• EXPERIENCE

    Digital Discovery

    Digital Discovery

    Founder and CEO, Ongoing

    Digital Strategy: Digital diligence and full potential strategy for PE funds and corporates

    Startup / Market Entry Advisory: Localisation of value proposition, market entry strategy, review of competitive landscape, digital marketing strategy, account prioritisation, lead generation, introductions. Corporate structuring and financial advice: government procurement procedure, startup grants global tech startups looking to enter into the Asian market. Examples include Fishtree (adaptive LMS), Webydo (Israeli code-free website builder for designers), another AI driven website builder, Israeli start-up specialising in Gifted test prep materials.

    International Consultant for GiftedandTalented.com adaptive, accelerative and personalised digital curriculum developed by Stanford University. Previously known as EPGY. Backed by 25 years of Stanford research, and 10 years of data collection, their adaptive technology is proven to accelerate the performance of both high and low ability students.

    Digital Strategy: Digital audit, digital analytics

    Next Gen Digital Intelligence: Machine learning and statistical analysis, Predictive analytics and trend forecasting, competitive benchmarking, Digital marketing and Social Media advisory

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    The Learning Lab

    Advent International

    Consultant Dec 2014 – May 2015

    Portfolio company strategy for Advent International's acquisition of premium tutoring provider The Learning Lab. Scope of project included developing a Growth Strategy based on rigorous and advanced data analytics, customer segmentation & loyalty (Customer Lifetime Value, Net Promoter Score), developing an inbound marketing strategy (Content Generation, Lead Generation, Conversion Rate Optimization), website redesign implementing an email marketing and marketing automation strategy (14K email subscribers), creating a social media strategy and advising on digital (optimising on Google Adwords spend and setting up Google Analytics).

     

    Please see here for recommendations

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    Broadway Beng Pte Ltd

    Consultant / Executive Producer Aug 2014 – Nov 2014

    Film financing: Developed business plan and budget, Oversaw the crowdfunding process, drafted grant application, liaised with film distributors across different release media, Also managed sponsorship programme - creating overall sponsorship strategy, creating tactical plans for each individual sponsor before approaching them, developing follow through strategy, executing on plans.

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    The Omar Khan Collective

    Finance & Business Development Director Jan 2014 – Aug 2014

    The Omar Khan Collective is a young but formidable interior design and creative consultancy, pushing the boundaries of design, creating spectacular outcomes in residences, malls even weddings. The new product line, Omar Khan Home, identifies gaps in today's home furnishings market and develops statement products that can only be described as aspirational luxury. Launched Omar Khan Home (Pret a Rever- Ready to Dream) Carpet range at Design Hub in March 2014. Developed business plan, investor pitch deck, retailer proposals. Developed growth strategy to scale business using large residential and hospitality projects as a platform in target markets (Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia).

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    Bain & Company

    Manager Apr 2011 – Dec 2013

    8+ years in strategy consulting and private equity 

    Market Entry Strategy for in Indonesia, Vietnam, India and China

    Growth Strategy for FMCG companies in Indonesia
    Family Succession Workshops for Indonesian conglomerates
    JV-partner assessment for FMCG Company in Indonesia
    $50M cost reduction for a leading F&B manufacturer
    Due diligence for Indonesian mining assets for a Middle Eastern SWF
    Due diligence for Japanese skincare and cosmetics manufacturer
    Global Growth Strategy pitch for a top credit hedge fund based in London

     

    Training: Top ranked Global Trainer invited to train at Global Associate Consultant Training (fresh graduates), Senior Associate Consultant Training and New Consultant Training (post-MBA)

     

    Recruiting: Responsible for interviewing all candidates from UK universities while I was working at the London office and the US MBA candidates while at Penn / Bain New York

     

    2011: Bain London Marketing Manager in charge of organising sector specific Events, Newsletter / Mailing List, Bain's Proprietary CRM system, Client Communications, assigning priority levels for different client contacts, alumni relations, competitor monitoring.

     

    2013: Organised Bain Southeast Asia's 20th Gala Anniversary
    Produced 4 commemorative videos - see here 

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    Partners Capital LLP

    Principal Jan 2008 – Jan 2011

    Partners Capital is a leading private investment office ($6.5B of assets under management in 2008, now $15B) based in London and Boston which serves ultra-high net worth (min $20M), highly sophisticated investment professionals (such as Blackstone and Bain Capital partners), endowments, foundations and high-net-worth families globally by providing wholly independent advice on asset allocation and access to best-of-breed asset managers across all asset classes and geographic markets (many of which are closed to new or individual investors). Partners Capital believed that relationship management and investment roles could not be separated and 5 Principals played both buy and sell-side roles. 

    Clients: Was personally responsible for managing 42 client portfolios across 8 asset classes.  Clients included PE partners, Bain partners, Nobel Foundation (Sweden), Royal Academy of Arts (UK), Jesus College and Newnham College (Cambridge). Recommended asset allocation to achieve client's target returns, quarterly portfolio rebalancing, performance attribution, currency hedging and recommending Manager upgrades.

    Real Estate: Responsible for all real estate investments (long equity, long/short equity, private equity real estate). Launched Partners Capital's third private equity real estate fund-of-funds (vintage 2008). Incorporated Cayman company and Delaware LP, prepared legal and marketing documents. Maintained fundraising pipeline and ran manager screens. Recommended managers to the investment committee. 

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    GIC Special Investments

    Assistant Vice President Oct 2006 – Dec 2007

    Private Equity fund of funds Investments in European with primary responsibility for Pan-European, German, Swiss, Scandinavian and Middle eastern private equity buyout funds

     

    Co-investments: Budapest Airport in a consortium led by German Hochtief, Valentino (Italy) / Hugo Boss (Germany) with Permira 

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    Bain & Company

    Consultant 1999 – 2006

    Market Entry and Full Potential Strategy for CPG companies in Indonesia

    Customer Segmentation: largest department stores in the UK. Conducted 10,000 interviews to create six needs-based customer segments, 300 focus groups to better understand needs; developed >50+ initiatives 

    Private Equity: 2+ years of commercial due diligence in the Private Equity Group in London (2003), New York (2006). Deals include a public-to-private acquisition of a FTSE100 F&B company; a US bottled water manufacturer, a US luxury hotel supplies (linen and toiletries) manufacturer and West Coast white goods retailer; $10B media conglomerate consortium of PE firms

    Post LBO turnaround strategy: Developed 100-day plan and ran PMO for $2B telecommunications buyout in Japan

    Venture Capital - Global Strategy for rollout of eVolution (JV between Bain, Texas Pacific Group and Kleiner Perkins)
     

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    Ministry of Transport

    Assistant Director (Air Transport)   Oct 1998 – Aug 1999

    Administrative Service

    Oversaw Singapore's air space (given our small geographical space, Singapore controls air space technically belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia)

     

    Worked closely with Statutory Board Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and Singapore Airlines (SIA) to ensure that Singapore is a major aviation hub and Changi Airport is the number one airport in the world

     

    Drove our open skies policy - represented Singapore in negotiating Air Service Agreements (ASA) between Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Air France (this agreement began the daily service between Singapore and Paris) as well as the ASA with South African Airways

     

    Accompanied Minister Mah Bow Tan to London to lobby the Shadow Transport Minister, John Reid, for Singapore Airlines to have 5th freedom air rights, i.e. the right to carry air passenger traffic between London and New York, a highly profitable and hence protected route

     

     

     

  • Recommendations

    Wai Ling Chua

    CFO 

    Debbie delivers results and thinks out of the box. She is highly motivated and competent, with an eye for details. She has strong work ethics, believes in sharing facts and the truths for optimal organisational performance. She is hard working, committed, and able to get along well with people at all levels of the organization. She builds working relationships with the key stakeholders and gained their confidence and trust.

    Debbie is extremely knowledgeable, tech savvy and possesses strong business acumen. These skills allow her to execute any project with the highest quality and excellence. She truly inspires me with her wealth of knowledge, passion for learning and continuance pursuit for perfection.

    It has been a true pleasure working with Debbie!

    Ling Cheah 

    Head - Marketing and Enrolment

    Deborah Kay was with The Learning Lab as a Consultant from Dec 14 to Apr 15.


    As a highly driven individual with a passion for what she does, working with Debbie was an exceptional experience. Her strong analytical reasoning and immense dedication brought forth various refreshing perspectives that led to novel suggestions and great discussions. As such, multiple value-adding ideas that could help our organization improve were raised and implemented.

    Debbie was also a highly resourceful consultant, bearing a wealth of connections and knowledge that were very valuable. Being an effective communicator with a charismatic personality, Debbie was highly engaging and built amiable working relationships with her partners.

    With her fiery passion and mental acuity, Debbie is a promising consultant that is a true pleasure to work with. I would like to endorse her and believe that she will contribute greatly to any company in her future endeavours.

  • Mark Twain

    "I have never let my schooling
    interfere with my education."

     

     

  • EDUCATION

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    The Wharton School - University of Pennsylvania

    MBA Finance 2003 – 2005

    Fully sponsored by Bain & Company

     

    Activities: Wharton MBA Program Advisory Board, Wharton Publicity Corp (Singapore Head), Wharton Consulting Club, Sales & Trading Club, and Wine Club

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    University of Cambridge

    BA, MA Economics 1995 – 1998, First Class Honours (2nd in class)

    Full scholarship awarded by the Singapore Government under the Public Service Commission Overseas Merit Scholarship

     

    Awards: Creighton Memorial Book Prize for Best Dissertation on the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis

     

    Activities: Newnham College JCR - Overseas Officer, Newnham College Dance Club - Founder and President

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    Raffles Junior College

    Humanities Scholar 1993 – 1994

    Raffles Dance Club

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    Raffles Girls' Primary and Secondary School

    Gifted Education Programme 1986-1992

    Filiae Melioris Aevi

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    Inbound Certified 

    Inbound Marketing  2015

    Certified by the Hubspot Academy in July 2015

  • MEDIUM

    My writing on Medium

  • SKILLS

    CORPORATE STRATEGY

    Market Entry, Growth Strategy, Portfolio Strategy, Start-Up Strategy

     

    CUSTOMER LOYALTY

    Customer Segmentation, Customer Lifetime Value, Net Promoter System, Customer Loyalty Economics

    DATA / DIGITAL ANALYTICS

    Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, ROI

    CPC, CPM, SEO, Conversion Rate Optimisation, Data Crawling, Web scraping, Competitive Digital Intelligence

     

    DIGITAL MARKETING

    Inbound marketing, digital paid marketing, search marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, marketing automation, conversion rate optimisation

    FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS 

    Private Equity Due Diligence, LBO, Investment Management, Portfolio Optimisation, Fund Raising

    EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY

    Digital, Adaptive, Advanced & Accelerated Learning, Personalised Learning, Gifted and Talented Education Systems, Learning Management Systems

  • MY TOOLBOX AND PRODUCTIVITY APPS I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT

    Note: Recommended apps contain referral links, but I only use them if I actually use them and if we both get benefits

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    Evernote

    Go paperless with Evernote. Keep a swipe file of web clippings. Scan important documents for reference (great scanner app). This is one app I cannot life without. The Feedly to Pocket to Evernote trick from Lifehacker is also pretty awesome (search for interview with Evernote ambassador Todd Rubin)

    http://bit.ly/1F9Z6D2

    Sidekick (by Hubspot)

    Track when your emails are opened, and which links are clicked.  Learn how to disable it so no one can track your emails. Sidekick is free. As you compose your emails, see all the relevant information about your recipient (past contact history, social media content, mutual connections, and more) in a sidebar in Gmail

    Zapier

    Use Zapier to automate your every day tasks.  From email marketing to social media, Zapier can automate and integrate anything that has an API. Use Zapier to automate your social media management, manage your MailChimp to Trello to GoogleSheets. This is one app that can 10x your productivity.

    NameCheap

    I buy all my domains from Namecheap (cheaper, more choice, WHOIS only costs $2.88 whereas on Bluehost it's $9.99). Currently, all university students from UK, US, Canada and Australia get a free .me domain (Check that your university is listed on www.nc.me). All .xyz domains are $1.99. Follow instructions on my Github site to build your own website that can be hosted free on Github

    Bluehost

    I host more than 20 domains on Bluehost. Unlimited for $3.95 a month. This includes email hosting with 250 emails for each individual domains. The customer support is excellent and 24/7 live chat is critical. I repeat. CRITICAL especially for non-US customers and amateur website developers. I also have a Dreamhost account (2 free domains if you use DEBBIEDISCOVERS promo-code ) but Bluehost has a superior c-panel and a far simplier interface for FTP, creating SQL databases and so on. 

    Strikingly Website Buider

    Strikingly was by far the easiest to use one page website builder, with a one-click LinkedIn and Facebook page integration. (This online resume is built on Strikingly as is my personal website Debbie Discovers). Be sure to use this link with DAVIDLIKESYOU promo code that gives you an 11% discount on all upgrades to premium plans. Special plans are available for students and non-profits upon enquiry.

  • WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaydeborah

    LinkedIn

    https://twitter.com/debbiediscovers

    Twitter

    https://www.quora.com/profile/Deborah-Kay

    Quora

    https://angel.co/deborahkay

    Angel List

    https://github.com/debbiediscovers

    Github

    http://debbiediscovers.com

    Debbie Discovers
    - My Personal Website

    http://littlecoders.sg

    Little Coders

    - Kids Coding Resources for Busy Parents

    http://debbiediscovers.weebly.com

    Let's build A School

    - My fundraising website to build a school in Laos with Pencils of Promise

    Give What for Christmas?

    GiveWHATforXmas

    - Children who gave up their Christmas presents for donations

  • Contact

    Leave a message if you have any enquiries