Kickstart Initiative Team
Dr Christina Tong
Consultant, NUS Enterprise Industry liaison office (ILO)
Dr Christina Tong has been with NUS ILO since September 2018, helping the Life Sciences Portfolios translate into commercial entities. She also advises Professors on regulatory affairs for projects in the healthcare sector. She was previously with the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) as its Group Director in the Health Products Regulatory Group (HPRG). In this role, she managed and enhanced the regulatory science capabilities in the Group and increased greater recognition regionally and internationally. Her main experience is in venture capital where she was with the Singapore Technologies Group under Vertex Management spanning 15 years in venture investments and fund management across Asia, Israel, Europe and the US, working closely with biotech companies, some of which were listed on NASDAQ and London. Christina began her career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as First Secretary (Commercial) in the Singapore Embassy in Paris. On her return to Singapore, she was looking after the then Indochinese countries, and Thailand during the time of the US– Vietnam war, with interventions by ASEAN led by Singapore.
Director, Innovation Transfer Office, NUHS
Dr Shuwen Koh manages the strategic alliances and innovation development activities of the NUH and NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. She is an adjunct lecturer at the Centre for Technology and Development at Duke-NUS. She worked as the Executive Director at ImaginAb Molecular Imaging Pte. Ltd. and before that, she was with the Economic Development Board (EDB) and its affiliate, the Biomedical Sciences Industry Partnership Office (BMS IPO), facilitating investment, promotion and industry development for the Singapore Government in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector. Shuwen completed her undergraduate studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, received her M.Sc. from Loughborough University (UK) and received her Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Professor Steven Myint
Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR)
Professor Steven Myint MD PhD is a physician with global experience in health and biomedical management. He is Adjunct Professor at Duke-NUS in the Center for Technology, Enterprise and Development. In these capacities he is involved in the commercialization of biomedical and bio-engineering research. In Finland he is non-executive director of Aplagon Oy and Medisapiens Oy, a biotech and digital health company respectively. He was also founding partner of a Finnish Vigo accelerator, Ukko Partners. Until recently he was also executive chairman of Green Signal Bio, which he developed into one of India’s largest vaccine manufacturers. He is a former Professor and Dean of Medicine & Health at the University of Surrey and Professor/Chairman of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Leicester in the UK. He has been a biopharmaceutical senior and Board executive as global Medical Director at GlaxoSmithKline and Senior Vice-President for R&D/Chief Medical Officer at BTG International. He has been instrumental in over 50 successful IND and 12 NDA submissions. He was an NHS consultant in UK for over 20 years and is also a former Senior Independent Director, then chairman, of a hospital in the NHS and Board Member of Care International. After his own first university spinout in 1995, he has been involved in the development of over 40 SME’s in life sciences and created over $1billion value for shareholders.
Mr Simon Hopkins
CEO, Milltrust International Group
Mr Simon Hopkins has been a senior figure in the international investment management industry for more than two decades. He was an early advocate of hedge fund investing for institutional investors, and has been a prolific capital raiser for single manager funds, funds of funds and listed closed-end funds. After a successful investment banking career spanning more than a decade at S.G. Warburg, UBS, HSBC James Capel and Nomura, Mr Hopkins created one of the industry’s first dedicated research and investment consulting businesses, Global Fund Analysis (GFA), to provide truly objective analysis for investor in 1996. At its peak, GFA had over 27,000 registered users around the globe. Concurrently, Mr Hopkins played a pioneering role in seeding many of the incipient European hedge funds through the Fortune Group, an award-winning alternatives investment banking and advisory business, which he merged with Global Fund Analysis in 2000. Fortune Group went on to become one of the U.K.’s pre-eminent hedge fund advisory firms with clients in 24 countries and a focus on pension funds, charities and endowments, as well as a number of the world’s leading families. In addition to the group companies, Mr Hopkins serves as an investment advisor to the British Innovation Fund, a U.K. University Venture Fund. He also serves as director of Swallowcourt, a healthcare business, Xoomtrip, a GCC-based online travel agent, Novare Fund Manager, an African asset management firm, the Asian Film Fund, CITIC Securities One Belt One Road Fund (CSOBOR), and Roslin Technologies (University of Edinburgh). He serves as a member of NUS Medicine International Council (NIC), and chairs Singapore-based wealth manager, East India Capital Management. He graduated from the University of Bristol, Faculty of Law (LLB Hons) in 1986.
Mr Chik Wai Chiew
CEO, Heritas Capital Management
Mr Chik Wai Chiew has over 20 years of experience in global investment management, having been active in leading various companies on transformational growth strategies, fund raising and M&A. In his previous role as Chief Representative and General Manager of Temasek’s Shanghai office, and Partner at Tembusu Partners, he has led investments across multiple industries and geographies. He was also previously responsible for commercializing biomedical and engineering deep tech ventures from Singapore’s public research institutes under A*STAR, and co-founded an advanced technology accelerator supported by the Singapore government. Wai Chiew was awarded the Glaxo-EDB scholarship and holds a BA in Economics from Cambridge University, UK; MA from Yale University, USA; and completed his EMBA (conducted in Mandarin) from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China. He has also served as Honorary Treasurer with the Singapore Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SVCA). His company, Heritas, is an existing partner of the Enterprise Singapore’s SEEDS Capital programme to help identify high potential projects that warrant the government’s investment. The addition of him to the KI executive committee as a primary member will be highly valued as he will be able to make direct recommendations to ESG as their approved partner.
Dr Wen Qi Ho
Vice President, Lightstone Ventures
Dr Wen Qi Ho is a Vice President at Lightstone Singapore, where she is in charge of new investment opportunities in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors out of the firm’s Singapore office. Wen Qi attained her B.Sc. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Johns Hopkins University, and her PhD in Immunology at Stanford University under the guidance of Professor Gerald Crabtree, a Howard Hughes Medical Institutes investigator. She was also the recipient of the National Science Scholarship from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Singapore. While at Stanford, she enrolled in the Program in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Stanford School of Business where she learned business fundamentals and had hands-on experience at developing an idea to business plan. Since moving to Singapore, Wen Qi has been actively involved in the Executive Committee of Biotech Connection Singapore, which aims to promote the life science entrepreneurship eco-system in Singapore by providing a platform for innovators, academics, and investors to come together.
CEO, Start Codon
Dr Jason Mellad is an experienced entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working in the biotechnology industry. He is an investor in early stage life science startups and skilled in Innovation Management, Oncology, Molecular Biology, Patent Law, and Biotechnology. A strong business development professional with a PhD focused in Medicine from University of Cambridge, he sits on the Business Board of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Authority. Prior to Start Codon, he was the CEO of Cambridge Epigenetix, Technolisgy transfer associate at Cambridge Enterprise and a consultant for Innocia Technology.
Dr Lihan Zhou
CEO, Ark Bio and Mirxes
Dr Lihan Zhou is the Founder and co-CEO of Ark Bio. In 2014, Lihan co-founded and served as CEO of MiRXES, a biotech startup developing microRNA technologies and cancer detection tests. He oversaw MiRXES’ operations in Singapore and China, and managed collaborations with leading clinical consortia and pharmaceutical companies in developing microRNA based diagnostic assays. MIRXES was recognized as Singapore’s Most Promising Startup 2016 by the Emerging Enterprise Award. Prior to founding MiRXES, Lihan was a research scientist at the Bioprocessing Technology Institute, A*STAR where he co-developed a novel microRNA qPCR assay platform and an integrated workflow for biomarker discovery. Lihan has a PhD in Biochemistry from the National University of Singapore. He has authored and co-authored more than 20 peer-reviewed publications and 8 patent applications. Lihan is recognized by the MIT Technology Review as a member of the Innovators Under 35.