Mr Lien Choong Luen, McKinsey and Company SYNOPSIS • Public policy carries risk. It impacts the lives of many, but unlike the natural selection of the free market where companies succeed or fail, there is a strong perception that public policy must not fail. CHAIR • Mr Geoffrey Yu, Adjunct Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Mountaineering carries risk. To climb is to see people around you dying, or hear of close friends passing away and to know that you yourself could end up as a tribute memorial on a mountain far away. WHEN • Wednesday, 8 October 2014, 12:15pm-1:30pm How should one define success in complex situations like this, where risk abounds, and failure can manifest in many different ways? WHERE • Seminar Room 3-5, Manasseh Meyer Building, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy In this talk, the speaker will share his experiences climbing in the big mountains, crawling through the Amazon swamps, trudging through the scorching Gobi desert and freezing in the Arctic winter, amongst others; Hopefully these experiences can be a spring-board to discuss leadership and risk-planning in public policy. 469C Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259772 SPEAKER • Mr Lien Choong Luen is a business consultant in China, where he works with leading companies in different industries and grapples with the complexity of doing business in modern China on a daily basis. RSVP • Admission is free. Please register at [email protected] Previously he spent 10 years in the Singapore Armed Forces as a Commando Officer, where his day job was to jump out of functioning planes equipped only with a parachute. During his time in the military, he led teams ranging from a handful of Commando troopers to battalion command of several hundred soldiers. He has endured US Special Forces training, served as a United Nations Peace-keeper and spent a year embedded with the Malaysian Armed Forces. While posted to MINDEF, he swopped his parachute for a pen and worked on long-term defence strategy and scenario planning. Outside of work, Mr Lien has a great passion for adventure travel. He has summited the two highest mountains in the world (Everest and K2), competed in ultra-marathons in the scorching 50 degree heat of the Gobi desert as well as the choking humidity of the Amazon jungle, travelled in the Arctic circle in winter at -50 degrees and skied to the North Pole. View on Google Maps: http://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/mm-3-5 This is a brown bag session and you are most welcome to bring your own packed lunch.