Founding Programme Director at Genovasi
Hiong works with MNCs, SMEs and start-ups to help them develop digital products using design sprints and agile methodologies, run service design projects and implement UX and design thinking.
Previously he was part of the founding team that established both UNIK, the special innovation unit for the Prime Minister of Malaysia, and Agensi Inovasi Malaysia, the government agency responsible for spearheading innovation in Malaysia. Notable projects include the Wealth Creation Factory that facilitated the commercialisation of Public University research through strategic partnerships with industry, and a pilot thinking skills programme for Malaysian schools.The learnings from these pilot projects we taken onboard to create two full scale projects that are still running today, one focused on commercialisation, and the second was rolled out across schools nationwide.
He was also the founding Programme Director at Genovasi, Malaysia’s first Design Thinking School. He was responsible for working with international partners to understand the best practices of Design Thinking and then creating a programme that was more intune with the Malaysian context.
Subsequently, since 2013 Hiong has been working with a wide variety of organisations, from MNCs, SMEs and US Start-ups, across a wide breadth of industries, to run Design Thinking workshops, Design Sprints, Strategy workshops, and deliver projects to implement digital transformation. He also spent a year in Tanzania working with the President’s Delivery Bureau to help them deliver their transformation agenda.
Along this journey he has been fortunate enough to attend training programmes and learn and acquire new skills from internationally renowned institutions such as Stanford University d.school and the HPI school of Design Thinking at the University of Potsdam.
