About Me
I was first bitten by the news bug as a teenaged intern in the traditional newsroom of The Straits Times, Singapore's national newspaper, in the early 2000s (when red marker annotations on printed proofs were still a thing), and returned as a freshly graduated general news journalist to begin what would turn out to be a 15-year career in content creation. I rotated through several portfolios as I earned my stripes, before finding my niche in consumer and lifestyle news coverage for local and global business publications such as The Business Times, Forbes, Monocle, CNN and more.
When I had the opportunity to live in Hong Kong between 2017 and 2022, I found myself in a front row seat to historical change, and pivoted to covering China and Asian geopolitical news for Fortune magazine and the BBC.
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Now based back in my native Singapore, I continue to maintain parallel interests in Asian geopolitical and business developments while keeping abreast of global luxury hospitality trends as a veteran industry observer. I selectively parlay my expertise into public speaking and consulting services for global media and luxury brands.
Resume
2023 - present
Senior Strategist and Editor
WGSN
Singapore
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2019 - 2023
Editorial Director
Michelin Guide Asia and Middle East
Singapore / Hong Kong
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2018 - 2019
Freelance Journalist
Hong Kong
2017 - 2018
Assignment Editor
Fortune
Hong Kong
2011 - 2015
Correspondent
The Business Times
Singapore
2007 - 2009
Journalist
The Straits Times
Singapore
As a Senior Strategist and Editor at future forecasting agency WGSN, I interpret early trend signals to predict the future of consumer behaviour, particularly in APAC and China, and advise global brands on how to adapt their retail and marketing strategies to cater to them, based on a close tracking and analysis of today's trends and WGSN's proprietary forecasting methodology.
​In 2019, I rejoined Robert Parker Wine Advocate as a member of its management team after the independent publisher was fully acquired by the Michelin Group. In my current role as Editorial Director of the Michelin Guide in Asia and the Middle East, I oversee digital content strategy and execution for our Michelin Guide websites in 8 key Asian and UAE destinations: Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Dubai.
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Key responsibilities of this role include building and managing a regional team of in-house and external content producers; mapping growth and planning budgets; working with major government and corporate partners on content marketing campaigns; and working closely with our French HQ to design global guidelines with localisation for the Asian and UAE markets.
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I wrote about China for a handful of current affairs news publications, such as the BBC and Week in China, as well as on Asian consumer trends for research firm Stylus.
Highlights of my time as a freelancer include a contract role as a China media analyst for BBC Monitoring, a specialist arm of the BBC. I produced daily reports and analyses of Chinese geopolitical and socio-cultural news trends via daily monitoring of vernacular media sources in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I also translated key news articles from Chinese to English.
I was a full-time Assignment Editor at Time Inc.'s Hong Kong bureau, where I edited a weekly newsletter for Fortune magazine on Chinese tech and economy news. Highlights of the role include coordinating between Fortune's editorial and marketing teams in the US and Asia to produce print, digital and video content for the magazine's 2017 Fortune Global Forum and Fortune Brainstorm Tech conferences in Guangzhou, China and Brainstorm Tech in Singapore.
I was the lead food writer at The Business Times and coordinated the dining pages of our Executive Lifestyle and Weekend sections. During my tenure, our food pages were known among industry players for our exclusive features and being among the fastest on the trail of the latest restaurants, bars and boutiques in Singapore.
After 3 years on the team, I transferred to the newspaper's business news team to take on the retail and consumer beat. In this newly created role, I profiled business leaders and large and small retail and FMCG firms, and tracked an industry that was – and still is – going through a large upheaval brought about by technology and e-commerce. Highlights include producing several front page news stories on errant and bankrupted retailers that became closely followed cases nationally.
I started my career as a local news reporter at The Straits Times, where I worked on investigative weekend feature packages across multiple beats, particularly on touchy social issues such as teenage pregnancy, and homosexuality and the civil society. Achievements include producing reports on a high profile illegal organ transplant and rogue property agents that prompted changes in national legislation.
Education
MSc in Global Media and Communications
London School of Economics, UK and Fudan University, China
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Visiting Student Programme
St Peters College, Oxford University, UK
BA in English Literature
University of Pennsylvania, USA