THE GRADUATION ADDRESS 2024 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENT
Mr Kelvin Tan is the Chief Executive Officer of Project ID, an education organisation that prepares students to be future-ready leaders through soft skill development programs focusing on leadership, social-emotional learning, and career readiness. He also chairs the External Advisory Board of the School of Education at the University of Nottingham Malaysia.
Mr Tan’ s work with Project ID has garnered long-term partnerships with several renowned organisations such as the Ministry of Education, UNICEF, and Yayasan Hasanah. To date, Project ID’ s programs have reached over 15,000 students and engaged 700,000 young people via digital platforms during the pandemic.
Mr Tan’ s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts( Global) in International Studies and Communications from Monash University Malaysia, where he received the Best Graduate Award, and a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University’ s Kennedy School of Government as a Yayasan Khazanah Global Scholar. He also earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from Universiti Utara Malaysia and holds a Mental Health First Aid Accreditation from the Malaysian Mental Health Association.
Mr Tan started his career as a public school teacher under Teach For Malaysia’ s inaugural cohort and was placed in a school ranked among the bottom 300 schools in Malaysia. Soon after, he joined PwC South East Asian Consulting, where he eventually led engagements in strategy, operations, public policy advisory services, and sustainability, working with clients across various industries, including aviation, education, and consumer products. Mr Tan also worked in tech, where he led analytics at FLUX, a digital automotive platform, and led product management at Naluri Hidup, a digital healthcare platform.
Mr Tan has contributed to the Economist Intelligence Unit as a freelance contributor and was selected as a Professional Fellow for the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, a US State Department program. He was also an Acumen Fellow, a leadership development program for social changemakers who are committed to tackling poverty and injustice in their communities.
Mr Tan was also an Obama Leader, where he represented the Asia-Pacific region to sit on a panel discussion with President Obama on leadership and social impact.
To date, Mr Tan has been featured across media platforms such as BFM, Astro Awani, The Star, Malay Mail, and World Bank Blog. He has also spoken at several education forums including the International Conference on The Future of Education( IConFEd 2020) and The Education and Development Forum( UKFIET), moderated by the Financial Times Global Education Editor Andrew Jack.
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