Singapore, Singapore
Deep experience in brand-building, international media & strategic communications counsel, corporate social responsibility, leadership training, and writing and editing in wide-ranging subject areas since 1988, working with key agencies & clients in government, business & non-profit sectors. Specialties: Brand-building, communications strategy, nation branding, place marketing, public diplomacy, corporate social responsibility, leadership training, global media relations, strategic planning, corporate communications, marketing communications, government & stakeholder relations, writing for books, speeches, online etc.
Place branding adviser on nation brand-building. Author and editor of more than 40 books. Latest country branding publication: "Brand Singapore: Nation Branding In A World Disrupted By Covid-19" (2021). This study of Singapore's country brand - an independent analysis and critique - is in its third edition, after "Brand Singapore: Nation Branding After Lee Kuan Yew, In A Divisive World" (2017) and "Brand Singapore: How Nation Branding Built Asia's Leading Global City" (2011). Conducted talks and seminars at institutions and events including Harvard, MIT, Chicago University (USA); Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government and (as keynote speaker) at City Nation Place Global Forum, London (UK); Chicago Booth School of Business (Singapore); Melbourne University Asia Institute, Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia); Fudan University (Shanghai, China); (as a visiting cultural leader of Singapore) at the Japan Foundation (Tokyo, Japan); at the Royal Institute for Governance & Strategic Studies (Phuentsholing, Bhutan); and at a Pacific Economic Cooperation Council seminar (Tahiti, French Polynesia). Author of the case study on Singapore in the main textbook in this field: "Nation Branding: Concepts, Issues, Practice" edited by Keith Dinnie (3rd edition, Routledge, 2022). China edition translated into Chinese: Zhejiang People's Publishing Company, China (2012). Amazon China website: http://www.amazon.cn/%E5%9B%BD%E5%AE%B6%E8%90%A5%E9%94%80-%E6%96%B0%E5%8A%A0%E5%9D%A1%E5%9B%BD%E5%AE%B6%E5%93%81%E7%89%8C%E4%B9%8B%E9%81%93-%E8%AE%B8%E6%9C%A8%E6%9D%BE/dp/B0091OEVH4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362623129&sr=8-1
Author & editor of more than 40 books, including publications on 200 years of policing, 100 years of electricity and 50 years of workforce development and lifelong learning, as well as several books of poetry and haiga art, and a few literary anthologies. Twenty of these books are on major facets of Singapore including its urban development and maintenance of the total infrastructure including physical and social wellbeing, national economic strategies, investment in lifelong learning and management of public safety and security. Authored and edited numerous reports and other publications, as well as web content, for many organisations in the public, private and people sectors.
Teaching faculty on nation branding, on the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Executive Education’s programmes for government officials and corporate executives from overseas.
“Brand Singapore: How It Really Works Behind The Scenes” - covered four main misconceptions about Singapore’s country brand, to illustrate: (1) How countries really are brands; (2) The typically decentralised application, that is, in fact, primarily marketing; (3) Why “Passion Made Possible” is the best brand concept so far for tourism and business; and (4) The dilemmas presented by the endless tussles between branding and advertising, and between external and internal brand-building
Practising and promoting haiga (a 16th century Japanese art form combining poetry and visual art). Developed from visit to Japan in autumn 2015 at the invitation of Japan Foundation, as a cultural leader of Singapore. Exhibitions: (1) Pioneering debut solo show "Six Views Of Japan & Singapore - A Haiga Exhibition" at the Festival Corner, Super Japan - Japanese Festival of Arts, at the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, 13-22 May 2016: Inspired by travels to Tokyo, Kyoto, Mount Fuji and Okinawa in the autumn of 2015. Media coverage: Nikkei Marketing Journal, The Straits Times, 938LIVE "The Culture Cafe", India Se (2) "Refleksi: A Pantun Art Exhibition" for the National Poetry Festival 2016 at LASALLE College of the Arts, 29 July-31 August 2016 (using the Malay four-line poetic form pantun instead of haiku) - Media coverage: Berita Harian (3) Singapore Writers Festival 2016 - Classroom series: "Between Japan And Singapore: Haiga And Its Modern Legacy", The Arts House at the Old Parliament 11 Nov 2016 - Talk on haiga as an art form (4) ASEAN 50th anniversary - "Haiga for ASEAN@50" at SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization) RELC (Regional Language Centre) Library, from 5 August 2017 - Official opening 4 August 2017, guest-of-honour: Prof Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-Large, Singapore. Media coverage: The Business Times, Berita Minggu (5) "Asean@50 haiga: Vientiane 2017", exhibition for the 43rd Asean Insurance Council meeting, at Landmark Mekong Riverside Hotel, Vientiane, Laos, Nov 2017 (6) "Haiga for RELC@50", SEAMEO Regional Language Centre 53rd International Conference from Mar 2018 (7) “Around the World in 68 Days”, Grids Coffee Bar from July 2021 (8) “the world anew: Poetry and haiga inspired by art in pandemic times” - 10 haiga artworks as part of 32 poems from my time as the National Gallery Singapore’s poet-in-residence 2021-22, published and launched by National Gallery Singapore Feb 2023
“Country Branding & Economic Development”: Waseda Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies Colloquium series, at Waseda University’s Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies. Attended by Waseda faculty, and students from countries including China 🇨🇳, Philippines 🇵🇭, Mongolia 🇲🇳 and Singapore 🇸🇬. The wide-ranging conversation referenced, among other things, how the Shangri-la Dialogue the week before on geopolitical security adds to Singapore’s soft power, and what it means for Japan’s soft power and its relations with China that there is an Ultraman theme park in Shanghai.