Welcome to the GEM - Geography Education Matters! A useful resource for the Singapore Geography Teacher Community!

Speakers

Guest of Honour

Mr Kenneth Er

Second Permanent Secretary (Manpower) and Second Permanent Secretary (Education)

Mr. Kenneth Er is our distinguished Guest of Honour for this year's Geography Symposium. With experience spanning environmental stewardship, urban planning, education and manpower policy in the public service, he brings deep expertise across various aspects of geographical and ecological science.

Mr. Er is currently Second Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, where he helps shape Singapore's education system and its long-term direction. He also concurrently serves as Second Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Manpower. Before these appointments, he was Deputy Secretary (Planning) at the Ministry of National Development from June 2023, overseeing land use planning, infrastructure, and research and development.

Mr. Er was Chief Executive Officer of the National Parks Board from 2014 to 2023. He was a key architect of Singapore's City in Nature vision, a cornerstone of the Singapore Green Plan 2030. Under his leadership, the Singapore Botanic Gardens was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and major green networks such as the Nature Park Network, Coast-to-Coast Route and Round Island Route were developed, strengthening Singapore's urban landscape and biodiversity heritage.

Beyond public service, Mr. Er is an accomplished researcher who has published extensively on conservation biology, urban forestry and ecology, and horticulture.

Keynote Speaker

Mr Marcus Tan

Co-founder, Carousell and Deputy Chairman, Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE)

Since the launch of Carousell in August 2012 together with co-founders Quek Siu Rui and Lucas Ngoo, he has been deeply involved in product design, brand, and community, and built the app’s first interface as a self-taught designer.

His role has since expanded to encompass many operational aspects of the organisation. As Deputy Chairman of Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), he works closely with the government and startups to promote entrepreneurship and startup’s interests.

Carousell Group is the leading multi-category platform for secondhand in Greater Southeast Asia on a mission to make secondhand the first choice. Founded in August 2012 in Singapore, the Group has a leading presence in seven markets under the brands Carousell, Carousell Media Group, Cho Tot, Laku6, LuxLexicon, Mudah.my, OneShift, REFASH and Revo Financial, serving tens of millions of monthly active users.

Panel Speakers

Mr Gerald Ng

Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Sustainability, Changi Airport Group

Dr Shawn Lum

Senior Lecturer, Asian School of the Environment, NTU & Former President, Nature Society (Singapore)

Mr Jesse Chin

Director, Energy Strategy & Planning, Energy Market Authority of Singapore

Gerald is responsible for driving enterprise strategy and tangible initiatives for a sustainable Changi aviation hub, including carbon emissions mitigation, climate resilience, renewable energy strategies, circular economy, sustainable aviation fuels, biodiversity and Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) matters. He leads a team of passionate and experienced aviation professionals for CAG's sustainability disclosures, Airport Carbon Accreditation and implementation of the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System.

Gerald is the Vice-Chair of the Airports Council International’s (ACI) World Environment Standing Committee and past Chair of the ACI Asia-Pacific and Middle East Regional Environment Committee.

Gerald holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government (International Relations) and Economics from Cornell University, and a Master’s in International Policy Studies from Stanford University. He is a Board member of the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) and member of the MINDS Schools Management Committee.

Trained as a botanist and ecologist, Shawn has spent most of his academic career studying the resilience and long-term viability of fragmented and disturbed forest remnants. He has also been active in the local and regional nature conservation community, primarily as a member of the Nature Society Singapore, which he served for two decades as Vice-President and President. Shawn is a throwback to the time when university faculty were routinely active in nature-related civil society. He has collaborated over his career with colleagues in academic institutions, government agencies, NGOs and the Singapore school system. He serves in an advisory capacity to various agencies, institutions and civil society groups in the area of biodiversity and environmental management. Born in Japan, raised in Hawaii and having spent his entire working career in Singapore, Shawn’s life has an unshakeable affinity for islands.

Mr Jesse Chin is the Director of the Energy Strategy & Planning Department at the Energy Market Authority of Singapore (EMA), a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) that aims to build sustainable, resilient, dynamic, and efficient energy markets and systems in Singapore.

In his current role, Jesse leads strategic planning and the formulation of forward-looking energy policies, initiatives, and roadmaps for the power sector. Prior to this, he served as Director of the Market Development Department at EMA, where he oversaw the development of energy markets to advance consumer protection, economic efficiency, and the energy transition. He has also held appointments at MTI, where he covered energy markets in the Energy Division.

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