College Leadership

Mr. Arita is Managing Director of JEOL Asia Pte. Ltd., a major subsidiary of JEOL Ltd., a leading global developer and manufacturer of scientific instruments (such as electron microscope), industrial equipment, and medical equipment. Amassing over 20 years of experience since 2002, Mr Arita has significantly contributed to the Financial Department and Management Strategy Department of JEOL Ltd.

Throughout his career, Mr Arita has served JEOL Asia Pte. Ltd. in its management roles, particularly when JEOL Ltd. delegated the regional management of sales and services in Australia, South Asia, including India, and the Middle East. He played a pivotal role in establishing JEOL India Pvt. Ltd. (Republic of India) in 2011 and JEOL GULF FZCO (UAE) in 2014, subsidiaries of JEOL Asia Pte. Ltd., advancing the progress of science and human society.

After his tenure at JEOL Asia Pte. Ltd., Mr Arita returned to the headquarters in 2014 and took on a new assignment. In early 2015, Mr Arita joined the Management Strategy Department as an assistant manager at JEOL Ltd., where he served as a representative for Investor Relations. In his capacity, Mr Arita interacted with shareholders to enhance their understanding of corporate value through direct dialogue. 

In 2019, Mr Arita was appointed Manager in the financial department of JEOL Ltd., where he managed cash flow by collaborating with subsidiaries and bankers. After four years in that department, Mr Arita transitioned to a new role in 2023 as General Manager in the Managerial Administration Department, where he oversees corporate budgets.

Mr Arita received his Bachelor of Arts (Language and Area Studies) from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Dr. Ethan Chu is the CEO and founder of the Singapore-based company Xjera Labs Pte Ltd. Xjera Labs’ advanced and cutting-edge AI solutions has been recognized by numerous government agencies and enterprises in Singapore and Asia. This includes IMDA, where Xjera Labs won 1st place in the inaugural Video Analytics Challenge 2015 and later become one of the IMDA Accredited companies. Xjera has completed millions of dollars of strategic investments from GLCs and Venture Capitalists, closed deals with a number of key accountsc and signed global partnerships with multiple MNCs for world wide expansion in a few industry verticals.  Xjera Labs is also the winner of both OCBC emerging enterprise Innovative award and the winner of OCBC Emerging Enterprise Award in 2019 due to its extraordinary growth and potentials.

Before Dr Chu founded Xjera Labs with his partners, he was a principal investigator of a few AI projects and also an adjunct research scientist at the Advanced Digital Sciences Center. He earned his Masters and PhD degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2014 under supervision of Prof. Thomas S. Huang, a world pioneer in computer vision, image processing and machine learning. Dr. Chu has published numerous research works in top venues in ICML, CVPR, AAAI, MICCAI, and AISTATS and served as Program Committee member in a few premier AI conferences. He was with Qualcomm, HP Labs in the US and was also a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley in 2012. Prior to that, Dr. Chu completed his Bachelor of Engineering with First Class Honors with a minor in Mathematics from Nanyang Technological University in 2009.

Ms Jacqueline Chua is Vice President of HP’s Home Printing Global R&D organisation, responsible for the development, innovation and delivery of HP’s portfolio of Inkjet printers for the Home and Home Office segments globally.

Dr Benjamin Seet is the Deputy Group CEO (Education & Research) for the National Healthcare Group, and concurrently, Group Chief Research Officer. He is an Adjunct Professor with the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. Ben currently chairs or is a member of the governing board or steering committee of a number of research institutes, as well as various organisations in the public and private sectors.  He was formerly Executive Director of the Biomedical Research Council at A*STAR, prior to which he held senior leadership appointments in the Singapore Armed Forces and United Nations. 

Dr Siah Soh Yun is a Technology Development Vice President at GLOBALFOUNDRIES with close to 25 years of semiconductor experiences. She has served multiple senior positions in Chartered Semiconductor Mfg and GLOBALFOUNDRIES SINGAPORE since 1996 after completing her Ph.D. degree with National University of Singapore.  She is currently in charge of GLOBALFOUNDRIES SINGAPORE Technology Development Department. She oversees the technology roadmap execution and drives differentiation to enrich the foundry technology portfolio. Over the years, her contributions span over multiple CMOS technology node generations and More-than-Moores specialty technologies (non-volatile memories, high voltage, power-analog applications, RF etc). She has published over 50 technical paper publications and holds over 25 granted patents.

Mr Mervyn Sirisena has been in the SIA Group since 1975. In these years, he has served various appointments in SIA and SIA Engineering Company (SIAEC). Key among them in SIA are Manager Technical Services (Systems, Performance and Structures), Senior Manager Company Planning and Vice President Technical Services.

In July 1998, he joined SIAEC as Divisional Vice President (Maintenance). He was appointed as President and Chief Operating Officer in March 2000, assisting the Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SIAEC. He saw the Company through its first IPO, when SIAEC was listed on 12 May 2000. In April 2001, he returned to SIA, as its Senior Vice President Engineering, heading the Engineering Division before his retirement in 2015.

After his retirement from SIA in 2015, Mr Sirisena up the following appointments:

Consultant, SIA Engineering Company
Chairman, SIA Engineering (Philippines) Corporation (SIAEP)
Chairman, Aviation Partnership (Philippines) Corporation (APlus)
Director, Boeing Asia Pacific Aviation Services (BAPAS)
Vice President (Education) of Institute of Engineers, Singapore (IES)
Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore Board Member (CPAS)
Senior Advisor, AirGo

In retirement, Mr Sirisena is now sharing his experiences acquired in his working years, by working with IES to provide experiential training for young engineers.

Mr Sirisena holds a BE Hons (Aeronautical) from University of Sydney and a Master of Business Administration from National University of Singapore. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES), Academy of Engineering Singapore and the  Singapore Institute of Aerospace Engineers (SIAE).

Mr David Tan is the founder and CEO of Netatech Group of companies, which specialises in Design & Build of Environmental Engineering Projects as well as high tech cross-border Agriculture technologies.

Netatech is the sole and exclusive distributor of Netafim Irrigation and Greenhouse Solutions and represents a full range of world class products in Sustainable Technologies. The company has implemented cutting edge technologies for water conservation and management of Vertical and Skyrise Greenery, and the PUB’s Active, Beautiful, and Clean projects.

Under David’s leadership, Netatech group soon established itself as the leader in Skyrise Greenery and PUB ABC Waters Design Features and has been given the mandate by Netafim to be the Skyrise Greenery Knowledge Hub in the region. Netatech has since trained many partners in the region including China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and the Middle East.

With more than 20 years’ experience in Information Technology (IT) and control engineering experience under his belt, David’s expertise and knowledge has enabled the company to continually innovate, implement on-line monitoring and control of environmental conditions and processes. This is achieved by deploying state-of-the-art sensor technologies with Internet of Things (IoT) communication protocols and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to achieve real time closed loop response.

David’s passion in combining sustainability with technology has seen his involvement in various research projects in ecological engineering ranging from sustainable irrigation, micro-climate control, storm water drainage, and bio- filtration. His keen interest has widened the capabilities of the company.

With David’s experience in Water and sustainable Engineering, he’s taking it a step further to tackle the challenge of Food Sustainability, and to realise his dream in Smart Agriculture. David has collaborated with top global academics to tap on their domain expertise to research for a sustainable solution to solve the water and food challenges faced by our urban cities today.

Ms Rosemary Yeo is the Director (People & Capability Development) at the Public Sector Science and Technology Policy and Plans Office since 1 January 2020.  She has been the Director of Engineering Programme Office at the Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office from November 2014 to December 2019.

Ms Yeo graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) degree in 1982. In 1990, she received her Masters of Science (Gun Systems Design) degree from Royal Military College of Science at Cranfield, United Kingdom. She also attended the General Management Programme at Harvard Business School in 2007. 

Prior to joining the Prime Minister’s Office, Ms Yeo has amassed more than 30 years of experience in defence science and technology, working in Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), a statutory board under the Ministry of Defence. Rising through the ranks, she has served in various leadership capacities in DSTA as Director (Land Systems Programme Centre), Director (Human Resources), Deputy Director (Guided Weapons & Armament Community, Organisation Capability Development) and Deputy Director (Armament Systems).

For her significant contributions to Singapore, Ms Yeo received the National Day Awards, namely the Public Administration (Silver) and (Bronze) medals in 2010 and 2003 respectively.