6 July, 2011
Good morning,
Dr Cheong Siew Keong, NUS Pro-Chancellor, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, NUS President, Mr S Dhanabalan, Chairman of NUS Business School’s Management Advisory Board, Mr Piyush Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, DBS Group Holdings Ltd & DBS Bank Ltd., Distinguished Guests, Fellow Graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today is a day for us to celebrate, and also to be thankful and inspired. It’s a great honor to be speaking before you on this very important day.
Three years ago, I was here at the University Cultural Centre of NUS, receiving my first Master degree in Computing. It was on the 15th July 2008. I still remembered the valedictorian speech delivered by a Ph.D. graduate who proudly informed us that he just accepted a job offer from one of the world’s leading investment banks, a famous Wall Street firm – Lehman Brothers. Just two months later, I was shocked to learn from the TV news that the then world’s fourth largest investment bank filed for bankruptcy. And we were, all of a sudden, caught in the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression in the early 20th century. In the third quarter of 2008 alone, Singapore’s GDP contracted over 6 per cent. I asked myself – How could this happen? Why did the economy go bust? What caused the financial crisis? At that time, I had answers to none of these questions. It was when I realized how little I knew about economics, finance and business management in general.
So I decided to pursue a Master of Business Administration. Like all of you, I was looking for a world class programme, and to attain this, I knew that I needed to be surrounded by a world class faculty, which the NUS Business School has. But more importantly I knew that I needed to be surrounded by world class students, which, again, the NUS Business School has.
I am referring to you, my fellow MBA Class of 2011! I’ve witnessed your insightful comments, compelling arguments, and impactful presentations. In fact, you can be a touch intimidating with all this high performing, over achieving, getting ahead in the readings and assignments – you folks are truly talented and simply amazing! Because of you, I am proud that I made the right choice and came to the right place.
The NUS MBA is unique. It has equipped us with a way of thinking, a set of skills, and the ability to work successfully in teams; qualities that we will take with us and apply to future challenges. As they say, “education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten,” and I believe that the NUS MBA has provided us with a real and enduring education. It has given us the tools we need to continue to build a fulfilling career and a happy home. I am certain that each of us will be successful in our future endeavors, and that some measure of our future success will be attributable to the quality time we spent here together at the National University of Singapore.
We have a great deal to be thankful for and an immense amount to be proud of. We have set objectives and worked hard to ensure that we successfully achieve all of them. We owe a debt of gratitude to the many individuals who have dedicated their time, resources and talents to making our school a better place and our MBA programme one of the top ranked programmes in the world. Let us not forget that we are the first cohort to move into the Mochtar Riady Building – the new home of the NUS Business School. Let us not forget that this year our school has attained the highest FT ranking ever achieved by any Singapore MBA programme. Let us not forget that we held the first Bizad Charity Run to raise funds for community services, fulfilling our social responsibilities and showing our care and concern for the less fortunate. However, we must not rest on these accomplishments: instead we must work assiduously for even greater achievements.
Now that we have graduated with knowledge and skills blessed by the finest business education at the NUS Business School, as a famous saying goes, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” The good news is Singapore’s economy bounced back in 2010, leaving behind the recession to post 14.7 per cent growth over the whole year. On the global scale, Asia continues to lead the world’s economic recovery. The time is right for us to take full advantage of ample emerging opportunities.
On this very day, we celebrate this milestone, this foundation, this platform from which we launch ourselves toward our dreams. Congratulations on your graduation, my fellow graduating class of 2011!
Thank you.
