Foong Sew Bun
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Information Systems, School of Computing,
National University of Singapore

Sew Bun is an IBM Distinguished Engineer; the first IBM Distinguished Engineer in IBM ASEAN and IBM Asia Pacific Software Group. He is currently holding dual portfolios as the CTO for IBM Singapore as well as the CTO for IBM ASEAN Software Group. Since joining IBM in 2000, Sew Bun has over twenty-two years of technical expertise in object-oriented and service-oriented technologies, architectural patterns, enterprise architecture, software engineering methodologies, software reuse and computational intelligence. He rose from being a software architect to an architect leader, then a manager of architects covering all IBM software brands in IBM ASEAN, and then the Regional Technical Executive responsible for all the Software Architects and Technical Specialists in South Asia, and finally his dual CTO appointments in 2007 covering all technical professionals. He attained his IBM Certified Consulting IT Architect qualification less than a year after joining IBM, co-authored an IBM Redbook, became the first software architect to receive the AP Technical Representative of the Year, attained IBM Senior Certified Consulting IT Architect, and became one of the top six IT architects in worldwide IBM to receive the inaugural and prestigious IBM Technical Leadership Excellence Award (IT Architect Profession).

As the CTO for IBM Singapore and IBM ASEAN Software Group, Sew Bun works with C-level clients advising them on developing greater business value with IBM technologies, which includes all the major public sector and banking sector clients. The clients of Sew Bun include Citigroup AP, Development Bank of Singapore, Ministry of Home Affairs (Singapore), Singapore Press Holdings, Vietnam General Department of Taxation, Thailand Comptroller General Department - Finance, Thailand Department of Taxation, Ministry of Education (Singapore), NETS, Housing Development Board, Tata Consulting (India). In addition, Sew Bun is a widely recognized technical leader in IBM and was appointed to several top IBM technical leadership councils, including the WW SWG Technical Leadership Council, WW SWG Technical Managers Leadership Council and Chair of the ASEAN Distinguished Engineers Action Network. Besides the above responsibilities, in his role as the CTO for IBM Singapore, Sew Bun works to establish the presence and leadership of IBM Research in Singapore by working with leaders in the Government, research institutions and universities. Prior to IBM, Sew Bun worked as the Director of Technology for a start-up with Raffles Medical Group, as an Assistant Vice President with OCBC Bank on an business-IT transformation journey, as the Principal Engineer that led several high classified military fighter craft simulator projects for MINDEF Singapore, as a lecturer and research with the Institute of Systems Science, as a software consultant with Dowell Schlumberger (Oklahoma, U.S.A.), and the first Head Techning Assistant of the Computer Science Department of the University of Texas at Austin (U.S.A.).

Sew Bun has not only consistently demonstrated his outstanding technical leadership within his job roles; he also has contributed externally in several very important roles in the Singapore Infocomm industry. As an IT leader in the Singapore IT industry since 1992, Sew Bun initially helped develop the framework for the national IT skills accreditation program in the National Infocomm Competency Centre (NICC) in early 2002. The NICC is responsible for the accreditation and certification of infocomm courses to develop critical infocomm competencies identified by the national regulatory body, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. Sew Bun was initially one of the five committee members of the Accreditation/Certification (AC) Committee and one of the seventy evaluation panel members. In 2004, Sew Bun was appointed the Chairman of the Accreditation / Certification Committee of the National Infocomm Competency Centre. In 2005, he was appointed as the Chairman of the National IT Training Awards Judging Panel, and in 2008, a member of the National Science and Technology Awards (NSTA) Selection Committee. Sew Bun was further shaping the IT Industry of Singapore as a member of the National Infocomm Competency Framework Technical Committee from 2006-2007. Since 1999, Sew Bun is a member of the Information Technology Management Association (ITMA), a local CIO organization that promotes best practices and lessons learnt among the CIOs, IT Directors and senior IT managers. In the academic sphere, Sew Bun was an adjunct staff with the Institute of Systems Science, National University of Singapore. He is also periodically consulted by the Institute for his views on Enterprise Architecture, Patterns, SOA, Web2.0 and future technological trends. Currently, Sew Bun is the Chairman of the National Infocomm Competency Framework Steering Committee, and leads a team of twenty CIOs and CTOs with Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and Workforce Development Agency, to provide governance and directions to technical committees developing the NICF for Singapore. Sew Bun is also an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Department of Information Systems of the National University of Singapore.

 
   



IBM Distinguished Engineer
Chief Technology Officer, IBM Singapore
Chief Technology Officer, IBM ASEAN Software Group


IBM Certified Senior Consulting IT Architect
Open Group Certified Master IT Architect


BSc. Computer Science (University of Texas at Austin)
MSc. Computer Science (University of Texas at Austin)

Teaching: CS3361 Service Science

Tel: (65) 6516-8357
Fax: (65) 6779-4580
Office Location: SOC1-04-35
E-mail: [sewbun@comp.nus.edu.sg]

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