Singapore Power is building the Avengers of engineering

Sau Sheong (center, black t-shirt) heads Singapore Power’s digital technology team.

Think of the prominent names in Singapore’s software engineering scene. Put some of them under one roof, and let them go forth and create.

There are no KPIs. No bureaucracy. No turf wars. Just pure, unadulterated experimentation. That, in essence, is Singapore Power’s new digital technology team, which began forming about two months ago.

Singapore Power is the government-linked utilities company that runs the country’s power and gas supply.

Leading the team is Chang Sau Sheong, a veteran engineering manager of 17 years who’s run teams at HP Labs, Yahoo, and Garena. He’s assembling what amounts to the Avengers of Singapore computer programming, partly consisting of:

• Winston Teo: chief organizer of RedDotRubyConf. Stints at Pivotal, Neo Innovation, Wego, and IBM
• Subhransu Behera: PayPal, SAP, and Red Hat
• Michael Cheng: organizer of the PHP user group. Stints at Pivotal, Neo Innovation, and Migme
• Chew Choon Keat: Slideshare, SharedCopy, and Gimmie
• Sayanee Basu: LTA and Ricoh. Organizes Hackware and maintains WeBuild.sg

“We’re old friends. They started talking to me: hey, what are you doing? Why did you join Singapore Power?” Sau Sheong recalls.

“So I told them. I always added another question: interested anot? And then they’d think about it: ‘Sounds interesting, let’s talk more.'”

Sau Sheong, called the ‘Codefather’ in Singapore circles, declined to go on record about their experiments.

Singapore Power is part of a trend in Singapore where traditional industries are now embracing tech and appropriating startup culture.

Banks are crazy about fintech. Singtel is desperately moving beyond being a mere telco. Real estate group Capitaland launched a US$74 million venture capital fund. SingPost has reinvented itself from a postal service to a logistics company. Even the government has its own innovation lab.

Singapore Power is trying to improve its services using technology. That job falls to Sau Sheong and his team.

Sau Sheong, often called the “Codefather” in Singapore circles, declined to go on record about what they’re experimenting with. “It’s a bit premature to talk about it. We’re only two-and-a-half months in.”

Suffice to say, there’ll be a mix of software and hardware. Sayanee’s LinkedIn profile says she’s an Internet of Things engineer who’ll work on “smart meters, charging stations, and energy storage systems” at the company.

Leaving PayPal

Ground up management