Information for Media

Mr Willie Wong, a recent graduate from the pioneer batch of the Nanyang Business School Executive MBA Programme and the sole recipient of the 2009 Furama Book Prize, was recently awarded the Outstanding Entrepreneur Award in the prestigious Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards 2009.

The award is given out to outstanding individuals who have demonstrated entrepreneurial attributes that make them role models for emerging entrepreneurs, including the tenacity and perseverance to continue innovating and making a difference under adverse situations and environments.

Mr Wong helms Frontken Corporation Berhad, a company he started in 1996, as its Executive Chairman and Managing Director.

- Full Story

Daphane Loke speaks French, helms French Food Factory and is the executive chef of Saybons. But the Nanyang Business School alumna is all Singaporean, no less.

Even the name of her retailing brand name was anglicized from the French word “C'est Bon” which means “it's good” to “Saybons” with an added “s” at the back.

Ms Loke is regarded as one of the few pioneering Singaporeans who made French fare highly accessible to the locals and quite rightly so, for Saybons' soups, crepes and bread spreads are affordable and can be bought off a takeaway kiosk conveniently located in town.

- Full Story

The Nanyang Fellows Programme Office organised a seminar on the infrastructure development in Asia through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model on 2 September 2009. It was one of the many lined up for the Business Seminar Series.

Open to all current post-graduate students, faculty and staff of Nanyang Business School, the seminar discussed important economic issues facing Asia today including infrastructure investment requirements in Asia, the PPP model, typical structures and financing sources for PPP projects.

The speaker was Mr Laurent Margoloff, Director, Global Export & Project Finance Asia, Fortis Bank (Singapore).

Please click here for Mr Margoloff's CV.

Nanyang Business School's Marketing & International Business (MIB) Division organised a seminar titled, "Persistent Preferences for Brands and Product Attributes" on 1 September 2009.

The speaker was Dr Muthukrishnan who is Professor and Acting Head of the Department of Marketing at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he has worked since 1995.

In the seminar, Dr Muthukrishnan discussed why and how consumers persist with their choices and evaluations for the firm's brand and its key attributes.

Traditionally, such persistence has been attributed to variables such as ego involvement (emotional commitment), attitude strength, or sheer inertia, said Dr Muthukrishnan.

Dr Muthukrishnan proposed that persistence in the market places are often due to unwarranted confidence in the decisions, which he calls “an illusion of validity”. In his past research as well as in ongoing projects, he has identified several factors within marketers' control that enhance this “illusion of validity” and thereby persistent preferences for brands and product attributes.  These findings suggest that not only consumers' initial preferences but also persistence of these preferences can be manipulated.

For more information on Dr Muthukrishnan and his research, please click here.

Associate Professor Alfred Tok, who has just earned his MBA from Nanyang Business School (NBS), has been awarded the Commendation Medal in this year's National Day honours list.

The National Day award was given to him for a technician change management programme that he ran for the last two years at NTU's School of Materials Science and Engineering, where he is now the Head of the Division of Materials Technology.

Dr Tok, 39, is among the 63 NTU faculty and staff who are in the National Day honours list this year.

He joined the NBS part-time MBA programme two years ago as a self paying participant to broaden is knowledge by learning new things as he says “I am purely an engineering guy”.

Recalling his first few weeks attending classes at NBS, he says everything was new to him. But after some time while he knew he could do it, the question he said was: But can I do it well?

Dr Tok's devotion and hard work over the past two years yielded good results as he made it to the Dean's List.

He says that doing the MBA helped him a lot as the ran the technician change management programme in his school. The strategy and marketing classes were particularly very useful and he hopes to use his MBA learning in his work going forward.

Dr Tok says that the following good things have happened for him this year:

• He won the Teaching Excellence Award
• Was promoted as Associate Professor with tenure
• Appointed Head of Division
• Made it to the NBS Dean's List
• Awarded the Commendation Medal in the National Day honours list.

- By Narendra Aggarwal, Director, Public Affairs, NBS

Professor Gillian Yeo, Interim Dean, NBS, has announced the appointment of two Associate Deans with effect from 15 August 2009:

Associate Dean (MBA) – Chung Lai Hong
Associate Professor Chung is currently the Programme Director (MBA) and has contributed substantially to the MBA programme over the past several years. She will also handle the SAFTI MI MSc programmes.

 

Associate Dean – Christina Soh
Professor Christina Soh has contributed substantially in leadership positions over the past several years.  As Associate Dean, she will spearhead projects including developing an IT social extranet for NBS Programmes Marketing, Careers and Alumni and work with Heads and Associate Deans on programme curriculum and development.  

Hundreds of students gathered at the Lee Kong Chian lecture theatre on 7 Aug 2009 to participate in the Nanyang Business School Welcome Day.

Jointly organised by the Accountancy and Business Club and the NBS Undergraduate Programmes Office, the event is held every year to welcome first-year undergraduates to NBS.

It marked the beginning of a new and exciting journey for the students, who survived the tough admission selection process with the highest cut-off ever.

- Full Story

For photographs of NBS Welcome Day 2009, please click here.
For news coverage of NBS Welcome Day 2008, please click here.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs' 2nd Permanent Secretary, Mr Bilahari Kausikan, gave an hour long talk at The Nanyang MBA Programme's Global Risk Analysis course on 22 July 2009.

Quick-witted and candid, Mr Kausikan had the full attention of the students as he shared personal insights on the geo-political implications of the current financial and economic crisis.

- Full Story

Nanyang Business School has been awarded a five-year re-accreditation by the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), the prestigious international system of quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration. NBS remains, among 115 institutions in 33 countries, as an EQUIS accredited school.

“The EQUIS re-accreditation is a hallmark of NBS's commitment to quality and excellence. It represents another milestone for NBS in our growth as a highly respected international business school,” said Professor Gillian Yeo, Interim Dean.

“A tremendous amount of work went into the re-accreditation process and the subsequent review visit by the international external reviewers. The reviewers were very impressed by our faculty and staff for their commitment to NBS's focus on quality and excellence. Thus, I would like to express heartfelt appreciation to everyone who has contributed to the EQUIS process and accreditation,'' she added.