Mr Ted Tan

Deputy CEO
International Enterprise Singapore

Topic Synopsis

Global Brands – Managing Challenges and Opportunities

Biography

Mr Ted Tan has been the Deputy Chief Executive of SPRING Singapore since 1 April 2009. He was formerly the Deputy CEO of International Enterprise (IE) Singapore since April 2003. A passionate champion of Singapore companies in their internationalisation drive during his stint at IE Singapore, Mr Tan play a key role in driving SPRING’s enterprise development efforts. He has represented IE Singapore on SPRING’s board since 2004 and was instrumental in strengthening the partnership between the two agencies to help SMEs expand into the global marketplace. As the Deputy Chief Executive, Mr Tan oversees SPRING’s efforts in industry cluster and growth enterprise development. He also strengthens SPRING’s partnership with IE Singapore to help SMEs tap on global opportunities.

While at IE Singapore, Mr Tan headed its International Operations team for the Europe, US, Middle East & Africa markets, and was in charge of helping Singapore companies in the lifestyle services (F&B, textile & garments, furniture) and business services (healthcare and education) sectors expand overseas. In addition, he oversaw IE Singapore’s Enterprise Services Group and Customer Services Group. He was instrumental in re-organising the agency’s internal operations in 2003 to ensure that the needs of different groups of internationalising companies are well-met. In particular, he firmly guided the agency in developing a comprehensive suite of broad-based product and service offerings for Singapore-based companies. His many other contributions to IE Singapore during his 6-year tenure include leading the IE Customer Service Centre to win the silver award for the Best Contact Centre of the Year (Corporate Category) at the 6th Annual Singapore Contact Centre Awards in 2006; setting up IE Singapore’s new Advisory Centre, a one-stop shop for Singapore exporters and internationalising SMEs which was opened in May 2008; and launching BuySingapore, a national online business matching portal for Singapore companies to showcase their products and services to foreign buyers. In addition, he worked tirelessly to deepen IE Singapore’s business engagement with Russia, the Middle East, and Latin America, and to promote these non-traditional markets to Singapore companies as potential markets to do business. Over the last 3 years, IE Singapore’s presence in the Middle East, for instance, has grown from one Overseas Centre in Dubai to four to date (Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah), providing greater support for companies that are keen to set up in the Middle East.

Mr Tan was also a strong proponent for alliance formation among Singapore companies. He believed in the synergies of partnership to offer a more compelling value proposition for foreign customers, and actively encouraged companies to tap on the International Partners (iPartners) Programme which has seen more than 34 consortiums formed across a wide range of industry sectors since its launch in October 2003. Between 2004 and mid 2007, Mr Tan also double-hatted as Senior Director at the Ministry of Trade & Industry (MTI) where he co-headed the Capabilities Development Group to promote Whole-of-Government collaboration to streamline incentives and schemes for capabilities development across MTI agencies.