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Date
Day 2 - 25
th
November 2015 (Wednesday)
Session
Session 4: ‘Role of Government in Digital Economy’
Time
11:50-12:50
Format
Panel Discussion (Panelist)
Topic
Role of Government in Digital Economy
Speaker
Dr. Francis Yeoh
Professorial Fellow (Entrepreneurship), School of Computing, National
University of Singapore
In a career spanning more than 30 years, Dr Francis S C Yeoh has been
involved in various aspects of R&D, technology management, startup
companies, venture funding, innovation and entrepreneurship. He had
been a research scientist, research institute director, internet startup
CEO, investor, professor and government policy maker.
He stepped down as the first CEO of the Singapore National Research
Foundation (NRF) under the Prime Minister’s Office, in 2012 after more
than 6 years at the helm. While at the NRF, he initiated and
implemented many new national initiatives in research, innovation and
enterprise. These include large scale international research
collaborations, a national innovation challenge initiative, proof-of-
concept grants, early stage venture funds and technology incubation
programmes for startups.
Dr Yeoh is presently Professorial Fellow and Chair for Entrepreneurship
at the School of Computing, National University of Singapore (NUS),
teaching entrepreneurship classes and mentoring university startup
companies. He is also Executive Director for the Mediapreneur
Incubator, a corporate incubation programme for media startups set up
by Singapore’s largest media company, Mediacorp Pte Ltd. He serves
on government panels awarding startup grants as well as grants to social
enterprises.
He holds a B Sc (Hon) and PhD in Electrical Engineering, from
Loughborough University (UK) and a Masters in Management from MIT.