Guan Heng Tan (aka Guan): Head of Academy

I spent the first ten years of his professional career in the MICE industry managing a host of proprietary exhibitions and conferences. Starting out selling booth spaces, sponsorships and advertising, I worked my way into project management and subsequently, several senior management positions.

From late 2005 until 2015, I worked for a New York-based trade association, representing the global retail real estate business with over 110,000 members around the world, as its Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region. I was responsible for opening up an office in Beijing to support the China market – the first time the organization has had physical presence in the PRC – and staffed the office with a full-time team. All this was accomplished in a little over 7 months.

In 2017, I transitioned into adult education, which meant going back to school and learning/re-learning skills… skills he thought he had. It was a humbling experience going through certification after certification, in order to really learn the basics of helping people develop and grow. It took hundreds of classroom hours (and NUMEROUS coaching certifications) to learn how to ask questions; and hundreds more to get better at it. Since then I have developed, curated and facilitated programs in the areas of soft skills particularly in honing leadership qualities, critical thinking, problem-solving, effective communications… the list goes on.

Which brings us to where we are today… At Gametize. There’s a story to how Guan and Keith met. Buy either one of them a drink and you might get to hear it.