Director of Operations, Emergenetics International - Asia

Deborah Chew is Director of Operations at Emergenetics International – Asia and oversees the day-to-day operational activities of its headquarters in Singapore, as well as the overall marketing strategies for its Asia office in the region.

Armed with more than 15 years of experience in the hospitality, academic and education industries in both private and public sectors, Deborah co-founded Caelan & Sage, a creative think-tank focusing on strategic communications offering solutions in branding and design, public relations, corporate training and high profiled events management. Over four years, the company grew from a zero-investment company to a million-dollar turnover company which led it to merge with Emergenetics Asia in 2012 to form Emergenetics Caelan & Sage.

As a fully certified Emergenetics associate since 2006, Deborah's interest is in using Emergenetics to improve the education landscape in Singapore. Combining her knowledge in pedagogy, she has since used the tool to improve student leadership for secondary school students.

Besides training, Deborah's forte also lies in organizing high profiled events for dignitaries and high-level officials. She has in her experience, overseen the successful planning of corporate events for international organizations such as the World Health Organization, the Asian Development Bank and Harvard University. Her expertise has also seen her being embedded in government agencies such as the Land Transport Authority to lead in organizing inaugural international and regional meetings.

Deborah is also a self-taught graphic designer, and has not only taken on design projects for clients such as GE Healthcare, People's Association, and Singapore Children's Society, she also volunteers as a graphic designer offering pro bono work for her church community. As Co-Founder of non-profit organization, Project Happy Feet, which supports the training and education of underprivileged children in developing countries, Deborah spends most of her non-working hours seeing to the growth and development of the organization. For her efforts, she was awarded the Singapore Woman Award Honoree in 2011, and was recently featured in Channel News Asia's Asians of the Year documentary.

Armed with a Bachelors of Arts Degree (Merit) in Sociology and English Language, and a Post-graduate Diploma in Education, Deborah loves to travel and believes in giving nothing but the best in whatever she's tasked to do.