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Mr Willie Cheng
Our latest addition to the SCS Hall of Fame is someone who truly personifies the term Hall of Fame.
First, he has “been there, done that”; he has been awarded most of the titles and awards there is to give, in the history of SCS and IT Leader Awards: Honorary Treasurer, Honorary Secretary, Vice President, SCS’s President’s Award, Fellow, IT Person of the Year. If he keeps going like this, we may need a new award beyond the Hall of Fame.
Just as well “Hall of Fame” suggests the pinnacle of it all. Our criteria say: Individual whose outstanding contributions over an extended period have helped to shape the development of IT in Singapore. The keywords are: individual, outstanding, extended period and shape the development of IT. The latest person for our Hall of Fame is that outstanding individual who’s been contributing to IT for a long time.
When we think of Hall of Fame, we think of entertainment - and sports. Take golf and their world hall of fame. You will see the likes of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. They are the undisputed legends of golf. They have won record number of tournaments. And yet they have to be voted in; voted in because of their contribution to the game at large and their exemplary personalities.
Our 2005 Hall of Fame'r is Singapore IT’s Jack Nicklaus. He has achieved what is there to achieve and given plenty back to the IT profession and development in Singapore. He has taken IT beyond IT to business in general and now, to the Singapore community at large.
He has always pushed the envelope and made things happened against odds. He drove public private partnership programmes long before the term PPP existed. They include the Training Technology Centre, eCommerce Centre of Excellence, ec.Think and eAwards. He led the creation of the first comic about IT, using IT way before Anime became vogue. As chairman of SiTF, he launched five new chapters, initiated the SiTF Golf Masters and the annual iX2000 following the void left by Informatics and Comdex.
He led efforts to help his customers become more successful such as, helping the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore transform its taxpayer services, Nets with the launch of its CashCard, and the government be more citizen centric through the eCitizen online portal. He was instrumental in taking Accenture from a 30 person practice to the largest consulting firm in Singapore with more than 500 professionals. His other thriving legacies includes the CIO Workshop (17th going 18th) and Enterprise 50 (10th going 11th).
He also managed to rope in other leading IT companies and championed the Sharkathon and Gladiathon series of fun charity fund raisers. He helped positioned IT’s community spiritedness with President Nathan and Singaporeans. Like Jack Nicklaus, it is not just about winning trophies but developing the industry and giving back to the community.
Like Jack Nicklaus, he has retired from the mainstream but he is still active and his efforts remain untiring. Like Jack Nicklaus, he is has left it to the Tiger Woods and Vijay Singhs of the Singapore IT community to break the records he is set and chase the achievements he is made. Tiger and Vijay may be awesome in the last few years but Jack Nicklaus has done more, over a longer period sans the technology, media coverage and lesser sponsorship money then.
He has continued to be active as an advisor to Singapore IT Federation, Singapore Computer Society, Singapore Mediation Centre, and Nanyang Business School. He has chaired the Singapore Science Centre, the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre, the Committee On Family, and Jurong Country Club. In addition, he has been a director on several commercial and statutory boards.
Who said he has retired!
Our 2005 Hall of Fame’r is the Renaissance man: a technologist, a businessman, a leader, an advisor, a driver, a do’er, a man with a big heart, a well-respected man and more.
He is not perfect though: we said in 1999 when he was made Fellow of SCS that his golf is … suspect. He has improved since but we also know that he is far from being playing golf like Jack Nicklaus even if he can drive a golf ball over 200m - with a non-PGA sanctioned driver.
Please join me in welcoming Singapore IT’s Jack Nicklaus to the SCS Hall of Fame, Mr Willie Cheng.
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