Bio.
Kenny graduated into the world of banking without any formal academic knowledge in accounting and finance. Trained as a computer engineer, he joined a fledging French technology consulting firm after graduation, working alongside the Chief Engineer at Philips Electronics in Singapore for six months before restarting his career to pursue his interest in finance.
Upon leaving engineering, he joined KPMG as a junior analyst, picked up the ropes in banking by working on several valuation projects and eventually progressed into a senior analyst role. During the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, he joined a Korean securities house as part of its pioneering team to build its Southeast Asia investment banking business. Thereafter, he moved to BNP Paribas’ corporate finance execution team and also spent a couple of years at Standard Chartered’s strategic client coverage group focusing on the technology and renewable energy sectors.
Investment banking provided him with a strong accounting foundation and the unique opportunity of traversing a spectrum of cultures in the Asia Pacific region. Over this period, he worked across an extremely diverse range of industries including power & utilities, natural resources, airlines, education, consumer, manufacturing, renewable energy and technology. After leaving banking, Kenny co-founded IJK Capital Partners, an investment and advisory firm focusing on catalyzing investment opportunities between China and the rest of the world. He was chiefly responsible for assembling the team in Singapore and building its corporate access business from scratch. In 2018, he also started lecturing in an adjunct capacity and has since taught numerous courses relating to business valuation, financial modeling and leveraged acquisitions.
Having taken the un-orthodox path to this trade, his approach to understanding how businesses work, corporate finance and valuation, are systematic and strongly grounded in an engineering mindset—math, logic and problem solving. His teaching style emphasizes on the practical aspects of corporate finance, and is aimed at guiding experienced professionals and aspiring bankers, especially those from non-finance backgrounds, in navigating M&A and strategic decision-making at the workplace.
In early 2021 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenny moved to Hong Kong to lead investor relations, capital raising and international business for SY Holdings, a Hong Kong mainboard listed supply chain fintech platform. He is currently also an affiliate faculty lecturer at the Singapore Management University's continuing education arm, SMU Academy.
Kenny holds a Bachelor of Computer Engineering (BEng) from the National University of Singapore. He currently spends most of his time in Singapore. Over the course of his career, he has also lived in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai. He is fluent in English and Mandarin.
This website.
This site is curated as a compendium of anecdotes, some experienced first-hand, others are observed through conversations with colleagues and friends that I met over the years. Most of it is written looking retrospectively on interesting or notable incidents. They act as "breadcrumbs", providing insights to life and its lessons learned along the way.
If you are not sure where to start, read
