Sunway University Appoints Five Prominent Entrepreneurs to Spur innovation & Entrepreneurship Education

 Sunway University’s established reputation for working with industry leaders has once again been enhanced by Sunway Innovation Labs (iLabs) strengthening its ties by appointing five prominent entrepreneurship thought leaders as the industry fellows of Sunway University. 

The industry fellows namely Joel Neoh, Desmond Ngai, Anna Chew, Clayton Tan and Michael Jiang will lead the delivery of Sunway University’s various credit-bearing and non-credit bearing entrepreneurship programmes that aims to help students manoeuvre through the constant challenge of getting people to understand the value of their product or services and avoid the early pitfalls of setting up a company. 

Representing different disciplines in entrepreneurship, the industry fellows will have many opportunities to expand their professional networks and engage with the students in the community, and facilitate real-world learning through case studies, stimulate the power of observation, develop creative and critical thinking and instil collaborative behaviour among the students. 

“I’m extremely pleased that these industry leaders are willing to share their experience and insights with our talented students. The industrial fellow appointments will strengthen the mission of Sunway University to prepare our students to become innovative contributors to the Malaysian economy,” said Sunway University President Professor Sibrandes Poppema.

Through real-life learning from the industry fellows, the students will be equipped with essential life skills to prepare students for a future of uncertainty.  

The industry fellows will be delivering different workshops according to their disciplines as well as share their work experience and mentor the budding entrepreneurs, primarily through the Startup Foundry elective course (a joint credit-bearing programme with the UC Berkeley) and in the upcoming launch of LaunchX, a Startup Incubation Programme for Sunway University students, alumni and staff. 

“I’m very humbled that these respectable business leaders have agreed to join us as industry fellows and pay it forward to the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders.” 

“I strongly believe that their vast experience, knowledge, and networks will help inspire and positively impact our students in Sunway University,” said Matt Van Leeuwen, Chief Innovation Officer of Sunway Group and Director of Sunway iLabs. 

The iLabs Foundry entrepreneurship programmes focus on experiential and inductive learning pedagogy that includes problem-solving, building a successful team, customer-problem fit, design & prototyping, market-solution fit, go-to-market strategies, venture financing, storytelling, and more.

Having grown up studying in Sunway, Joel has witnessed the continuous ambition of the Sunway Group as one of the leading education groups in the world. 

“Today, I’m excited to be part of Sunway iLabs, one of the future cornerstones of education, intersecting innovation, and entrepreneurship.

After scaling up to multiple technology companies over the past 15 years, including Says.com, Groupon, Fave - I believe there has never been a better time to start a technology company to realize new ideas and impact the world.

As Southeast Asia enters the golden age of rising affluence and technology adoption, Malaysia must continue to be relevant in this region’s rise to the next generation of entrepreneurial dreams.,” shared Joel.