HUI KWOK LEONG – Singapore

Acting Director,
Ecosystem Development,
NUS Enterprise

Hui Kwok Leong, a Singaporean, obtained his Computer Science honorary degree and master’s degree from National University of Singapore. In 2018, he was awarded the National Day Commendation Medal (PK) by the President of Singapore. He has held various key positions at technology startups in Singapore, brunei and China, and has made pioneering contributions to entrepreneurship and innovation in Singapore, Brunei and China.

He was responsible for the setup of iCentre, which was Brunei government’s first and largest ICT incubator that was in collaboration with NUS. In addition, he was involved in the successful acquisition of a NUS start-up to McAfee, the second-largest antivirus software company in the US.

Currently, he works for NUS and serves currently Acting Director of Ecosystem Development at NUS Enterprise, Deputy Director in NUS Suzhou Research Institute (NUSRI Suzhou) and Senior Advisor at NUS Chongqing Research Institute (NUSRI Chongqing) on Entrepreneurship and Innovation . Kwok Leong oversees the entirely global BLOCK71 family of NUS incubators and that includes the Hangar, ICE71 and PIER71. He is responsible for global ecosystem development; innovation and commercialization in China, including: establish and operate an entrepreneurial ecosystem with Singaporean characteristics, help high-tech projects to be successfully implemented, and guide technology start-ups to explore markets and seek financial support, etc in Singapore and various locations globally. In NUSRI Suzhou, he has established BLOCK71 Suzhou, helped incubatees to raise more than 100 million yuan in equity funding, incubated more than 70 companies, and introduced 21 SIP Pioneer talents. He also cooperated with a number of well-known universities and enterprises at home and abroad to build an innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, established benchmark activities for China-Singapore cooperation and organized Innovfest Suzhou. In 2014, he also successfully set up the China-Singapore (Suzhou) Innovation Center in SIP. In 2017, he promoted the establishment of the NUS Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Commercialization Center and vigorously promoted the cooperation between China and Singapore in innovation and entrepreneurship.

In early days, he served as research and application project manager of the Singapore government’s largest computer research institute KRDL (currently known as A@STAR I2R), and the research and application project manager of the Japan-Singapore Artificial Intelligence Center. He was fully responsible for the development and application of the Department of Statistics Singapore’s first intelligent statistical system. Kwok Leong has served as the director of the NCB (IDA) – SunMicrosystem Java center, responsible for promoting the full application of Java software technology in Singapore.

He also founded his business as an entrepreneur, and the company was acquired three years after its establishment. As an angel investor, he has also helped many start-ups with their strategic decisions on marketing, investment and financing, with some notable successful exit. He also participated in the acquisition and investment work of over 28 million Singapore dollars.

He was the recipient of the Singapore Tan Kah Kee Young Inventor Silver Award (1998), Best Team Member from Silicon Valley’s Centigram Inc (1994), the National Day Medal (PK) awarded by the President of Singapore (2018), outstanding educator in SIP (2013-2014), Jiangsu province Labor Medal (2015) .