S) Pte Ltd as an Assistant Sales Manager. In his current appointment, Melvin handles B2B MICE Sales and is also part of the MICE Marketing Team based in Singapore. Melvin is proud of the fact that he was in the sales team that helped the company achieve a record one million Singapore arrivals to Genting Highlands in 2007. He also handled the accounts of major travel agencies and helped coordinate major events at Genting Highlands. Melvin’s leadership qualities were put to the test when he was appointed the project chairman for the company’s major event - “Be A Star” singing contest. “It was stressful to say the least. The event depended heavily on sponsorship; I didn’t know how I managed it but I must have been convincing for we were able to sign up companies like Make Up Forever, Music Story, HOYU hair colour and Party World KTV as sponsors.” “As I look back the rigors of the studies at The Tourism Academy where we had so many overlapping deadlines must have helped. It really got me to multi-task and be the person I am today.” Melvin is currently pursuing his Bachelors Degree in Management (Honours) from the University of Manchester and hopes to achieve his MBA thereafter.

Law & Management Sheela Kumari Devi Temasek Polytechnic's Law & Management Division broke new ground in Aug 2004 when Sheela Kumari Devi became the 1st polytechnic graduate to begin her undergraduate studies in the Law Faculty. She was not the first to be accepted by the Law Faculty of the National University of Singapore. Lavanesan Swaminathan from the batch before her created history as the 1st polytechnic student to be accepted by the NUS Law Faculty. Lavan only began his studies in Aug 2005 after his National Service. Sam Hongzheng from the 2004 batch followed in the footsteps of Sheela and Lavan when he was also successful in his application to the Law Faculty. All 3 students had topped their respective cohorts in TP and had also won several book prizes and accolades for their academic excellence in their 3 years at the polytechnic. more success stories...

Leisure & Resort Management Presenting our first batch of graduates in the second-half of 2008. Please check back again.

Logistics & Operations Management Gong Bei Ms Gong Bei, an international student from China, graduated from TP in 2001. Her outstanding accomplishments in both study and CCA earned her offers from three big players in the logistics industry even before she graduated. She finally chose Global Airfreight Int’l Pte Ltd, one of the biggest local freight forwarding companies, as she saw the potential for growing together with the company. Impressed by her exceptional performance and by recognizing her contribution the company co-sponsored her for a degree course at University of Western Australia and not surprisingly, she further proved her ability with 12 Distinctions out of 16 subjects. Now being the youngest manager in the company, she is in charge of developing the company’s business in China and flies frequently to various cities to explore business opportunities. When asked what she would think the best thing(s) of TP, she said: “TP, a dynamic polytechnic with state-of-the-art technologies and teaching methods, equips its students with the most practical skills. One can always make friends form both Singapore and other countries and learn from its diversified culture. This is very important because your future job would probably involve interactions on an international scale. TP is just the place where you can build up your confidence and be readily prepared for your future challenges.” more success stories...

Marketing Faith Hu In June 2006, Faith was offered the Lee Kong Chian Scholars Program at the Singapore Management University (SMU). For that, she was granted a place in the SMU double degree program and will graduate with two degrees in four years. She now studies Business Management (majoring in Marketing) and Social Science (majoring in Psychology). She enjoys the privileges of tuition fee waivers, a laptop grant, and book allowance. All lodging, tuition fees and travel expenses will be borne by SMU when she is sent on exchange programmes and various other overseas missions. In an email informing her lecturers about her receiving this prestigious scholarship, Faith wrote: “Besides bringing the good tidings, I would also like to thank all the lecturers for the patient guidance and support throughout my Temasek Polytechnic education. It has been an inspiring journey that has contributed greatly to the achievements and the person I am today. It would have been quite a different story had I chosen any other course or gone to Junior College as everyone had bade me to do. Please convey my thanks to everyone.” She was a Raffles Girls Secondary School student with a net “O” Level aggregate of 7 on entering the Diploma in Marketing course. more success stories...

Retail Management Presenting our first batch of graduates in the second-half of 2008. Please check back again.