Experience

ESP xMedia Pte. Ltd.

• Singapore
• Online Audio and Video Media
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Founding CEO

  • Jan 2017 - Present

  ACTIONABLE STREAMING MEDIA REDEFINED.ESP xMedia is a Singapore-based company founded with a vision to game-change the actionable streaming video experiences around the world. Its flagship product, ESPxCloud, is a global cloud video platform that offers turnkey, white-labeled video content management and delivery services for any online video service providers to realise multi-camera, multi-location live webcasts that are actionable (i.e., personalise, interact, engage and transact) with their online audience in real-time. This Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) cloud platform empowers forward-looking online video providers to easily launch innovative live, on-demand, and linear channels that allow their audience to becoming ‘camera directors’ and personalise the picture-in-picture actionable viewing. Its unique 'one-stream, any device' video architecture redefines the CAPEX and OPEX of online video operators, while providing a seamless and actionable multi-camera video experience to all Web, desktop and mobile users. ESPxCloud is also a Video-as-a-Platform (VaaP) that empowers a partner’s own application system to white-label and operate the entire cloud-hosted (or privately hosted) video platform as a turnkey next-generation suite of actionable media technologies. Our developer-friendly software development kit (SDK) and application programming interfaces (APIs) provide customisable integration with just a few lines of codes. ESPxCloud, in strategic partnerships with globally-leading IaaS companies, is well-positioned to revolutionise disparate vertical markets spanning from Edutech, sports infotainment webcasts, and interactive conferences/seminars to live community/religious sharing, CEO townhalls or Investors’ briefings, and private video webinars. Show less

• Chief 360 Product Officer

  • Jan 2017 - Present

  How does Chief 360 Product Officer keep me delighted past midnights and over weekends?• Wearing the 7-role hat that covers 360-surround angles of our flagship cloud-native platform products, spanning across product manager, customer experience designer, technical architect and developer, partnership strategist, global operations lead, R&D innovation head, and chief people officer.• Being the ‘CEO of the Product’, constantly striking the perfect balance of technology, user experience, and business. On the one hand, it’s being the mastermind who conceptualises and imparts the product vision and strategy, the core features and roadmap, and how its success would look like. On the other hand, it’s being the masterchef who leads and cooks up everything that matters through evangelising, mentoring, influencing, and partnering across heterogeneous geo-distributed teams to harness symbiotic strengths and deliver the compelling products that generate revenue.• Piloting the helicopter view with an eco-system design thinking mindset to map out all pertinent stakeholders’ needs and problem statements, synthesise them with market data and R&D analytics insights, smell the dollars, and translate them into overarching product eco-system gameplan with accompanying agile-centric execution phases over its full cradle-to-grave life cycle.• Living and breathing video streaming deep-tech for over 25 years, diving into incisive details as both a hands-on researcher and a driver-seat R&D leader is simply second nature. Crunching multi-dimensional data, internalising product-market dynamics, and innovating strategic technology-business models are key to transforming our applied analytical insights into commercial products that usher in a delightful era of actionable streaming media, advertisement, and commerce. Show less



Singapore Computer Society

• Singapore
• Technology, Information and Media
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Fellow, SCS

  • Mar 2022 - Present

  Conferred the highest Fellowship grade as a member who holds a senior tech position and has an established reputation of eminence or authority in the field of tech. As a Fellow of SCS, he has also advanced SCS as the premier infocomm society in Singapore and made positive influence to the tech community. For a list of SCS Fellows: https://www.scs.org.sg/membership/fellows

• EXCO Member, Digital Media Chapter

  • Jan 2016 - Present

  The Digital Media (DM) Chapter aims to bring interactive digital media talents together to interact, exchange ideas, and improve their professional standings. DM practitioners looking for employment prospects should make use of the Chapter to upgrade their skills and expand their professional connection in the industry. This Chapter is also the perfect place for members to seek project opportunities in the DM industry.Contributed to judging panel such as the Splash Award.



IEEE Computer Society

• United States
• Research Services
• 300 - 400 Employee

• Vice Chairman, Computer Chapter (Singapore Section)

  • Dec 2022 - Present

  The IEEE Computer Society Singapore Section's main purpose is to promote the Computer Chapter in Singapore by organizing and co-sponsoring relevant technical and social activities that are of interest to the Chapter's members and (possibly) the general public. These include technical talks/seminars/forums, international conferences/workshops, social/financial/healthcare talks, programming competitions, children's games, wine/beer nights, family outings, movie screenings, etc. Welcome to our revamped Chapter's website at http://sites.ieee.org/singapore-c/. Do check out our upcoming activities, as well as view photos and videos of past events.Volunteering in various EXCO leadership positions since 2010. Show less

• Secretary (Computer Chapter Singapore Section)

  • Jan 2021 - Dec 2022

• Vice Chairman (Computer Chapter Singapore Section)

  • Jan 2019 - Dec 2020

• Chairman (Computer Chapter Singapore Section)

  • Jan 2017 - Dec 2018

• Vice Chairman (Computer Chapter Singapore Section)

  • Jan 2015 - Dec 2016

• Chairman (Computer Chapter Singapore Section)

  • Jan 2013 - Dec 2014

• EXCO Member

  • Jan 2010 - Dec 2012



Tan Kah Kee Foundation

• Singapore
• Education Administration Programs
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Judging Panel (Senior Student & Open Categories)

  • Jan 2011 - Present

  Contributing to the annual judging and selection of winners for the Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors' Award, particularly for the Senior Students and Open Categories. The TKKYIA aims to stimulate creativity among the young generation and to promote scientific and technological research in Singapore. https://singaporetkkf.com.sg/yia/ Contributing to the annual judging and selection of winners for the Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors' Award, particularly for the Senior Students and Open Categories. The TKKYIA aims to stimulate creativity among the young generation and to promote scientific and technological research in Singapore. https://singaporetkkf.com.sg/yia/



IMDA

• Government Administration
• 700 & Above Employee

• Chairman, TSAC-WG3 (Multimedia), IMDA's Telecommunications Standards Advisory Committee

  • Jan 2016 - Dec 2016

  Comprising network and service operators, equipment suppliers and manufacturers, academia and researchers, the TSAC represents professional, trade and consumer interest in telecommunications standardisation. The TSAC advises IMDA on the setting of ICT standards as well as on the development and recommendation of specifications, standards, information notes, guidelines and other forms of documentation for adoption and advancement of standardisation efforts of the Singapore ICT industry (generally termed "IMDA Standards"). Supported by a Secretariat provided by IMDA, the TSAC initiates new work items and forms Working Groups ("TSAC WGs"). While the formation of a TSAC WG should be industry-driven with the designated Chairperson drawing up a charter and programme to achieve outcomes that have impact on an emerging area, the TSAC performs the oversight role in reviewing the standardisation programmes adopted by TSAC WGs. Show less



Enterprise Singapore

• Singapore
• Government Administration
• 700 & Above Employee

• Council Member, Information Technology Standards Committee (iTSC)

  • Apr 2014 - Dec 2016

  The council members of the 8th term of office helped to ensure that the development of Singapore Standards takes into account the views of the relevant interest groups. The committee members were representatives of the government agencies, IT industry and professional bodies, and research and educational Institutions. There were 12 Technical Committees (TCs) working on various ICM- related standards for Singapore. More information: https://www.imda.gov.sg/regulations-and-licensing-listing/ict-standards-and-quality-of-service/industry-committees-and-working-groups/IT-Standards-Committee Show less



Institute for Infocomm Research

• Singapore
• Research
• 300 - 400 Employee

• Programme Head & Senior Scientist

  • Mar 2006 - Dec 2016

  Head of Research Programme and Principal Investigators of multi-million R&D funded projects. Conceived holistic R&D Programme comprising multi-phased and multi-sectorial projects covering strategic applied research and development. Led and managed the full project life cycle of several commercial-driven translational projects that elevated our Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for industry out-licensing engagement with licensing royalties.People-first leadership who recruited and built-up teams of research scientists and engineers, as well as passionately mentored and groomed younger co-workers, interns, scholars and students.Led the design thinking exercises to develop suites of R&D products, internal R&D processes, and tech-business models. Be the sponsors, and constantly maintained high-level communication with the Executive Director to coordinate, align and improve the organisation’s missions and deliverables. Scalable Multimedia Platform (SMP) was the overarching streaming video platform that comprises advanced video codec (H.264, SVC, HEVC), scalable and distributed (CDN-P2P) adaptive video delivery, video error control (resilience/ concealment), aging-archival management, and cross-platform intelligent QoE players.Other related R&D activities include decentralised content networking, content protection, service-oriented architecture, computer vision, AI machine learning, big data, etc.* List of refereed journals and conference publications (over 70 papers and 2,500 citations): https://scholar.google.com.sg/citations?user=FJxVoL8AAAAJ* List of patents:https://patents.justia.com/inventor/jo-yew-tham Show less

• Deputy Director, Strategic Planning Office

  • Apr 2014 - Dec 2015

  The primary role and responsibility of the Strategic Planning Office is to assist the Executive Director in mapping out holistic long-term strategic plans for the entire Institute (over 500 research scientists and engineers, with more than half are Ph.D. holders), implementing Research-Development-Commercialisation (RDC) roadmaps for various Research and Technology Departments, as well as defining key strategic bets and thrusts that synergise with the overarching Singapore’s Smart Nation initiatives in order to create sustainable industry impacts for Singapore and its People. Show less



National University of Singapore

• Singapore
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Adjunct Teaching Professor & Academic Supervisor

  • Aug 2007 - Jan 2016

  Embracing a teaching and mentoring mindset to impart knowledge and to groom the younger generations, these volunteering activities are the most rewarding and fulfilling at heart. Initiated and co-lectured two new courses on "EE4213: Image & Video Processing" and "EE4701: Advanced Video Processing" for 4th year undergraduates and postgraduates, in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, NUS. Supervised and graduated over 200 undergraduates' and postgraduates' final year projects, spanning across vast topics on image and video processing, computer vision, machine learning, etc. Supervised multiple batches of NUS’ Master of Technology and Master of Science internship teams for 6-month full-time or 12-month part-time projects. Supervised and graduated a few high-calibre PhD scholars; some of them are now successful lecturer and researcher in Europe and US. Show less



PeerTouch Technologies Pte. Ltd.

• CEO & Co-Founder

  • 2005 - 2006

  Co-founded an Internet startup company that developed a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) platform for secured group collaboration, communication and rich media content sharing. Commercial applications include server-less content management system, social match-making platform, and decentralised e-commerce marketplace. Conceptualised, architected and developed the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of a game-changing platform from ground-up, but unfortunately this entrepreneurial chapter did not graduate to the next phase due to a lack of investment funding. Show less

• Research Fellow

  • 2003 - 2005

  Led R&D on distributed information security, encryption, and peer-to-peer architecture for secured group sharing and collaboration in the Centre for Industrial Mathematics. Developed software prototypes that translated R&D algorithms into practical demos and solutions. Led R&D on distributed information security, encryption, and peer-to-peer architecture for secured group sharing and collaboration in the Centre for Industrial Mathematics. Developed software prototypes that translated R&D algorithms into practical demos and solutions.



enScaler, Inc. (Silicon Valley, USA)

• Chief Streaming Architect / Chief Technology Officer

  • 2000 - 2002

  Technology leader and innovation driver in architecting, designing, developing and deploying an enterprise-grade multi-tier streaming media content middleware platform (for rights management, CDN ingress/egress & distributed delivery, live media streaming management, etc.), which leverages a web services orchestration architecture. As the primary driver-seat platform architect, the daily work activities included agile-centric product design, development and testing cycles with the engineering and operations teams, iterative discussion and planning sessions with the products team, and weekly strategic planning meetings with the executive management. A co-driver in translating technical products into multi-million commercial deployments for both enterprise and consumer internet products and services. Show less



Video4i.com (Silicon Valley, USA)

• Senior R&D Manager

  • 1999 - 2000

  Led a R&D team to design and develop a commercial audio-video messaging platform, encompassing audio and video codecs development, which empowered consumer web portals and enterprises with unprecedented capabilities such as video greetings cards, video messaging, etc. A pioneer in the consumer video streaming space, possibly ahead of the Internet prime time when end users were still using dial-up to access the public Internet. Led a R&D team to design and develop a commercial audio-video messaging platform, encompassing audio and video codecs development, which empowered consumer web portals and enterprises with unprecedented capabilities such as video greetings cards, video messaging, etc. A pioneer in the consumer video streaming space, possibly ahead of the Internet prime time when end users were still using dial-up to access the public Internet.

• Research Associate & Project Manager

  • 1996 - 1999

  The first research engineer in the newly formed Centre for Wavelet, Approximation and Information Processing. Recruited and managed a small team of software engineers to develop core intellectual properties, and to translate applied research into commercialisable products. Pioneered research works on fast block motion estimation algorithms (Diamond Search), multi-wavelet filter design and its application to image/video compression, fast fingerprint image compression, a patented automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS), etc. List of Patents: https://patents.justia.com/inventor/jo-yew-tham Show less