On November 14, 2024, the School of Business had the honour to host our university’s eminent founding Chancellor, Professor Cham Tao Soon, as the invited speaker to our school’s inaugural Professor Cham Tao Soon Business Excellence Lecture Seminar Series. Professor Cham, with his continued dedication to contribute to our university, has given his permission for the School of Business to establish the Professor Cham Tao Soon Endowment Fund, where this seminar is made possible.
The seminar was to be an experience sharing session with our school’s postgraduate students and alumni, and the focus was on providing accounts of management and leadership excellence that Professor Cham has accumulated throughout his illustrious career. Professor Cham, with his decades of leadership experience in higher education, corporate entities, and government institutions, provided a very engaging, informative and intimate conversation with the audience of over 60 attendees.
Professor Cham’s conversation on that evening started with a narrative of his formative years in school and university, providing the context for his involvement in later years with Nanyang Technological University and SIM University, which is the predecessor to SUSS today, as well as his numerous board directorship with some of the biggest organisations and government institutions in Singapore.
As a member of the corporate boards in United Overseas Bank, Keppel Limited, Natsteel Holdings, Singapore Press Holdings, the Land Transport Authority of Singapore, and many others, Professor Cham was able to provide many relevant anecdotes of excellent leadership and management practices that he had seen and/or experienced during his tenure at these corporate boards.
Besides corporate leadership insights, the audience was fortunate to get to hear first-hand from Professor Cham on his many invaluable interactions with some of our country’s founding leaders, including our first Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew.
If one could sum up the many invaluable insights on leadership and management excellence given by Professor Cham during his engaging conversation, it would be; effective leaders have to first be committed to a mission or a cause, and then lead with a vision to achieve excellence for the organisation.