Rooting for our everyday heroes in the COVID-19 battle

As COVID-19 rages across the world, our NUS Business School community is keeping up the fight. From students, staff and alumni in the healthcare industry, to alumni who lend a helping hand through their companies, Outside-In features some of our everyday heroes in the battle against the pandemic.

Healthcare heroes

Dr Shalini Arulanandam

Chief Medical Officer at the Singapore Civil Defence Force

Part-time MBA student Dr Shalini Arulanandam reviews policies and guidelines to ensure safe processes for the emergency medical services crew as well as the Force.

Watch her story in the Ministry of Home Affairs video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFdC0HID_1k

Dr Noel Yeo

Senior Vice President, Parkway Pantai’s Hospital Operations

Executive MBA alumnus Dr Noel Yeo is the Senior Vice President of Parkway Pantai’s Hospital Operations. He is also leading the Singapore Operations Division Command Centre for DORSCON Orange in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The four Parkway hospitals, including Mount Elizabeth Hospitals, have been accepting patients, who are recovering from COVID-19, from the public hospitals. This frees up capacity in the public hospitals for more severe cases.

Yong Yih Ming

General Manager, Raffles Medical Group

MBA alumnus Yong Yih Ming, General Manager at Raffles Medical Group, said, “Raffles Medical has been working around the clock at the frontlines to screen anyone who enters and leaves our air borders at Changi and Seletar Airports. In addition, all Raffles Medical Clinics around the island are part of the Ministry of Health’s Public Health Preparedness Clinic (PHPC) scheme. It heartens me to see staff working with one mind to fight the spread of COVID-19. My team’s tireless effort in the community and at the borders requires great resilience and commitment, so as to protect Singapore and our families. I am appreciative of their professionalism and dedication throughout this period. Together, we will get through this.”

Heroes who help in other ways

There are many acts of kindness. At an early stage of the outbreak, our MBA and EMBA Chinese students have raised funds and arranged for delivery of medical supplies to hospitals in Wuhan, China.

The NUS Business School Alumni Association is raising funds for The Food Bank Singapore’s Feed The City programme, which aim to deliver meals to needy families and individuals.

Accountancy undergraduate Lim Li Ly, a volunteer with the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Volunteer Corps, is one of those who signed up as a phone operator to help in making contact tracing calls. As the number of coronavirus cases in Singapore increases, the SAF made more calls for contact tracing and also checking on those on stay-home notices.

A few kind-hearted individuals purchased and treated members of NUS Business School and Tan Tock Seng Hospital to sweet Udders Chocolate Ice Cream to cool off, cheer up and urge on efforts to fight the COVID-19 blues! Pictured here is Aaron Goh (second from right), our MSc Programmes Director, delivering ice cream to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, received by a team including our MBA alumna, Low Pui See (far left) who is Assistant Director in the Human Resource Department of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

Companies have given in their own way. MBA student Schitij Kulshrestha, who is part of the newly launched Microsoft Experience Centre, Asia and Microsoft’s Asia Pacific Diversity and Inclusion Council, says that the company is “really pushing for virtual meetings across the world to ensure business continuity”.

“The company is making Microsoft Teams available to everyone – businesses and individuals. Microsoft puts customer trust and privacy at a priority and hence, in the new virtual mode of business, technology can be leveraged by everyone without any concerns for security,” said Schitij. “In addition, the Microsoft APAC Diversity & Inclusion team recently hosted an internal Teams Live event to educate employees on how features in Microsoft Office could be leveraged to be more inclusive in virtual meetings”.

Carousell, co-founded by BBA alumni Quek Siu Rui and Marcus Tan, has launched a movement #ChooseToGive, encouraging Singaporeans to donate items on its platform.

Expara, a venture capital company founded by Douglas Abrams, Adjunct Associate Professor at NUS Business School, has launched a fully online acceleration programme for start-ups. It will accept 30 companies that are developing innovative tech-solutions to tackle COVID-19 and future viruses. Expara is offering top teams up to $50,000 in funding.

The North China chapter of NUS Business School’s Alumni Association raised funds for supplies such as disinfectant to be donated to Singapore’s Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC).  The fundraising was led by the Secretary General of the Chapter, Liu Tao (EMBA-Chinese 23^rd intake).

Not every hero dons a costume. But there was a hero who donned a costume one day and brought cheer to those in the line for temperature screening at Mochtar Riady Building.

The virus is a tough villain to defeat, but let us each play our part to keep up the fight!