Imperial College alumni’s August 19 dinner in KL to feature startups, sustainability and ‘YBeeee’

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — The Imperial College Alumni Association Malaysia's (ICAAM) annual dinner on August 19 will feature fun discussions on sustainability with comedian and actress Jo Kukathas making an appearance, while also throwing the spotlight on local startups.

Ng Jee Kwan, vice-president of ICAAM, said the annual dinner this year is a larger event, after a slowdown in activities in recent years during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"This year we decided to invite the minister of science, technology and innovation, YB Chang Lih Kang, to join us for the evening.

"Because YB Chang is quite an advocate of innovation and technology, we are also going to showcase a few of our alumni-led startups as well," Ng, who is on the dinner's organising committee and himself a co-founder of a tech startup, told Malay Mail.

Ng said the startups will be showcased through videos, featurettes in the event booklet, and through opportunities to interact with those attending the ICAAM annual dinner.

According to Ng, some of the start-ups to be featured are electric vertical take-off and landing or heavy payload drone startup Etienne Innovations; Hari Gaji that provides a flexible payroll solution for companies, which benefits employees; Farm Direct, which is an online platform which gets fresh produce directly to consumers by connecting them with farmers; and Clean Energy Xpeditions, which is a very early-stage clean energy startup based on innovations in nuclear reactor technologies developed during PhD studies in Imperial College London.

Satirical character YBeeee will be joining the discussion during ICAAM’s dinner on sustainability and electric vehicles. — Picture courtesy of Jo Kukathas

During the dinner, there will also be a forum discussion titled "To EV or not to EV", with electric vehicles (EVs) to be the entry point to the wider topic of sustainability.

"While EVs are becoming more popular globally and especially here in Malaysia now that Tesla has officially entered our market, there are as many proponents of EV’s green credentials and better acceleration performance as there are detractors who question the actual sustainability impact of EV’s which requires large- scale mining of rare earth materials for their batteries," Ng said, adding that there are wider issues involved as the large-scale adoption of EVs requires considerable electricity infrastructure upgrades in Malaysia, ranging from power generation and distribution investment to fire safety measures for chargers.

"Our alumni Low Huoi Seong (Coach, Consultant and Chairman of The YPO Lestari Academy) and Zaman Ahmad (Head of Business Integration, Gentari Renewables Sdn Bhd) are aiming to convince YBeeee (Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Panic played by the quick witted Jo Kukathas) that, with well thought-out policies and quality education of the public, the rapid shift towards EVs is nothing to panic about and, in fact, a great opportunity to transition daily life and industries towards a more sustainable future of generations of Malaysians to come," he said.

Commenting on the session involving satirical character YBeeee who chairs the fictional environmental sub-subcommittee called the Committee of Hot Air Hot Air or HAHA, Ng said it would be an interactive knowledge-sharing session with a bit of humour to it.

ICAAM committee member Ganesh Kathiresan, who is also on the dinner's organising committee, said humour would help people take in important topics that could be dry as compared to lectures, saying: "Whereas the humour makes it fun and before you know it, everyone would have absorbed everything, and gone home much wiser for it, much more thoughtful about it, to EV or not to EV."

The 150-seat dinner received financial support from Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) Berhad, Hartasuma Sdn Bhd, the Imperial College Alumni Office from London, as well as some generous Malaysian alumni of Imperial College acting in their personal capacity.

A generous alumnus has sponsored 20 seats for current Imperial College students to join the dinner, with such students including those graduating soon and some who had just joined the university.

The dinner is also open to the public, with tickets priced at RM350 for ordinary ICAAM members and their guests, RM300 for ICAAM lifetime members and RM250 for students.

There are limited seats left for the dinner to be held at the De.Wan 1958 by Chef Wan @ The LINC.

The closing date to get tickets is on August 13.

Visit https://icaam.org.my/ for information on how to register for the tickets.

The dinner is also open to the public, with tickets priced at RM350 for ordinary ICAAM members and their guests, RM300 for ICAAM lifetime members and RM250 for students. — Picture courtesy of ICAAM

Having been established for 28 years as the Malaysian chapter of the Imperial College alumni, ICAAM currently has over 700 members, with about half of them active.

One of the most notable Imperial College alumni in Malaysia is Brahmal Vasudevan, who is the CEO and founder of local private equity firm Creador — which has invested in companies such as Mr DIY, BIG Pharmacy, Pet World International Bhd, Eco-Shop Marketing Sdn Bhd, and Loob Holding Sdn Bhd.

In May 2022, he together with his wife, Shanthi Kandiah, made a £25 million donation to Imperial College London, which established the Brahmal Vasudevan Institute for Sustainable Aviation focusing on research on low-pollution and zero-pollution technologies for aviation.

Other notable alumni include former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor Datuk Mohd Hamdi Abd Shukor, Shell Malaysia's first female country head Siti Hurrairah Sulaiman, Shell Group's executive vice president Datuk Ivan Tan, Teach for Malaysia's co-founder Dzameer Dzulkifli, Malakoff Corp Bhd's managing director Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib.

Apart from the annual dinner which is ICAAM's flagship event, the association also started a three-month mentor-mentee programme in 2020, where the university's alumni — including CEOs of large corporations in Malaysia — share their knowledge and experience with Imperial College London's current students or its fresh graduates.

"Even though it was Lock-Down year, we had good response, thus we continued again in 2022," Ng said, adding that ICAAM expects to carry out this programme once every two years.

"The mentor-mentee programme was really a catalyst for starting new personal relationships which we encourage all participants to continue building," he said, adding that mentors are also able to stay in touch with the younger generation's current trends. Ganesh said mentors would also be able to identify good talents through such programmes.

Ng said this mentorship programme fits in with Imperial College London's mission to also have enduring excellence in business beyond its strengths in the field of science, technology and medicine, as research in science and technology has to be applied in the business sense to have impact on society.

Ng said ICAAM is building the community to help the university's alumni to become effective communicators, as technology and science jargon used by engineers and scientists may lead to the message being lost, saying: "One of the key things of becoming a good start-up is actually being able to communicate the purpose, the relevance and the general idea of the start-ups and how it's going to impact business and everyday society."

Ganesh said ICAAM also organises smaller events throughout the year to promote networking and sharing of information among members, such as coffee meetups on Saturday mornings and even virtual coffee sessions through the video-sharing platform Zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ganesh said the main draw of the Imperial College alumni is the network it creates, where those who work hard to get into one of the world's top universities meet like-minded people who form a support network or family.

"And what ICAAM does is we continue that family after they've left Imperial, and now it's lifelong, they come back to Malaysia, they have a lifelong family of like-minded likewise successful people who can help them. So let's say you are interested in startups, you give a shout out to ICAAM members, there will be many who have done startups before who are willing to give you advice, that's the invaluable part," said Ganesh, who had also worked in startups and is now a consultant for digital healthcare and medical technology.

He added that ICAAM members could also tap into the community for advice on their careers.