I started my first business in 1996 developing multimedia web applications, building on freelance experience in desktop publishing and CD-ROM multimedia. I also worked for Dentsu, Young & Rubicam in the summer of 1995. After graduating top of my class in Economics from the National University of Singapore in 1998, I was offered a job as a systems engineer at Singapore Telecom. This was an opportunity I could not say no to, so my web development business gave way to a full time job pioneering the world’s first commercial ADSL broadband Internet service.
In 2000, I left SingTel’s data centers to join the Swiss-based Fantastic Corporation as a media solutions consultant. Although we had a product that was years ahead of its time, at least I get bragging rights for having worked on the early days of RDF, XML/XSLT, and the Dublin Core/Warwick Framework. I moved to Hewlett-Packard Consulting a year later, bringing to market leading edge multimedia content management and broadband solutions around the world for customers including Telstra, Trans World International Interactive, and Anytime TV, Asia Pacific’s leading video-on-demand service.
After moving to Canada in 2002, I obtained my master’s degree in Economics from the University of Toronto and joined the Bank of Canada as an economist in Ottawa, Canada’s capital. Does this mean I know deep, dark secrets about the Canadian economy and its trading partners? It does mean I got to learn French, though admittedly I still have a long way to go before I’m considered fluent. It was also a good time to reflect, to spend time on the placid lakes of Ontario and Quebec, and to plan for the next big thing around my passions for all things world wide web, international and interdisciplinary. I was laying the groundwork for Citadel Rock Online Communities Inc., the company I now lead that officially came into being in April 2006.
