From left: IT Youth 2009 - Loke Lup Peng, National Serviceman; Young Professional of the Year 2009 - Rakesh Kumar Gupta Rakesh, CEO, Heulab Pte Ltd; Hall of Fame 2009 - Pearleen Chan, Consultant, Accenture; IT Youth 2009 - Winne Soh Siow Chei, Co-Founder, Dream Axis Pte Ltd; IT Leader of the Year 2009 - Robert Chew, Chairman, IT Standards Committee
SINGAPORE, 17 MARCH 2009 - The night of 27th February 2009 saw 5 individuals honoured by the Singapore Computer Society (SCS) for contributing to the vibrancy of Singapore’s IT sector. Speaking at a gala dinner cum awards ceremony held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, highlighted the importance of the IT sector to Singapore’s economy.
“Infocomm has been achieving steady growth. Today it is an important sector of our economy. It contributes about 6 per cent to national GDP and there are altogether 139,000 infocomm professionals employed in the economy,” said Dr Lee. “Infocomm empowers and enables many other industries to remain competitive in the global market.”
The annual IT Leader awards focus on drawing recognition to deserving local IT personalities. The awards also aim to cultivate IT talents in order to enhance Singapore’s IT industry.
Four awards
Four different awards were given out: IT Leader of the Year, Young Professional of the Year, Hall of Fame and IT Youth, each with its own criteria. Judges for the awards came from the public, private and academic sectors.
Robert Chew, currently the chairman for the IT Standards Committee, was bestowed the IT Leader of the Year award— for contributing to the development of IT in Singapore beyond the realm of his immediate business interest. Chew initiated the 24 hour codeXtreme Apps programming competition in 2007, the first of its kind in Singapore. While serving as council member of the Singapore IT Federation, Chew, in conjunction with Microsoft, organised programming and application development initiatives such as the “I Want Windows Mobile” series of competitions and seminars.
Pearleen Chan, former deputy general manager of National Computer board and former president of the SCS, was given the Hall of Fame award. This award recognises personalities who have played crucial leadership roles in shaping IT development in Singapore.
Rakesh Kumar Gupta, founder, managing director and chief executive officer of educational software company Heulab, was awarded Young Professional of the Year. Under his direction, Heulab, a homegrown company, now supplies its products to the global market.
The IT Youth awards are given to youths below 25 years of age for ongoing commitment to IT or sustained support of IT activities. This year’s recipients were Loke Lup Peng and Winne Soh Siow Chei. Loke organised events to promote the faculty’s interest in IT, while he was a student at Temasek Polytechnic. He also took part in community projects that included setting up computer networks for a school in Hainan Island, China.
Soh co-founded local contents provider Dream Axis. The company aims to develop the virtual space as a mainstream media channel. Under Soh’s helm, the company recently launched a virtual campus project led by the National University of Singapore’s Computer Centre, which has since gained more than 9,000 student and visitor log-ins.
“The economic slowdown may result in hiring freeze and reduction in training budget. But we must retain and grow our talent pool if we want to remain competitive,” said the minister. “I hope that infocomm entrepreneurs will see the long term benefits and not be overwhelmed by short term concerns.
“Each one of you has made sterling contributions to the industry. Your achievements will inspire younger infocomm professionals to focus on the many opportunities available in this sector.”
