THE GBN MENTORING PROGRAM

“The godly offer good counsel; they teach right from wrong.”
Psalm 37:30 (NLT)

For business owners, entrepreneurs, professionals and executives, leadership can be a lonely journey. It is often difficult for business leaders to find someone to talk to in confidence regarding business, career and workplace issues and challenges.  Christian business leaders find it hard to apply their Christian beliefs and convictions to the way they conduct and manage their businesses and business relationships.

Coaches and mentors in the secular world are limited in their capacity to appreciate the challenges faced by Christian business leaders, and the advice they give seldom aligns with the Word of God.

But now there is a platform where Christian business owners, entrepreneurs, professionals and executives can seek godly counsel from experienced Christian mentors – The GBN Mentoring Program.

Our Calling

We find many successful mentoring relationships in the Bible.  For example, Moses was Joshua’s mentor; then we have the examples of Elijah and Elisha; Apostle Paul and Timothy; and the greatest mentor of all was our Lord Jesus who was a mentor and teacher to His disciples.  Each of the mentees went on to do great exploits.

At GBN, we believe that Christian mentoring is a powerful strategic tool to inspire and encourage Christian business owners and leaders, to provide them moral support when needed and to help them apply Christian values and ethics to:

• shape the culture in their organizations;
• focus and gain clarity on business and workplace issues;
• develop leadership qualities; and
• accelerate personal leadership empowerment and readiness.

Mentee’s Benefits

Mentees under The GBN Mentoring Program will benefit in many ways including:

• Godly Counsel –  You will have access to our team of Christian mentors who are matured in their faith with many years of varied experience in the marketplace.  Our mentors will do more than give advice and help brainstorm.  They will become your confidant and sounding board, a friend who cares.  They will listen and provide you support as they help you find solutions to your challenges. And more importantly, they will pray with you.
• Kingdom Business –  For a mentee who is a business owner, our mentors will help you to understand strategic issues concerning your business and to help you to apply godly values in your business culture to become a successful Kingdom business.  And even for other mentees working in the marketplace, everyone is strategically positioned as a leader to bring Kingdom culture into their organizations, workplaces and homes.
• Leadership Growth –  For an individual whether an entrepreneur, business owner or leader, a lack of personal leadership development can result in low self-esteem and discouragement. A successful mentoring relationship is a powerful way to help you develop and accelerate leadership skills by providing direction and developing specific leadership competencies, and to build  confidence and effectiveness as a leader.
• Career Development –  Career development is very important to young and mid-level professionals and executive, but many of them may feel unhappy and stagnated in their jobs.  Being in a mentoring relationship helps to make career development easier and more achievable.  Our mentors will help you identify career challenges and impediments, set career goals and help you to take your career to the next level.

Our Approach

The GBN Mentoring Program is characterized by:

• Christian Love and Empathy.
• Mutual Honour, Respect and Trust.
• Commitment and Confidence.
• Open Communication and Sharing.
• Discretion and Confidentiality.
• Candid and Honest Feedback.
• Friendship and Support.

The GBN Mentoring Program is 2-to-1 session-based mentoring:

• Two mentors are assigned to one mentee. The mentee will be matched with mentors with the most relevant experience and competencies.
• All sessions will be conducted via video conferencing unless agreed otherwise.  Each session will usually not exceed 2 hours and will be conducted at a mutually convenient time.
• There is no minimum number of sessions and the mentee will decide whether to continue after each session.
• The agenda is set by the mentee with the mentors providing guidance.
• Our mentoring fee is S$200.00 per session and is payable in advance and non-refundable.

GBN is committed to partnering Christian business leaders through The GBN Mentoring Program to impact the marketplace for the Kingdom.

To SIGN UP, click here. Please submit your enquries here.

Gan Choon Beng has been a GBN Mentor since 2008 and has worked with many mentees in various areas of business.  He currently oversees The GBN Mentoring Program together with Seow Kiat Wang.

He is a practicing lawyer and is a Partner at Infinitus Law Corporation and Head of its Corporate, Commercial and Technology Department. He has extensive experience in corporate law; mergers and acquisitions; commercial law transactions including franchising, technology licensing, software agreements and e-commerce transactions. He has special expertise advising technology start-up and early stage companies in corporate structuring, and angel and venture investments.

Seow Kiat Wang is a partner in a private investment company which he co-founded in 2005. Prior to this, he has more than 20 years of operational experience in the electronics related manufacturing industry. Kiat Wang received his first class honors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 1984 and his Masters degree in Engineering from the same university in 1988.

Carmen Yuen joined Vertex Ventures Singapore office in 2014. Her focus is in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Carmen has served many years in Singapore’s government-backed venture capital initiatives including EDB Investments and Spring SEEDS Capital where she worked closely with many start-up companies in Singapore.

Prior to joining Vertex, she was with Majuven, a Singapore angel fund. Carmen currently serves on the Board of TickledMedia and TurnkeyLender.

Carmen received her BBA from Simon Fraser University.

Christopher Yeo started his career in IT industry after graduating with first class honours degree in computer science and mathematics. Chris is a serial entrepreneur who has started five startups to date and has exited two successfully. Chris was also CTO for rednano.sg, Singapore’s local search and directory engine under the umbrella of Singapore Press Holdings and was part of transformative management focussed on commercialising AI and other software technologies in NUS Enterprise and Exploit Technologies, the technology commercialisation arm of A*STAR. Chris was also a co-founder of media analytics startup aSpecial Media which profiles consumer interests based on the content that they read.

He is most recently known for his enterprising inception, sentient.io, an AI and Data Platform company, which has built Vivien, a virtual digital assistant that is able to learn and acquire knowledge by reading documents and internet articles. Users can tap on Vivien’s knowledge by interacting with her through chatbots or voice enabled applications. He is also working with A*Star, which has taken an equity stake in Sentient.io, to improve Vivien’s understanding of local and colloquial knowledge and accents. His passion for AI, mathematics, cloud computing, and search technologies keeps him busy designing and coding software up till this day. Chris is also on the Advisory Panel of Credence Partners, a private equity fund, a managing partner of Redshift Capital Singapore, a US-bound series A fund, and on the board of directors of Cap Vista, the investment arm of the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA).

Douglas Yuan has more than 25 years of leading company-wide manufacturing operations planning, capital investments, productivity, and strategic initiatives such as construction of mega facilities, new factory start-up, manufacturing reconfigurations, and post M&A integration in Singapore, China, South Korea, USA, Thailand, and Philippines. He was the North Asia Senior Director of Manufacturing Engineering and Director of Corporate Strategic Operations Planning for semiconductor MNCs. As a certified executive coach and trainer in Solution-Focused coaching and emotional intelligence, he helped APAC aspiring executives and leaders from diverse industries, tertiary institutions, and government agencies strengthen their personal and leadership effectiveness. Besides an MBA and Engineering degree, he is also certified in coaching (CSFC) from University of Toronto and from Association for Coaching (UK), a certified trainer in emotional intelligence EQi-2.0, certified trainer ACLP, and certified project manager from George Washington University. Douglas served as a church lay leader in various ministries for almost 30 years and is currently pursuing Master of Arts in Ministry accredited by Asia Theological Association.

Dr Gilbert Tan is a retired Associate Professor of Strategy at the Singapore Management University (SMU), and an Adjunct Faculty Member of the Asian Pastoral Institute.

Gilbert’s academic credentials include a Ph.D. in Organizational Studies and Strategic Human Resource Management from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. He also holds a Master of Arts in Pastoral Counseling and a Graduate Diploma in Christian Studies from the Singapore Bible College.

He has more than 30 years’ experience in executive education at SMU and previously, at the National University of Singapore. Gilbert was Principal Consultant at IC2 Training Consultancy before joining SMU. He also holds the position of Director at Caliper Singapore before retiring from SMU.

Beyond his academic and professional pursuits, Gilbert has been actively involved in Christian ministries and the Social Services Sector. He serves in the GBN Marketplace Ministry as a mentor to Christian business owners, entrepreneurs, professionals, and executives. Currently, he is a board member of the Life Community Services Society (LCSS). His past roles also include a board position at the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS).

Jenny Toh is a qualified lawyer in 3 different jurisdictions (Singapore, Malaysia and the United Kingdom) and has 23 years of legal experience in both private practice and in-house roles. She was a litigator and a corporate lawyer in her early years of practice and has worked as a derivatives lawyer in BP Singapore Pte Limited and OCBC Bank. Her current role is as a Legal Counsel in Financial Markets at ING Bank N.V., Singapore branch.

Her passion is to support Christians find their purpose and fulfillment in the marketplace without compromising their Christian faith and integrity. Her coaching style is a deliberative collaboration with her coachees, enabling them to unearth their core values and empowering them to embark on living out their passions in their lives.

She lives by the idea first coined by C.S Lewis that “You are never too old to set another goal, or to dream a new dream.” Jenny is a Certified Professional Coach after having completed an International Coaching Federation (ICF) Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) at the International Coach Academy.

Lee Chin Seng is a C-suite broad-based Career and Leadership Coach with diverse industry experience with Fortune 500 companies.

He has held senior HR roles in Retail, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Banking & Finance and Petcare.  He has steered organizations through Merger & Acquisition, Business Transformation and Organization Development.  He mentors rising talent to accelerate their careers and coaches Senior Executives to unlock their growth paths.

In his last corporate role as Vice President of People & Organization in Royal Canin (a Petcare Division of Mars Inc.), he was a member of Global HR Leadership Team and a co-pilot of the Asia Pac & Russia Regional Business Leadership. His business units in the Region are consistently ranked top 5 in “Great Place to Work”.

Chin Seng is a “thinker-feeler”, which helps him to navigate complex challenges, managing vision and purpose through story-telling and skilled facilitation.  His repertoire of Leadership Development includes Korn Ferry Leadership Competencies.

Chin Seng is on the Board of a social service enterprise – Fei Yue Family Service Centre – which supports the weaker fabric of our society.  He is also on the Board of Compass@Campus – an organization working in partnership with Universities to equip and mentor the next generation in Servant Leadership.

Academically, his first degree is a business degree majoring in Management of Organization & Human Resources from Haskayne School of Business, The University of Calgary.  His postgraduate includes an MBA from The Western Michigan University, and executive education in Advanced Organization Design from Hult Business School.  He is also an alumnus of Center for Creative Leadership.

Patrick Lee, CEO / Managing Director / Management Consultant / Board Director with extensive experience in strategic planning, marketing, sales, turn-arounds and operations. Industry advisor to private equities on acquisitions of companies. Diverse and extensive board member experience with subsidiaries of American and European MNCs operating in Singapore, India and China; and SMEs from Hong Kong, China, and Singapore.

An Executive MBA from University at Buffalo, State University of New York, combined with over 30 years’ experience in the creation and implementation of sustainable growth and profitability for American MNCs in Asia Pacific covering China, India, North Asia, South East Asia and Australasia.

Formerly CEO of a Singapore public listed company, Managing Director Asia Pacific for Kohler Company of USA, following a long career with the group and with Cummins Inc., of USA. Patrick is a certified Sr. Executive Coach/Mentor at I J Martin & Co of Zurich, Switzerland since May 2010. His coaching clientele includes senior leaders from fortune 500 companies. Well-versed in a variety of Western and Asian business cultures. He enjoys coaching individuals to realize their potential greatness and top teams on the formulation and discipline in executing strategic plan.

Peter Chung has had extensive experience in the banking industry in frontline banking positions since 1982 starting with Bank of America followed by Amro Bank NV, Royal Bank of Canada, DBS and recently with UBS, the largest global wealth manager. His most recent appointment as Director of Wealth Management in UBS from mid-2008 to 2015 saw him managing a total asset base of more than USD 700 million. In his banking career, Peter was also involved in Corporate Banking, Trade Financing, Investment Banking and Private Wealth Management.

Between the years of 1993 to 2008, he was also an independent consultant to many Small Medium Enterprises in the Asean region performing debt and equity restructuring, preparing companies for initial public offerings and working with private equity and venture capital firms to invest in some of these SME companies. He is skilled in financial consulting specifically in the areas of debt and equity capital markets, and investments for Corporates as well as Personal Financial Planning.

He holds a B.Com from McMaster University (Canada) and has a Wealth Management Diploma from UBS University. He is IBF Qualified Wealth Management for Relationship Management – Private Banking and has also attained the IBF Financial Industry Competency Standard in Wealth Management.

Peter is currently Director of PHTC Pte Ltd, a Corporate & Personal Financial consulting firm which was set up in 1993 and also an Associate with Asiaworld Capital Partners, involved in regional M&A and private equity transactions.

Peter has also trained international bankers in Loan Syndication and many local companies on Financial Analysis for Non-Financial Managers.

Tam Chee Chong has more than 34 years’ experience in corporate and financial advisory. He has worked in various Big 4 accounting firms (KPMG, PwC, Andersen and Deloitte) in London, Hong Kong and Singapore across a wide range of industries and portfolios.

Chee Chong was the Group Chief Financial Officer for Fullerton Healthcare Corporation Ltd from 2018 to 2019. Fullerton Healthcare is privately owned and operates in 8 countries in Asia Pacific and Australia and has a consolidated turnover of over S$900 million.

Before joining Fullerton Healthcare, Chee Chong was the Deputy Managing Partner – Markets, in Singapore, Leader – Deloitte Private Southeast Asia, Partner – Family Enterprise Consulting and sat on the Board of Deloitte Southeast Asia from 2016 to 2018. Prior to these roles, Chee Chong was the Regional Managing Partner – Financial Advisory Services for Deloitte Southeast Asia and sat on the Deloitte Southeast Asia and Singapore Executive Committees from 2006 to 2016.

Chee Chong is experienced in merger & acquisitions / valuations, dispute resolutions, litigation support, corporate recovery / restructuring, business turnaround and major forensic investigations.

From 1996 to 2002 Chee Chong had extensive public accounting experience, having been the partner in charge of audits of several major listed companies in Singapore such as ST Engineering Ltd, Yeo Hiap Seng Ltd, Neptune Orient Lines Ltd, Labroy Marine Ltd, WBL Corporation Ltd, Singapore Petroleum Company, Safe Bintan Resort Ltd, Safe Superstore, Sembawang Maritime Ltd and Ayala International Ltd.

Chee Chong is a Fellow Chartered Accountant of both England & Wales and Singapore. He is an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of Audit & Risk Committee of Boustead Projects Limited and a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors.

Chee Chong is currently also the Chairman of Kembangan – Chai Chee Citizens’ Consultative Committee, Chairman of Audit Committee of Marine Parade Town Council, Board Member of YMCA Singapore and Halogen Foundation Singapore. He also served as a Council Member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants from 2014 to 2018.

Wong Minlie translates her years of corporate experience at driving technology solution business on behalf of Fortune 500 companies into one that now focuses on partnering clients in maximizing their professional and personal potentials. Her unique hybrid strength in business and technology allows her to lead new technology business transformation creatively and turnaround failed business projects, and rebuild business partnership. She is an experienced change catalyst with demonstrated success in initiating programs, orchestrating business ecosystems, and coaching her business partner to gain joint business growth in the Asia Pacific Region. She does pro bono coaching and transformation work for Christian and non-profit organizations.

Minlie received her MSc (Econ) from London School of Economics. She is a certified coach with International Coaching Federation, certified as NLP coach by The American Board of NLP, and certified as Project Management Professional by Project Management International.

Yeo Kok Hwa comes with more than 25 years of overall corporate management experience working for MNCs in the marine oil and gas and renewable energy industry. He held various leadership roles, i.e. company directorship and director of operations, marketing, commercial and project management, cross-culturally inside/outside Asia region.

Building on his corporate generalist’s experience, Kok Hwa is currently practicing industrial-organisational psychology, professional counselling (work and life) and leadership development guidance; he offers organisational behaviour guidance and teaching, leadership development counselling, coaching and mentoring, and people helping integrative counselling.

Kok Hwa holds a Master of Science in Industrial-Organisational Psychology and Management Human Resource from City University of New York, Baruch College, New York, USA; a Master of Social Science in Professional Counselling with specialisation in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy from Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia; Specialist Diploma in Counselling Psychology from ACC School of Counselling and Psychology Singapore; a certified Transactional Analysis Practitioner (USATAA), ACTA (Adult Education) trainer, clinic Christian counsellor and fathering (parenting) coach.

A volunteer Business Clinic Mentor for Singapore International Foundation for Young Social Entrepreneurs and a counsellor to inmates incarceration and aftercare c/o Singapore Prison Service.

To SIGN UP, click here. Please submit your enquries here.