Prof. Dr. Lily Chan

PROFESSOR DR LILY CHAN is the Chief Executive and Vice Chancellor of Wawasan Open University (WOU) in Penang, Malaysia.
She has been the driving force behind the University’s mission of providing lifelong learning opportunities to Malaysians through distance learning for professional and personal development. She aspires to reach out to youths and adult learners who had missed out on tertiary qualifications and those seeking to equip themselves with skills to keep pace with the rapidly changing work environment.

She recently set up the School of Digital Technology (DiGiT) at WOU, a faculty which offers intensive, skills-centric degree programmes in Digital Business and Software Engineering. The DiGiT School has forged agreements with industry partners for the training and placement of its students, enabling them to acquire hands-on work experience.

Professor Chan was previously the CEO of NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore for 13 years, until March 2019. She transformed this division into one of the most esteemed higher education entrepreneurial ecosystems that nurtured hundreds of startup companies.

Before NUS, she was the Managing Director of Bio*ONE Investments, an investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board, for eight years. She also served in Singapore’s nationallevel innovation and enterprise committee and in the sub-committees of Singapore’s Committee for Future Economy.

In recognition of her talents and contribution, she was honoured with the Public Administration Medal (Silver) at the Singapore National Day Awards in 2018.
With over 30 years of leadership experience in the triple helix sphere of academia, industry and government, she is focused on implementing digital distance learning initiatives to transform WOU into a leading educational institution in the country.
DATO’ DR. VASEEHAR HASSAN has had