The Front Row Podcast

Shaun Rein is the Founder and Managing Director of the China Market Research Group (CMR), the world's leading strategic market intelligence firm focused on China. He works with Boards, billionaires, Heads of States, CEOs and senior executives of Fortune 500 & leading Chinese companies, private equity firms, SMEs and long/ hedge funds to develop their China growth, political and investment stra...

Professor Tan Tai Yong is the President of the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). Before he joined SUSS, Professor Tan was President, Yale-NUS College. Professor Tan specialises in South and Southeast Asian History and has published extensively on the history of India and Singapore. Timestamps: 00:00- The Historical Context of Singapore's Founding 08:05- The Evolution of Singapore's I...

Kenneth Chan was McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer for China and Division President for the Greater China region between 2009 to 2015. He led an organization of 150,00 employees and oversaw the fastest period of expansion at that time (opening over 1,000 restaurants in the span of 5 years). More recently from 2016 to 2021, Kenneth served as an equity and operating partner (as part of the Lionhorn...

Kishore Mahbubani is a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore (NUS). Mr Mahbubani has been privileged to enjoy two distinct careers, in diplomacy (1971 to 2004) and in academia (2004 to 2019). He is a prolific writer who has spoken in many corners of the world. In diplomacy, he was with the Singapore Foreign Service for 33 years (1971 to 2004)....

Dag Detter is the Managing Partner & Founder of Detter & Co. Dag specialises in public commercial assets and works as an advisor to local and national governments, investors and international financial institutions to help unlock public wealth. As the former President of Stattum, the Swedish government holding company, he was responsible for the comprehensive restructuring of the national...

Tan Siok Sun is the biographer of Dr. Goh Keng Swee, Singapore's founding Defence and Finance Minister. The biography she authored is entitled "Goh Keng Swee: A Portrait" Dr. Goh was a founding member of Singapore’s ruling political party, The People's Action Party, and was known as the architect of Singapore's economic miracle. Siok Sun is also the daughter-in-law of Dr Goh Keng Swee. In this pod...

Jeremy is a Co-Founder of Tin Men Capital, a Venture Capital firm that invests primarily in B2B technology startups focused on the Southeast Asia market. In this episode we discuss: - Why He Left Trafigura To Start His Own Fund - First Principles Thinking in Venture Investing within Southeast Asia - What VCs Looks For In Founders - The Future of Startups & Venture Investing in Southeast Asia

Dr. Dean Ho is currently Provost’s Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Design and Engineering, Director of The Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM) at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and Director of The N.1 Institute for Health (N.1) at the National University of Singapore. In this interview, we discuss: - Why He Moved From The US to Singap...

Irene Ng is the authorised biographer of S. Rajaratnam. She was formerly an award-winning senior political correspondent and a Member of Parliament in Singapore. In this episode, we discuss: - Why Lee Kuan Yew Needed S. Rajaratnam - What made Rajaratnam unique - His legacy and contribution to Singapore's Foreign Policy

Woon Tai Ho is a producer, art collector and writer. He is the founding Managing Director of Channel NewsAsia. In this episode, we discuss: - The founding story of ChannelNewsAsia - The Changing Media Environment today - Why Lee Kuan Yew was a brilliant orator TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Teaser & Intro 0:59 - Singapore's Early Media Landscape & Tai Ho's Break into Media 11:43 - The Humble Origins o...

Andrew Bailey is Professor and a founding faculty member at Singapore's Yale-NUS College and is an incoming Professor of Philosophy at the new Bitcoin Research Institute at the University of Wyoming. His research mostly is primarily focused on money, people, and God. He is a co-author of the book, Resistance Money, A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin. We spoke about: - Why He moved to Singapore to te...

Terence Ho is an Associate Professor in Practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, with extensive experience in Singapore's public service. He has held senior positions in various government ministries and statutory boards, including Division Director at the Ministry of Manpower and Director at the Ministry of Finance. We spoke about: - Why Tharman Shan...

Professor Mark Metcalf is a Lecturer in Global Commerce from the University of Virginia's McIntire School. Prior to that, he taught courses on traditional Chinese literature, primarily focusing on The Art of War. In this conversation, we discuss: how to understand the Art of War Key Concepts in the Art of War how he seeks to understand the Chinese Military US-China business relations Intricacies o...

Ambassador Chan Heng Chee is Ambassador-at-Large with Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She holds the appointment of Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in the Singapore University of Technology and Design. She was also Singapore's longest-serving ambassador to the US, serving in Washington from 1996 to 2012. We talked about - her experience in the US as an ambassador...