kenny

Name: Chua Yong Jie Kenny

Contact Number: 96979601

Email: u0605966@nus.edu.sg

MSN Email: yunaleska85@hotmail.com

Facebook Email: kennychua.yj@gmail.com

Twitter: kennychua.yj@gmail.com

Skype: Kenny.chuayj

Hobbies/Passion/Whatever: Reading/Sleeping/I LOVE Start-up. I love industrial processing plants!

Company of your internship: Hydrochem (S) Pte.Ltd. (Hyflux Group of companies)

Describe the experience: I am basically attached to the technology commercialization as a plant engineer in the area of water treatment and biofuels. I also worked on product development. What is most special about this internship is that it is not a start-up company! Rather, it was more important to cultivate the entrepreneurial mindset needed to solve problems during work. The commercialization department was just being established at the start of my internship - therefore it was more like intrapreneurship. What I observed was how an established company undergoes restructuring and how messy it can get. This definitely taught me what problems a start-up company could faced when trying to scale-up. Such situations are also similar for “spin-out”. Life is tough as an intern in the company as expectations were very high. NEC had also prepared a lot of external programmes such as sharing sessions with VCs, engaging consultants to explain to us about how important communication at work is and making it effective etc… in essence, I will describe my experience with the following scenario: the manager brings you to the seaside, gives u a kick from the back, doesn’t really care whether you can swim, if you drown that’s it, but if you survive, they will do the same thing to you again. This analogy sounds like entrepreneurship – venturing out into the unknown to make sure we survive!

Favourite Quote: iLEAD is the only local entrepreneurship program, which lets me fully immersed myself in the local entrepreneur scene. It provided me with opportunities and exposure to gain both technical and business skills while being attach to professional mentors, expanding networks and widening entrepreneurial perspectives. Working on issues that I was taught way back in school or those that I have no fundamental skills in; the experience is definitely beyond what academic frameworks preaches. “Prepare for the countless number of sleepless nights”- iLEAD is a rigorous exposure to the local entrepreneurial world and galls the potential out of me, life is tough and we should make it tougher, that’s what constitute a passionate entrepreneur who is on board iLEAD!