Based in Singapore, Alvin is Group Managing Director of Southgate Ventures. The company is an Abraaj-partnered Education Platform headquartered in Singapore with 8 international schools in Indonesia under the name of SIS Group of Schools, and soon with schools in Thailand, India, China, Korea and other countries in Asia.

Prior to Southgate Ventures, Alvin was Managing Director and Head of APAG Asia Pacific of The Abraaj Group – a Dubai headquartered private equity firm with US$13 billion AUM.

His 30 years of corporate experience cover: private equity at The Abraaj Group; financial advisory at H2O Capital; commercial banking at TD Bank; investment banking at Lancaster Financial Inc; business development and marketing at P&G in Switzerland, Vietnam, Southeast Asia and Australia; and top management experience at L’Oreal where he was the president of its companies in Malaysia and Taiwan.

Alvin is experienced in advancing businesses into new territory, accelerating both revenue and profit growth, gaining share in growing and mature markets, optimising financial performance, building high performance management teams and restructuring organisations according to contemporary business models.

He currently sits on the board of 2 publicly-listed company in Malaysia: Maxis Berhad (Malaysia’s leading mobile network operator) and PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad (Malaysia’s national retailer and marketer of downstream oil and gas products) and Singapore International Schools in Indonesia. He also served on the boards of the European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei from 2006-2009 and Taipei American School from 2011-2014, where he also chaired its governance committee. He has served on the boards of many of his portfolio companies covering many diverse sectors such as: Education (I Can Read Asia), F&B (Wine Connection Asia, PS Gourmet Singapore), and Logistics (Crossland Logistics Thailand).

In 2004, he was conferred the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre Nationale du Merite by French President Jacques Chirac in recognition of his business achievements.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from Queen’s University and an MBA from INSEAD. He is certified with the Canadian Securities Institute and has attended executive programs held at IMD, Stanford and University of Southern California. His son is currently a student at Smith School of Business and a Queen’s Gaels varsity soccer player.