GLOBAL DREAMS: My NTU Experience by John Gomes

GLOBAL DREAMS

My NTU Experience by John I C Gomes

I wanted to pursue higher education and was determined to gain more than just a degree from my undergraduate experience at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. I had chosen to study at NTU primarily because it offered a combination of practical academic focus with a plethora of entrepreneurial opportunities such as business ventures and competitions. I made it my goal to optimize Singapore’s international environment and the entrepreneurial encouragement of the Government of Singapore to challenge my risk-taking abilities.

In NTU’s rigorous computer engineering program, I developed a passion for problem-solving and analysis. I began to envision a career utilizing technology to mitigate industry problems. NTU’s pragmatic emphasis and its faculty’s willingness to help me scout for commercially sponsored initiatives prompted me to create a dialysis simulator for the Singapore National Kidney Foundation (NKF). To further test my skills in the real world, I began consulting part-time for small Singapore enterprises such as MG-Logic and SC21 in my first year of study there. I quickly learned the complexities of project management and project-cost estimation while polishing my interpersonal skills through client interaction.

In my second year of study at NTU, the valuable experiences and skills acquired had helped me qualify as one of only four (out of 300) students to serve an internship with British Gas in Loughborough, UK. It was a revelatory international experience for me! My senior year project for the Sun Java Competition enabled me to synergize all the academic and practical lessons of my undergraduate years. I conceived a knowledge management system (iOn – Intelligent Online Network) that would allow mobile users to find instantaneous answers to common problems using wireless technologies. In addition, I had successfully convinced one of NTU’s professors from the School of Computer Engineering and two friends to help me leverage on iOn’s commercial potential by marketing the idea to local telecommunication companies such as Singapore Telecoms, M1, and Star-Hub. The technical and entrepreneurial understanding that I had gained on iOn were fundamental to the conception of HP Wire a year later.

NTU gave me much more than just a degree! With a solid foundation in computer engineering and entrepreneurship, I had gained admission into the prestigious Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management for Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in Illinois, USA. Since my NTU days, I have lived and worked in 18 countries. Having achieved my career goals, I have transformed into a global citizen who is a culturally diverse, independent, and reliable leader who is ready for the challenges of business and life.

Picture 4: John I C Gomes and his wife, Meena (NTU 2000), spend their vacation traveling around the world. This photo was taken at INSEAD in France, where Meena did her MBA.

Picture 5: John I C Gomes likes to spend his spare time and weekends with his three-year-old puppy, Milo.

Brief Bio

John I C Gomes is a San Francisco-based Partner for A.T. Kearney and is a member of the firm’s Communications, Media & Technology Practice.

In his decade at A.T. Kearney, John has focused on combining innovation with business strategy, understanding that companies must constantly improve on how they use their existing resources to meet customer desires.

His client work today spans the globe, from Australia to the Americas to Europe, and includes end-to-end transformation, customer care and experience improvement, innovation strategies, and the creation of next-generation models for leading telecom companies.