BIO

Kelvin is co-founder and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of GTR Ventures, based in Singapore. Previously, he was Deputy Director at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), where he worked closely with international organisations, corporates, banks, and fintechs, to enhance Singapore’s trade finance ecosystem as well as promote trade finance as an asset class.

His coverage included a wide range of issues in the world of trade finance, focusing primarily on technology, data, digitalisation, and product innovation in areas such as supply chain finance, alternative lending, B2B payments, procurement, and SME finance. For Singapore’s Financial Sector Development Fund, administrated by the MAS, he led due diligence and screening for a grant provided to a start-up in trade finance asset distribution.

As the secretariat for the MAS-led trade finance committee, he was deeply involved in Singapore’s Networked Trade Platform (NTP) project — an award-winning trade information management platform and pre-cursor to the Global Trade Connectivity Network (GTCN) project between Singapore and Hong Kong.

Prior to the MAS, as Senior Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the private lending and investment arm of the World Bank Group — Kelvin worked on structured trade finance deals, bilateral trade finance programs with banks.

Besides trade finance, he has significant trade policy experience, having started his career at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Singapore. He covered cases related to the WTO, international trade disputes, and customs tariffs, as well as negotiated free trade agreements with ASEAN, India, Ukraine, and Peru. As deputy director for emerging markets, he managed top corporate and government relationships in over 100 countries, from Russia, Central Asia, to Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.