Our Board of Advisors

Dr. Peter Nagler

A*STAR - Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, Singapore

In January 2018 Dr. Peter Nagler joined the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore and serves as the Executive Director of the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES). Before he gained more than 30 years leadership experience in the chemical industry, comprising global operational (P+L) responsibilities as well as worldwide innovation management functions. He served as Head of International Innovation (2015-2016), after he has held the position of Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) at Evonik Industries AG (2011-2015); since 2009 he has been responsible for Corporate Innovation. Before, he has held several positions such as Regional President South America in Sao Paulo, Brazil (2005-2007), and Head of the Fine Chemicals and Exclusive Synthesis & Catalysts Business Units (2000-2005). From 1993 to 1997, he worked in Paris at Evonik´s subsidiary Rexim - first as Marketing Director and later as Managing Director.

He had joined Degussa AG in 1986 as a research chemist after studying chemistry at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt and Biochemistry at the University of Nice. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Goethe-University, in 1985.
He serves on the board of the German Chemical Society, the Advisory Board of Fraunhofer ISC (Würzburg) and the advisory board of C&EN. He has furthermore been appointed Adjunct Professor to the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of the National University of Singapore.

Mr. V. Ravi

Industry Development, Bioprocessing Technology Institute, A*STAR

Mr. Ravi assumed the appointment as Director in the Industry Development Department at the Bioprocessing Technology Institute in April 2019. As Director, Mr. Ravi leads the Industry Development Department in spearheading BTI’s collaborative partnerships with the industry helping to translate A*Star’s R&D for commercial and societal outcomes.

Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Ravi was a Director of Industry Development at the Institute of Chemicals & Engineering Sciences (ICES) from 2011 to 2019. During this time, he oversaw the establishment of several key collaborations which have contributed significantly to developing long term partnerships with many companies in the chemicals/pharma sector. Highlights of external partnerships include multi-year programs with Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation, IHI, Pfizer’s establishment of the Manufacturing Technology Development Centre and Abbott’s Emerging Products Division R&D Lab as well as many others. In addition, under Mr. Ravi’s stewardship, ICES is now managing the national initiative on advanced manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals named as Pharma Innovation Programme Singapore(PIPS). Mr. Ravi has consistently led ICES to exceed A*Star’s performance indices every year from 2011 onwards. In addition, Mr. Ravi had arranged two Ministerial visits to 2 of ICES’s industry collaborators – namely, Admaterials (S) Pte Ltd and Westcom Solutions (S) Pte Ltd in 2018.

From 2002 to 2011, Mr. Ravi was Deputy Director for Industry Development at the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) to spearhead industry engagements for IHPC. During his tenure, he initiated several key industry initiatives for IHPC including Joint Labs (most notably with HP Labs and Fujitsu), Public-Private Partnerships and forged several long-term collaborative relationships with key industry partners from various sectors.

Mr. Ravi joined A*Star’s Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) in 1995 and was appointed the Group Manager of the Advanced Polymer Processing Lab till 2002. In this capacity, he was responsible for growing the capabilities of the group and developing advanced technologies for industry applications as well as forging collaborations with leading polymer research centres world-wide.

Mr Ravi has several years of working experience in the private sector – mainly with General Electric Consumer Electronics (1983-1986) and Philips Electronics (S) (1988 – 1994).

Mr Ravi graduated with a Masters in Polymer Science and Engineering from the Department of Material Science at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

Dr. Wai Kiong Ng

Director (Strategy & Development), Institute of Chemical & Engineering Sciences

Ng Wai Kiong received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Diplom Ingenieur mit Auszeichnung (Chemical Engineering) from the Technical University of Clausthal in Germany supported by the GlaxoSmithKline-Economic Development Board (GSK-EDB) scholarship. Upon graduation, he joined the Chemicals group of EDB Industry Development Division. During the formative years of the Institute of Chemical & Engineering Sciences (ICES), he was assigned by EDB to ICES, and subsequently headed the Industrial Programme Development group. He has also previously managed the Applied Process Technology group of Sulzer Chemtech.

He returned to ICES as a Scientist in 2005 and was appointed as Principal Scientist II in 2018, during which he focused his research on Formulation Sciences and published numerous research papers on Particle and Colloidal Sciences. His other appointments were Team Leader and Head of Division. He received best paper award from the particle technology forum, American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) (2008), GSK-EDB inaugural green and sustainable manufacturing funds awards 2010 and 2011 as well as Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Singapore Pharmaceutical and Specialty Chemical Award (2012). His PhD students won grand prizes (2014 & 2015) at International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) Singapore Student Poster Competition. Recently, he received the Most Inspiring Mentor Award (2019) from the Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR).

Currently, as the Deputy Executive Director and Director at ICES, he leads the Strategy & Development division in the development and implementation of ICES R&D strategies and oversees the Business Development & Accounts Management group.