Synopsis

"IT's my Life." No, Cheok will not be singing the Bon Jovi Song. Thank goodness!

Cheok is privileged to be given the chance to share his experience with SMU students. He will be dishing out some of the mottoes of life which he has adopted to survive nearly 30 years in academia, research and IT and still enjoying every moment of IT. He will also describe the kind of people one has to content with in one's working life and give advise on how to work with such people. Finally, he will explain how some of these mottoes are applied to help the MINDEF CIO office remain relevant in an ever-changing Business and IT landscape.

About the speaker

As Director of the MINDEF CIO Office, Dr. Cheok helps to maintain an oversight over non war-fighting IT matters in the Ministry of Defence, Singapore . It includes managing the Corporate IT Portfolio (annual budget of about $300 M) and transforming the IT Infrastructure.

Cheok has a B.Sc. (First Class Honours) in Nautical Studies from the University of Southampton , a M.Sc. in Ship Production Technology from the University of Strathclyde and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Singapore .

Before joining MINDEF, Cheok has worked at the Singapore Polytechnic, National University of Singapore and Institute of High Performance Computing . He was also the founding Director of the National Grid Office. In addition, Cheok has acted as a consultant/trainer for companies in Singapore , Brunei and the UK . He has published more than 50 technical papers and is a much sought after speaker in the local IT scene.

In 2002, Cheok was awarded the National Technology Award for outstanding research and engineering in the development of a knowledge-based tooling design system.