Mr Fred Utanes has behind him 30 years of professional experience that spans the diverse fields of training and education, entrepreneurship, non-profit organisations, and defence. He had an illustrious career with Informatics Holdings Ltd in Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Laos. He held sensitive positions as Chief Operating Officer (COO), Senior Vice President, Director, and/or General Manager of different country operations in his 13 long years with Informatics. His stint with a San Francisco (USA)-based web development firm as General Manager was also one of his career highlights. To add to these, he had the opportunity to gain rich experience in the MICE industry doing trade exhibitions and advertising sales for Seatrade, a publication company based in UK.

Mr Utanes possesses two masters degrees in business. He received one of these, his Masters in Business Management (MBM) degree, on scholarship from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), an AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International) accredited business school situated in Manila’s prime business district. His Bachelor of Science degree was earned at the Philippine Military Academy, graduating with top honours at the same time earning the equivalent title of 2nd Lieutenant in the officer corps. He also holds numerous professional certifications in the areas of training and assessment, supply chain management, and others.

His academic record includes a Senior Lecturer position in the graduate department of the premier state university of the Philippines as well as Associate Professor in Management in another graduate school of business. In Singapore, Mr Utanes taught in the masters’ and undergraduate degree programmes in various private schools. He still teaches subjects within the business management and hospitality management disciplines.

Mr. Murali Nair embarked on a career in Hotel Management almost 30 years ago, armed with a Diploma from Switzerland and a Bachelor‟s degree in Travel Industry Management (Hotel Management) from the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

His hotel experience spans both internationally – US, Europe, Asia and Africa – and across several international chains – Westin, Mandarin and Hyatt International. His area of specialisation was Food & Beverage and apart from working in senior management positions in hotels, for the past 10 years, Mr. Nair has been committed to helping organisations in the tourism industry achieve higher and more productive service standards.

Ms. Pearl Teo-Allen heads up the Consulting and Corporate Training Division at SDH. She is also the Senior Lecturer for the Masters and Bachelor’s programs for Vatel International School of Hotel and Tourism.

Ms. Pearl has some 15 years of consulting and training experience. Prior to returning to Singapore, she was the General Manager of a hospitality consulting and training company for a wholly owned foreign enterprise in China for over 8 years. She has consulted for both MNCs and SMEs from China, Singapore, USA and other international companies. Amongst her clients were top ranking 6-star hotels in China, NASDAQ listed companies, F&B and retail franchises. She also managed for an American F&B casual dining franchise.

Her other professional experience include: Assistant Director with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA); Associate Director with a consulting firm in Singapore where she headed the service and training division; and Product Development Director for a Hotel Consulting firm, involving business development and market research.

Ms. Pearl holds a Masters in Hospitality Administration, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV); Masters in Intercultural Studies, Fuller Graduate School (Leadership concentration); and Bachelor of Arts, National University of Singapore (NUS). She is a certified trainer, assessor, curriculum developer (ACTA) and certified Practicing Management Consultant (PMC).

Ms. Isabel Sander brings to SDH Institute close to a decade of experience in F&B Management and Catering Management. An alumni of the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne she has been working in the USA, UAE, Oman, Thailand, China and Vietnam since here graduation. She has held positions in Events Management, Restaurant and Bar Management and in the last years as a Director of F&B with InterContinental Hotels Group.

Isabel holds a BA in International Hospitality Management from EHL and a Certificate in Leading Management Team from Cornell University. She is currently enrolled in a Certificate Course in Interior Design at NAFA.

Isabel is passionate about cooking and travelling and has a keen interest in restaurant design. She is fluent in German, French and English and conversational in Spanish.

Ms. Taze Kua is the Academic Manager and Senior Lecturer at the SDH Institute who brings along with her a wealth of experience in the hospitality industry. Prior to joining the education field, she was one of the pre-opening team members at the Marina Bay Sands. Her hotel experiences include stints at the Orchard Hotel, Marina Mandarin, Mandarin Oriental, The Scarlet Hotel and The Changi Village Hotel.

She holds a degree specializing in International Tourism and Hospitality Management which was conferred by the University of Sunderland, UK. Her other specialized certifications include Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, Disney Keys to Excellence Service, Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Train the Trainer Modules in Coaching Skills, Instructional Skills, Test Construction and Planning & Implementing On-Job Training. She is also a recognized Industry Trainer of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and holds the Advanced Certificate in Training and Development (ACTA) bestowed by the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) Singapore.

Mr. Brice Melliere is a fulltime lecturer at the SDH Institute. He is a management practitioner and has rich work experience in restaurant operations. His 18-years career spans the diverse areas of business, hotels, bars, restaurants, teaching service in restaurants, training professionals and students in the food and beverage industry.

Mr. Brice has extensive market experience in the restaurant chain business in different places in Europe, holding different key positions during his career. He started working as a chef. He then became a bar tender and then went into restaurant floor operations in different prestigious chains such as Intercontinental, Hilton, Marriott Hotels, and also some smaller hospitality organisations such as small luxury hotels and other famous restaurants in Europe and Singapore.

Mr. Brice received his training in Culinary and Service Arts from the Ecole Hoteliere du Gue A Tresmes in France. He possesses a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, Employment and Training from Paris University and followed a formation to become a restaurant teacher back in his own country.

Mr Edwin Yeong is a full-time lecturer at SDH Institute. He has more than 10 years of teaching experience. He is very familiar with the local education system and MOE syllabus. Mr Edwin has taught English to speakers of other languages and understands the difficulties faced by them.

Mr Edwin holds a Degree in Business Computing and a Diploma in Electronics, Computers and Communications. He also holds a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) from the University of Cambridge. Mr Edwin has also attended other teaching courses at the British Council.

Mr Edwin has worked in the IT industry for a number of years and conducted IT training classes when he was working in an IT firm. He likes teaching and interacting with his students. When he delivers his lessons, his objective is to present the topics as simple as possible. He believes many things can be explained in simple ways.

Mr. Yeh Choy Yan possesses more than 15 years of work and education training experience from within the Travel and Tourism, Education and Leisure industry. Currently, he is the Executive Director of a private education organisation and prior to this was a Business Development Director of Entrepreneur Resource Centre Singapore as well as lecturer for Asian Centre for Professional Excellence.

Professionally, Mr. Yeh last held the appointment of Assistant Director (Education Services) and Regional Director Taiwan while he was with the Singapore Tourism Board. He has also traveled widely to China and the ASEAN region to promote regional tourism investment as well as the Singapore Education Services product. Mr. Yeh holds two Bachelors degrees in Marketing & Commercial Law and Business Law (with Honours) from Curtin University of Technology and an MBA jointly delivered by Tsinghua University, Beijing and MIT.

Mr. Ng Puay Chuan has a wealth of teaching experience, as well as 30 years of excellent career record in Senior Management and Board member position with MNC and public listed corporations. Over the years, he led corporations in general management, business development, finance and management accounting in various industries such as services, manufacturing and building maintenance and construction.

Mr. John Lock is a management practitioner and has rich work experience in restaurant operations. His 25-year career spans the diverse areas of business, hotels, restaurants, childcare, Quality Management systems and HACCP systems.   

John has extensive market experience in the restaurant chain business in Singapore, having won the Top Area Manager Award 4 times with his previous organization. He was awarded the Excellent Service Award Gold in 2005 organized by SPRING Singapore for outstanding contribution and commitment to excellent service.

John received his training in Hotel and Tourism from the Ecole Hoteliere et de Tourisme HOSTA, Leysin, Switzerland. He also possesses a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Victoria University, Australia.

Ms Lum Pee Ling is an adjunct lecturer in SDH Institute. Prior to teaching, her career covered 22 years in the hotel industry and included working with leading brand names like the Starwood Hotels and Resorts and the Fullerton Hotel.

In her rich hotel experience, Pee Ling has a proven track record of executing and facilitating pre-opening of hotels, renovation projects and leading process improvement initiatives. In these undertakings, she played a key role in various phases, from the design phase to the setting up of new guestrooms, restaurants and function spaces. Concurrent to these heavy responsibilities, she was also key facilitator and trainer for different service programmes.

Pee Ling’s career also involved benchmarking exercises which included quality audit checks in Hong Kong, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Furthermore, she was actively involved in hotels’ personnel recruitment in China, Indonesia and Philippines. Pee Ling holds a Masters of Business Administration in Hospitality Management with Distinction from Queen Margaret University, Edinburg. She was granted a Scholarship by Starwood Hotels and Resorts for the Higher Diploma in Hotel Management conferred by the Singapore Hotel Association Training and Educational Centre.

Mrs. Rashmi Kulkarni has a Bachelor of Arts with first class honors from the University of Pune and a Diploma in Hotel Management from the Technical Board of India. She has broad working experiences in hotel front office, hotel back office and catering operations. Organisations that she had worked in include Traders Hotel Singapore, Hotel Shangri-La Singapore and Holiday Inn Pune. She excels in hotel and F&B operations and management training.

Mr. Lim Chee Kong is a management practitioner and an adjunct lecturer of SDH Institute. He is currently the General Manager of a motorcycle helmet distribution company. He is also a committee member of a workgroup on the review of SS9 protective helmets for motorcyclists, which is headed by Traffic Police.

Chee Kong started his career as a Branch-In-Charge for a supermarket retailer in Singapore. Next, he spent the next 5 years doing international sales and marketing of food products in the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, North America and Oceania.

Chee Kong obtained his MBA from Essec Business School, a grand ecole in Paris, France. He also has a BA in Business and Finance from the University of Portsmouth, UK, and a Specialist Diploma in Supply Chain Management from Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore. He is fluent in English and Mandarin, and conversant in French.

Kassey Kalleichelven holds 23 years of industry experience, specializing in managing people and customer service/relationship management. His corporate expertise and experience in service quality and marketing/sales, coupled with his excellent customer relations, had won him numerous Awards like the LTA's Excellence Service Awards (EXSA)-Star winning it twice, in 2005 and 2008 respectively. He had also won the National Courtesy-Transport Gold Awards in 2001 and 2007.

After winning the National Mr. Manhunt 2000 title, he started Image Consultancy, conducting Personal Grooming and Projecting a Professional Image (PPI) training and workshops for the service industry specialing more for the Hospitality and Tourism sectors. He believes having a strong interest in customer relationship management and service excellence will give an organisation a leading edge in a competitive, global economy. Being a firm believer of a lifelong learning philosophy, he hopes to help students appreciate the essence of self-directed learning and the ability to acquire skills to resolve real life problems in the dynamic world we live in.

Kassey Kalleichelven also possesses a BSc (Honours) in Business Studies, with specialisation in Human Resource Management from Loughborough University (United Kingdom).

Ms. Dawn Gan is currently an associate lecturer with SDH Institute. She has more than 25 years in-depth operational and management experience in Retail Operation, Administration and Sales Management. Concurrent with management positions, she clocked in 15 years of experience in the educational industry as a lecturer and a senior manager.

Dawn holds a Master of International Business degree from the University of Wollongong, Australia; a University Higher Diploma in Business Studies, Staffordshire University, UK; a Diploma in Business Studies conferred by the Singapore Institute of Management; and an NCC-UK Diploma in Computer Studies. She also possesses numerous specialization certificates in business and customer service given by institutions like the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Examination Board and the Dun & Bradstreet Singapore, among others.

Mr. Monvorakikul used to serve as a train crew Instructor and later, as an assistant manager supervising about 200 crew members of Bangkok Mass Transit System Co., Ltd. (skytrain) in Thailand for five years. Then, he decided to pursue his studies in Hotel Operations Management in Switzerland where he was working as a night auditor and receptionist in Hotel Villa Toscane, Montreux. Moreover, for 17 years, his several translation works in French/English-Thai have been published in magazines and other printed materials owing to his proficiency in French. Soon, he will graduate with a doctorate degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management from the University of Derby, UK.