SUTD Appoints Granite Asia’s Jenny Lee As First Distinguished Professorial Fellow

• The Singapore University of Technology and Design has appointed Ms Jenny Lee, Senior Managing Partner at Granite Asia, as its first Distinguished Professorial Fellow.
• Ms Lee, who is on the prestigious Forbes list of the 100 most powerful women, will be involved in reviewing SUTD curriculum to ensure that undergraduates are equipped with cutting-edge industry-relevant skills. She will also serve as an industry mentor to students and faculty during her two-year term.

The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) has appointed Ms Jenny Lee, Senior Managing Partner at leading Asian venture capital firm Granite Asia, as its first Distinguished Professorial Fellow.

Ms Lee, 51, who is one of two Singaporeans on the prestigious Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, will not just serve as a mentor to students, she will work with faculty to ensure that curriculum remains at the forefront of industry evolution.

Considered a trailblazer in her field, with focus areas including emerging technologies in ed-tech, robotics and artificial intelligence, Ms Lee will play a pivotal role in enriching SUTD’s educational and research programmes, bringing along her wealth of practical experience and industry insights that are crucial for the development of cutting-edge curricula and pioneering research initiatives. As mentor, she will help foster a culture of innovation, critical thinking, and professional excellence.

“I am honoured to join SUTD as its first Distinguished Professorial Fellow and collaborate with students and faculty to bridge research with real-world industry applications. This aligns with Granite Asia’s mission of fostering visionary entrepreneurs and building an ecosystem where research, innovation, and capital work together to drive impact. By connecting academics with industry and strengthening Asia’s talent pipeline, we can create a vibrant ecosystem that shapes the region’s future in technology and innovation,” said Ms Lee.

As Senior Managing Partner of Granite Asia, Ms Lee leads global investor relations and investment strategy. She was instrumental in setting up Granite Global Ventures’ first China office in 2005 and re-opening the Singapore office in 2019. Having spent the last 23 years overseas as an investor and entrepreneur, Ms Lee has built up a portfolio that includes 21 companies valued at over $1 billion each, with 17 IPOs to date across five different global exchanges.

Highly respected in the Asia business community, Ms Lee serves as a board member of Temasek as well as the governing boards of both Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Duke-NUS Medical School. In addition, she is a member of Singapore’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council; Singapore Business Federation; Future Economy Advisory Panel; Asia Business Council; and the International Advisory Council of Edmond de Rothschild. Jenny has been a member of the Forbes Global 100 VC Midas list since 2012 and was the first woman to break the top 10 in 2015. She was also recognised by Forbes as one of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in the past three years (2022-2024).

SUTD President, Professor Phoon Kok Kwang, said: “It is truly an honour to have Jenny join us as Distinguished Professorial Fellow. She brings with her extensive industry perspectives, especially in frontier enterprises, to the development of curricula, ensuring that SUTD’s education programmes remain cutting-edge and more importantly, industry relevant. It is often said that academics live in ivory towers – well not here at SUTD! We are not just in touch with industry, we bring them into campus to co-create with us, because no one knows more about the real world and its challenges than the key industry players!”

Prof Phoon added that Ms Lee’s extensive experience and strong network in the fast-paced world of AI will serve as an added boost to SUTD’s Design AI push. The University announced earlier this year that it was investing $50 million in Design AI initiatives as it pivots to AI, becoming the world’s first Design AI university.

The appointment of Ms Lee is SUTD’s first, in a series of high-level industry leader and C-suite designations that are being discussed. These appointments are part of SUTD Leap, a multi-year, multi-pronged strategic plan launched in March 2024 with the aim of propelling SUTD to the forefront of the Design AI academic world. Part of SUTD Leap aims to create an environment that promotes design and creative co-solutioning with industry partners by bringing the real world into campus and vice versa through an unusual “cross pollination” of academia and enterprise, and the appointment of renowned industry professionals will help the University achieve this.

To this end, SUTD recently announced the appointment of Professor Chee Yeow Meng, Vice President (Innovation and Enterprise) and Professor of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management at the National University of Singapore (NUS) as its new Provost/Chief Academic and Innovation Officer. He will join SUTD on 2 April 2025. On 1 January this year, award-winning architect Mr Khoo Peng Beng also joined SUTD as Professor of Practice and its Head of the Architecture and Sustainable Design pillar. Mr Khoo brings with him valuable real-world experience into the classroom.