Updated SGFIN-Singlife Case Comp Banner

Final Round Presentation Day - 22 Apr

Day
Hour
Minute
Second

Come join as participant or audience through the link below!

Lunch, tea break and popcorn provided
Games and prizes to be won!

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About the Case Competition Final Round

On 22 April, SGFIN and Singlife will be proudly host the Final Round of the SGFIN-Singlife Case Competition. This event features the top nine finalists teams who have demonstrated a profound understanding of the sustainability themes and delivered exceptionally innovative solutions. Finalists will present their solutions live to our distinguished panel of experts, who bring a wealth of specialised experience to the evaluation process to select this year's winners.

Ashley Tan

Group Chief Risk Officer
Singlife

Ashley is responsible for risk management across the group’s business operations. His primary role is to ensure the group operate in a risk-controlled manner that supports business growth while keeping within our risk appetite and delivering good customer outcomes. He has led the implementation of the risk and compliance framework in Singapore and other regional operations for Singlife. His career spans more than 30 years and covers risk management, compliance, financial crime and internal audit. Ashley is chairman of the Singlife Group Sustainability Management Committee.

Ashley holds a professional qualification from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, United Kingdom. He is a chartered accountant with the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants.

Ashley Tan_04 - cropped
Ashley Tan

Group Chief Risk Officer
Singlife

Associate Professor Zhang Weina

Assistant Professor, NUS Business School
Deputy Director, SGFIN
National University of Singapore

Associate Professor Zhang Weina is Deputy Director of the Sustainable and Green Finance Institute (SGFIN) at NUS and also the Academic Director for the MSc in Sustainable and Green Finance Programme. She is an Associate Professor in Finance with the Department of Finance at the NUS Business School.

Weina’s current research and teaching focus on sustainable and green finance, fixed income securities, asset pricing and investment. She examines how environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are priced in financial securities and investment decisions. She also explores how differences in informational efficiency across various financial markets and the impact of different policies on financial instruments. Weina has published widely including within leading journals such as Management Science and Review of Finance. She has also published more than 30 business cases with IVEY. Her papers have received several best paper awards.

Weina is a dedicated educator and currently teaches courses such as Sustainability and Finance, Sustainable and Green Investment at the master's and undergraduate levels. She also teaches lifelong learning modules and conducts executive training in related areas. Weina is the recipient of numerous teaching excellence awards both at the NUS Business School and the University levels. She obtained her Ph.D. in Finance from Kellogg School of Management at the Northwestern University, USA.

Prof Weina
Assoc. Prof Zhang Weina

Associate Professor, NUS Business School
Deputy Director, SGFIN

Ms. Chan Sue Meng

Deputy Director, Sustainability & Capability-Building
UN Global Compact Network Singapore (UNGCNS)

Sue Meng has 20 years experience in strategy, sustainable development and strategic communications. At UNGCNS, her work encompasses training, partnerships development and management, thought publications, and events that inspire businesses to engage in and deepen sustainability efforts. In September 2025, she was appointed as an APAC Regional Council member of the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures to contribute to the shaping of its development over the next two years. From August 2026, she will also be an adjunct lecturer on social sustainability at the Singapore University of Social Sciences’ Master’s Programme in Sustainability Management.

Innovative yet practical and solution-oriented, since 2010, she helped businesses to develop or co-create strategies and solutions that consider impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities over short, medium and long terms, also supporting implementation and operationalisation of sustainability programmes that create inclusive outcomes - concurrently for people, planet and profit. Her strategic communications capabilities are applied to her work as a trainer, writer, speaker and in relationship-management.

She has a glocal orientation, having lived, studied and worked in Singapore where she is a permanent resident, Malaysia her native country, and in England and China. She holds an M.A. in Asia Pacific Studies and is a published author, with a heritage project in her home town, Ipoh - on the mission to contribute to a peaceful, safe and harmonious world, her project leverages untapped history to advance responsible tourism and advance pressing sustainable development goals like education, job creation, living wage, health and wellbeing and circular economy.

Sue Meng
Chan Sue Meng

Deputy Director, Sustainability & Capability-Building
UN Global Compact Network Singapore

Hu Ching

Head | Net Zero Transition Programme Office
Singapore Business Federation

Mr. Hu Ching heads the Singapore Business Federation’s Net Zero Transition Programme Office. His team spearheads initiatives to support enterprises with their sustainability journey, such as the Council for a Competitive Climate Transition (C3T), Singapore Emission Factors Registry, NetZeroHub.SG, Cost and Carbon Reduction Programme, Queen Bee Enabled Sustainability Transition (QUEST) Programme, sustainability advisory, and policy advocacy.

Hu Ching marries his passion for climate action and education by serving as adjunct trainer for sustainability-related executive education programmes. He was previously Climate Regulations and Reporting Specialist at climate tech startup Terrascope and launched the Singapore office of global corporate sustainability ratings agency EcoVadis. Hu Ching has a deep interest in public policy, having started his career with the Singapore Government. He graduated from the London School of Economics, SciencesPo Paris, and Oxford University.

 

Hu Ching
Hu Ching

Head | Net Zero Transition Programme Office
Singapore Business Federation

Lucas Tan

ESG Specilalist
Brandes Investment Partners

Lucas Tan is an ESG Specialist at Brandes Investment Partners, where he contributes to the firm’s ESG integration strategy across global equity portfolios. He advises portfolio managers and investment committees on material environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities to enhance ESG decision-usefulness within investment research.

Lucas has previously held sustainability and impact investment roles at Deutsche Bank and Schneider Electric, with experience across climate reporting standards, green finance instruments, real estate decarbonisation and clean energy investments. He holds a Master of Science degree in Sustainable & Green Finance from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and professional certifications in sustainable investing and climate risk.

Lucas Tan
Lucas Tan

ESG Specialist
Brandes Investment Partners

What’s in it for you?

Panel 3
Enhance your knowledge and real-world insights

from sustainability practitioners and results from Singlife’s Sustainable Future Index

sgfin05_green finance for the built environment
Generate novel ideas

to address real and immediate industry challenges
 

green-bonds
Apply sustainability concepts

by developing creative, feasible solutions that bridge sustainability and business value for long-term impact

impact-investing
Compete for attractive prizes

including cash prizes and internship opportunities
 
 

Prizes

Winning teams stand a chance to be awarded:

Internship opportunities with Singlife or acceleration to Singlife Management Associate Programme.

$8,000 in cash prizes shared among the top 3 teams.

Case Competition Themes

Problem Statement Selection

Theme 1

Sustainable Actions by Individuals and Communities

  • While Singaporeans possess high levels of knowledge and awareness regarding sustainability, there is a persistent failure to translate these intentions into consistent, real-life behaviors.
  • Sustainability engagement is not uniform across the population, with significant differences in awareness and action scores appearing between different generations.
  • This structural divide between what people say they value and what they actually do highlight the need for strategies that lower barriers of entry and foster large-scale behavioral change.
Preliminary Phase

Theme 2

Corporate Value Creation by Sustainability Initiatives

  • Companies face pressure to adopt sustainability for capital and value, yet most consumers refuse to pay the price premiums needed to cover the higher costs.
  • Without consumer financial support, businesses may struggle to sustain expensive operational changes like clean technology, leading to a potential rollback of green initiatives.
  • Financial institutions struggle to channel capital effectively because a lack of clarity and investor understanding hinders the adoption of sustainable investment and insurance products.

Event Timeline

UP NEXT: Final Round Presentations on 22 Apr!

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Frequently Asked Questions

You may find below a compiled summary of the key questions raised and clarifications provided during the Q&A Session on 11 Feb.

This year’s competition draws on insights from the Singlife-SGFIN Sustainable Future Index (SFI) survey, which examines sustainability behaviour among Singaporeans across four pillars:

  • Responsible investing
  • Acting on climate change
  • Inclusive and sustainable solutions
  • Society and culture

Participants are challenged to design initiatives that either:

  • address intention–action gaps in sustainability behaviours for individuals or communities, or
  • enhance how corporations integrate sustainability into products, services, or strategies in ways that create real value.

Teams are encouraged to think creatively, but proposals should remain practical, realistic, and implementable, grounded in a clear strategy that would persuade the chosen organisation to seriously consider pursuing the initiative.

We will not be providing a granular scoring breakdown beyond what is outlined in the case statements. At a high level:

  • We do not prioritise short-term impact over long-term impact.
  • Strong submissions will demonstrate feasible, practical, and realistic ideas that could plausibly be implemented.

As a guiding principle, teams should approach the submission from a consultant’s perspective, using the following question as a north star:

To what extent does the submission present a clear, well-reasoned, and impactful initiative that would justify further consideration by the organisation?

  • Submissions must consist of five content slides only, in PDF format.
  • Reference slides, appendices, or additional slides beyond the first five will not be considered.
  • Judges will assess only the first five slides, so teams should prioritise clarity and substance within this limit.
  • We are currently planning for eight finalist teams.
  • This number is indicative and may change if the overall quality of submissions is exceptionally strong.

Have any questions?

If you have questions about the competition or participation details, reach out to us at sgfincasecomp@nus.edu.sg and our team will get back to you.

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