Our Team

Sam was previously the Managing Consultant of Towers Perrin Singapore and led the firm’s Asia’s practice in leadership development. Prior to Towers Perrin he was the Country Director of the Hay Group in Singapore, where he led major engagements in organization transformation, performance management, leadership development and compensation. Before joining Hay, he was a partner at HealthSearch International, a healthcare human resources recruitment and consulting firm.

Sam has been a keynote speaker at numerous conferences relating to leadership development in various countries. He is the co-editor with Marshall Goldsmith and David Giber of Linkage Inc.’s Best Practices in Leadership Development Handbook 2nd edition published by John Wiley (2009) and contributing author for Linkage Inc.’s Best Practices for Succession Planning published by Pfeiffer (2007).

Sam’s past clients have included Bayer, BASF, Allied Domecq, Bacardi-Martini, Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, Deutsche Bank, Prudential, ICLIF, CIMB Group, Petronas, Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, Singapore Stock Exchange, Creative Technology, Prime Minister’s Office-Singapore and various organs of the Singapore Government including: Economic Development Board, Defence Science & Technology Agency, Ministry of Defence, Singapore Tourism Board, National Library Board, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Land Transport Authority, Singapore Land Authority.

In his leadership development work, Sam routinely uses a variety of instruments from Linkage, Center for Application of Personality Types, Center for Creative Leadership, Hay McBer, Hogan, and People Factor. He graduated with B.A. from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and a M.A. from the National University of Singapore.

David is recognized in North America as a leader in leadership development. He has been a principal speaker at numerous international conferences relating to leadership development. He is also the editor of two top-selling books in the field, Linkage Inc.’s Best Practices in Leadership Development Handbook 1st and 2nd edition and Linkage Inc.’s Best Practices in Organizational Development and Change Handbook, as well as a contributing author for The Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching.

Prior to joining Linkage in 1992, David served in senior management positions in human resources and leadership development for leading companies in the high-tech, financial services, and travel industries.

David is an industrial/organizational psychologist who received his BA degree from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from Duke University.

Vivian’s specializes in senior leadership coaching, top team effectiveness and talent management advisory and consulting. Her expertise lies in the identification, coaching and development of individual leaders and leadership teams. Her work focuses on optimizing individual and team potential, thereby improving business and organizational performance. Through her own career experiences, Vivian has gained valuable insights in multiple industries including Banking, Insurance, Consumer Products, Professional Services, Food & Beverage and Hospitality across Asian markets. She is able to engage with high potential and senior leaders across a wide range of industry, market and organizational issues.

Prior to commencing her career in consulting in 2009, Vivian was a consummate human resource management professional who has extensive experience with global organizations. Her human resource management career started with R J Reynolds Tobacco. In 1987, she joined Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group as Group Personnel Manager with responsibilities spanning across 12 countries. In 1994, Vivian joined Australia New Zealand Banking Corporation in Hong Kong as Chief Human Resource Officer. In 1996, she became Vice President of Human Resources for Lehman Brothers in Asia ex-Japan. In 1998, she joined Citibank in Hong Kong and was Citigroup’s Asia Pacific Regional Director of Leadership, Staffing and Development for the Corporate & Investment Banking business. She then joined Prudential Assurance Corporation in 2005 as Chief Officer Human Resources in Asia.

Some of Vivian’s recent clients include Bank of China Hong Kong, ING, HSBC, and Maybank.

Vivian is a certified practitioner in major personality assessment instruments including MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and Hogan Assessment Tools. She holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Warwick in England and is a member of UK’s Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators.

Prior to her appointment at Linkage, Desley was the Section Head of HR Planning at Singapore Airlines. In this role, her responsibilities included managing the manpower budget, performance management, and inter-company benchmarking on HR practices. Before that Desley was a Consultant at Towers Perrin in the Rewards and Performance Management line-of-business and her client engagements included leadership development, performance and change management, communications, and pay work.

Desley is also a contributing author for Linkage Inc.’s Best Practices for Succession Planning published by Pfeiffer (2007).

Some of Desley’s clients include Unilever, Prudential Corporation Asia, GlaxoSmithKline, International Center for Leadership in Finance (Bank Negara), CIMB Group, Petronas, Defence Science & Technology Agency, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Civil Service College, and Singapore Exchange.

Desley is certified in a variety of psychometric instruments and diagnostic assessments including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Leadership Assessment Instrument, Benchmarks-360, Firo-B, the Occupational Personality Questionnaire, Hogan Personality Inventory, Hogan Development Survey, and the Hogan Motives Values Preferences Inventory. She also has a Certification in Counseling Skills.

Desley graduated with a B.A. (1st Class Honors) from the University of Westminster (U.K.), and a MSc. in Organizational and Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science (U.K.).

Prior to joining Linkage, Janet spent 5 years in BOC Gases (Linde Group) as the HR Director for the Industrial & Special Products Business Unit. She was based in Singapore where she covered 12 countries across Asia. In this role Janet provided management direction and change leadership on organizational issues, structure and strategy to meet the business unit objectives, and in implementing human resources policies, processes, initiatives and programs to support the businesses in Asia. Janet was also responsible for coaching the senior executive team, mentoring the high potential management trainees and employees. Prior to BOC Gases, Janet was a Consultant in the Hay Group, where she consulted with senior management in both the private & public sectors on organizational development and change initiatives such as, strategy clarification, vision articulation, balanced scorecard development, and organizational audits. She also consulted in leadership and management development and competency development, as well as, the design and implementation of performance management programs, reward and career management programs.

Some of Janet’s recent clients include Aviva, CIMB Group, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Defence Science & Technology Agency, Maybank, OCBC, Samsung, and Veeco.

Janet holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree in Psychology from the University of Sheffield and a Masters of Science in Psychology from the University of Manchester.

Prior to joining Linkage, Melanie was extensively involved in scenario planning and strategy development projects at the Strategic Policy Office, Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore. She developed a number of classified National Scenarios for her public sector clients. Melanie also designed and facilitated strategy workshops with senior civil servants and government agencies to align their policy initiatives with long-term top-priority strategic issues. She also served as the lead trainer for workshops on the scenario planning methodology, and led research efforts into new strategic planning methodologies and facilitation tools.

A selection of Melanie’s clients at Linkage include the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, International Center for Leadership in Finance (Bank Negara), CIMB Group, Affin Bank Berhad and the Asian Leadership Consortium (a consortium of companies comprising GlaxoSmithKline, Singapore Exchange, Sonoco, Abacus, Lexmark and Neptune Orient Lines). At the Prime Minister’s Office, her clients included the President and Prime Minister of Singapore, Cabinet Ministers and senior public sector officials.

Melanie is a qualified practitioner in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Firo-B, the Hogan suite of assessment tools, and the Bridges’ Leading Organizational Transition program.

Melanie holds a Bachelor of Science (Honors) degree in Economics and Philosophy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London.

Prior to joining Linkage, Timothy served as the Director for Learning and Development for Temasek Holdings, an investment company owned by the Singapore Government. Timothy has done projects in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Timothy served in the Singapore Armed Forces for 24 years, first as an Infantry Officer and subsequently, as a Naval Logistics / Engineering officer and took an early retirement with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In his last 10 years in the Singapore Armed Forces, Timothy was largely involved in Training and Organizational Development work. He served as the Head of Instructional Technology and Head of Training Effectiveness and Standards in the Navy. His last role in the Ministry of Defence was the Head of the MINDEF Centre for Management Development. Timothy is certified on a number of psychometric tools and had served as National Lead Assessor for the Singapore Quality Award Business Excellence Framework in Singapore.

Tim’s past clients include Bank of China, Becton-Dickinson Critical Care Systems, Certis-CISCO Security, China Construction Bank, Changi Airport Group, Civil Aviation and Safety Authority (Australia), Defence Science and Technology Agency, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Hewlett-Packard, Intercall Asia Pacific, Ji Lin University, Ministry of Education (Singapore), National Heritage Board, Norinchukin Bank, Singapore Army, ST Electronics, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Surbana Corporation, TNT Express Worldwide, Tyco Electronics, and several Temasek-Linked Companies.

Timothy holds a Masters of Educational Management Degree with Honors from the University of Western Australia.

Yulee joined Linkage Asia from Citi where she was Resourcing and Talent Planning Director for Asia Pacific. In this role, her responsibilities included developing and implementing talent management strategies across 18 countries. She designed and managed talent development initiatives and programs for top executives as well as internal staffing for key positions. She also specialized in formulating and integrating Diversity and Inclusion into the bank’s business strategy to drive a meritocratic and high-performance culture.

Prior to Citi, she was Associate Director in Human Resources at UBS AG, responsible for graduate recruitment for Asia Pacific. Before that, she managed the recruitment efforts for the Capital Markets businesses at Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific. Yulee began her career in Human Resources as a search consultant at Korn/Ferry International specializing in banking and consulting industries. She has also worked in the hospitality industry in the United States and Hong Kong.

Yulee holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University.

She serves regional clients from Southeast Asia and China. Her recent clients include Bank of China HK, Bo Le Associates, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, CIMB Group, EMC China Center of Excellence, International Center for Leadership in Finance (Bank Negara), National Environment Agency (Singapore) and University of Malaya.

Prior to joining Linkage, Colleen worked as a Relationship Manager for Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Limited in China. Colleen also served the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Center (Singapore) as a regional analyst examining social investments in the Philippines.

Colleen holds an MBA Degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS), and a BA (Honors) in Finance & Banking Management from Chu Ke Chen College of Zhejiang University, China. She was selected for the MBA exchange program in Rotman Business School, University of Toronto, where she worked with Professor Dilip Soman on projects related to marketing innovation in financial services industry.

Prior to joining Linkage, Kia Liang was in the President’s Office of the National University of Singapore specializing in executive communications, and prior to that was with Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management Division where he managed the operational risks on the accounts of private banking clients. He started his career with the Singapore Ministry of Defence in International Relations where he oversaw a desk of ten countries and advised on bilateral defence relations. He was also a key committee member involved in the planning and execution of international defence-related events such as Asian Aerospace and Shangri-La Dialogue.

Kia Liang consults with clients across Southeast Asia from various industries such as banking and financial services, the public sector, electronics as well as pharmaceuticals.

Kia Liang holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the National University of Singapore, Masters in Business Administration from the Bradford School of Management, Masters of Arts (International Relations) from Flinders University, and a Masters in Public Administration from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Kia Liang is an avid marathon runner and long-distance triathlete.