Biography
Leslie is Senior Director, AI Products, AI Singapore, tasked with helping build the eco-system for AI use in Singapore. He and his colleagues are currently focusing on building LLMs that better represent our region.
Leslie is also a Smart National Fellow for GovTech, helping build capacity in AI.
Leslie is passionate about data, data science, machine learning, and AI. He pivoted from a career in economics, finance, and investing in 2019. That year, he joined Grab as Head of Data Science, Policy, and Data Initiatives and Advisor to the CEO. In that role, he sought to answer critical business and social questions using data and build products that provided relevant insights, such as congestion patterns and creating safer bike paths. He helped lay the foundation for the data science and analytics role at Grab and Singtel’s digital bank (GxS). He remains an Advisor to the CEO.
After Grab, Leslie was Managing Director at Great Eastern Life Insurance for Data and Strategic Transformation. He and his team were responsible for enabling data analytics and data science across the organization and fostering business transformation capabilities to deliver value in areas such as distribution, marketing, risk management and digital products.
Before Grab, Leslie was the Director of the Economics and Investment Strategy Department and Chief Economist at GIC Private Limited, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. He oversaw the team responsible for asset allocation, total portfolio construction, systematic investing, and identifying critical long-term trends that would impact GIC’s portfolio. He remains an advisor to the Ministry of Finance on reserve management issues.
Leslie was also at the International Monetary Fund. During his Fund career, he worked on financial sector restructuring, financial stability, public debt management, monetary policy and operations.
He was also Head of the Financial Surveillance Division at the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Leslie has a strong belief in education. He was a Board member of the Pacific Pension and Investment Institute and the National University of Singapore. He was a Vice President of the Economic Society of Singapore, chaired the advisory board for NUS’ Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and advised NUS’ Investment Committee and Business School.
Leslie has a Liberal Arts and Sciences degree from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Economics and Finance from the University of Rochester. He has a Master’s in Information and Data Science from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, he is a certified Financial Risk Manager and a CFA charter holder.