Back in 2011, the inaugural Class of 2011 graduated and now in 2021, Duke-NUS marked the Class’ momentous 10th Year celebration with a Reunion. Doctors Rena Dharmawan, Shan Koh Bundgaard, Chia Ghim Song and Lim Kheng Choon from this graduating class joined the department of Alumni Relations as Reunion Co-Chairs, to plan the event and engage their classmates.

Invited guests included alumni from the Class of 2011, their families and key faculty members who guided the class and contributed to the founding of the school. Guests who were located overseas joined in via Zoom, including Former Dean, Prof Ranga Krishnan who tuned in from Rush Medical College in Chicago; co-creator of TeamLEAD, Prof Doyle Graham who logged in from North Carolina; and former Student Affairs Dean, Prof Craig Stenberg who participated virtually from Arizona with his wife. Locally, it was an honour to host Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information of Ministry of Health; along with other local founders such as Prof Soo Khee Chee (Medicine ’95), Prof Patrick Casey, Prof Robert Kamei, Prof Thiru Thirumoorthy, Prof Sandy Cook, Prof Lim Shih Hui (Medicine ’82) and Prof Simon Ong (Medicine ’90).  Additionally, Mr Tony Chew and wife, who were an integral source of support and motivation for alumni development, were also present. Lastly, core admin staff such as Ms Goh Sok Hong from the former MERE department – who remains to this day, the key personnel who runs the curriculum with great support from the faculty members – also joined in the celebration of this milestone. It was heartwarming to see everyone catching up and reminiscing the good old days.

After a warm welcome by Dr Dharmawan (’11), Dean Thomas Coffman gave an opening address. Other programme highlights included a video collage, created from nostalgic photos collated from the Office of Education and contributed by some of the invited guests. The group enjoyed the quiz of trivia questions about the class and student days in Duke-NUS.

The highlight of the reunion was the Reflections segment. Moderated by Dr Tina Tan (’11), this segment featured alumni and faculty who came together to speak about their shared experiences and growth in pioneering the Duke-NUS journey, and forging its formative identity. Prof Ranga, Prof Soo, Prof Casey and Mr Chew shared memorable personal accounts of the obstacles the school faced well before the first class of students arrived on campus. The tone was one of shared achievement, and the audience appreciated the passion and importance of making Duke-NUS a reality. It was of no surprise that Prof Ranga led the sharing – having played an instrumental role as the Dean, the memories and countless stories of overcoming the initial challenges when setting up Duke-NUS together with the founding faculty members, still remain vivid till today.

To round up the event, alumni also shared their early memories with the school, weaving in personal stories of the former campus (former School of Nursing block), TeamLEAD, the nascent colleges and the unique stresses a pioneering cohort faced. Alumni also reflected on what they valued in establishing the school’s traditions and paving the way for future batches.

The Accountancy Wing of NUS Business School Alumni Association (NUSBSA) organised the Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) Talk on 17 June 2021. The 9th run of this series, the recent session marks the 2nd year running the talk virtually. Covering key elements of corporate governance and its failures, this talk was delivered by Associate Professor Mak Yuen Teen, who teaches corporate governance at NUS Business School. Prof Mak is also an active researcher, commentator, speaker, and advocate in this area, having published reports on issues such as corporate governance, board diversity and executive and director remuneration. With his wealth of experience leading governance reviews for numerous listed companies, Prof Mak is also regularly engaged by regulators and organisations to conduct workshops for directors, regulators, and other industry professionals.

The event garnered 60 attendees and was kick-started with a speed networking session in breakout rooms. Mr Derrick Kew (Business ’17), the emcee for the evening, then gave an introductory speech, which was followed by a corporate presentation from Pivotal, the sponsor for the talk. With the tagline Is there a vaccine for governance failures?, Prof Mak shared the regulatory framework and investor protection in Singapore, its deficiencies, and a comparison with the markets in other countries. His presentation was accompanied by a number of cartoon illustrations on corporate governance ecosystem in Singapore, which brought laughter to the audience. With the help of case studies, Prof Mak also explored how the average investor could potentially identify problematic companies by using public information. Despite the seriousness of the topics discussed, Prof Mak kept the talk light and entertaining with his humour and knowledge. The audience were also constantly engaged with the use of polls and a Q&A segment that allowed them to delve deeper into some issues raised. As the session drew to a close around 10pm, attendees gained many insightful takeaways and expressed their wish for the talk to be extended, to hear more from Prof Mak. The event, which was well-received, ended on a high note with a photo taking session.

This event would not be possible without the generous sponsorship from Pivotal, and was organised by NUSBSA Director, Mr Edward Ta (Business ‘87) and NUSBSA Accountancy Wing members –Mr Raffles Ng (Business ‘18), Mr Pang Jun Xiang (Business ’17), and their dedicated organising committee. Till the next time as the quest in search of the vaccine for governance failures continues!

Submitted by Mr Raffles Ng (Business ’18), NUSBSA Accountancy Wing