Andy Ong

Ong was educated at Raffles Institution, St Andrew's Junior College and the National University of Singapore. From the age of 15 – 24, he worked as a helper at a kitchen in Holland village restaurant where he chopped vegetables from 6pm – 11pm daily after school.^[5]

Upon graduation from university, Ong worked as a managing editor at a publishing firm until he was retrenched in the 1997 financial crisis.^[5] Following this, he founded the financial journal Asia Financial Planning Journal, which broke even within 2 weeks.^[5] Ong sold the business in 2003 to focus on developing ERC.^[5]

In 2001, Ong founded incubator and business consultancy, Entrepreneur's Resource Centre (ERC).^[6] ERC was to be a hub to train, fund and mentor entrepreneurs in Singapore.^[6] ERC was awarded a grant by Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB) under the SEEDS programme to incubate firms.^[2]

In 2003, Ong led ERC Holdings to expand into education, establishing ERC Institute, a private education institute. Students can enroll in courses to attain certification from its university partners, such as University of Greenwich,^[2] Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and University of Wolverhampton.^[7] Ong personally mentors students with viable business plans at ERCI.^[2]

In 2016, Ong, as CEO of ERC, designed BIGWork with Yen Ong, founder of the co-working space.^[8] It is the first Southeast Asian co-working space to offer a multi-city pass across cities in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh and Singapore.^[9] BIGWork offers entrepreneurs a co-working space and community at lower costs.^[8]

In 2016, Ong launched BIGFund, an accelerator programme aimed at helping start-ups commercialise business ideas across Southeast Asia.^[10] BIGFund serves as an extension to ERCI students to gain access to the fundamental resources for market penetration.^[11]

In 2006, Ong who sat on the board of 15 private and public-listed companies, is a certified financial planner and was the founding president of the Financial Planning Association of Singapore.^[12] ERC now has a presence in various countries such as Singapore, Thailand and China and an ERC Institute campus in Vietnam.^[13]

Ong also assisted an ailing quick service food company that was on the verge of closing down because of cash flow problems due to over-expansion. It was at this time that Ong entered as a consultant and purchased a stake in the company and reformatted the food chain's entire marketing plan. In three weeks, with an adjustment in awareness campaigns and budget, they made a profit.^[14]

Ong began his property investments with the purchase of two shophouses at Circular Road and Telok Ayer. He owns and rents a total of three properties including the Prime Centre at Middle Road which was initially appraised at $103 million by realtors Knight Frank.^[15]

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

Ong is the author or co-author of several books in Singapore and Malaysia which include:

• A Singapore Guide to Personal Financial Planning, 1999, ISBN 981-04-1263-0
• Unit Trust in Singapore, 2000, ISBN 981-04-2689-5
• Financial Sutra for Malaysians, ISBN 981-04-7756-2
• Investing in Unit Trusts, 1997, ISBN 981-00-9923-1
• Planning for Your Financial Life, 2002, ISBN 981-04-0680-0
• Personal Financial Planning in Malaysia, ISBN 983-40670-0-3
• Directory of Personal Investment 1998, ISBN 981-00-9613-5
• Maniac!, 2004, ISBN 981-05-2370-X

Ong was the Lead Author and Editor-in-Chief of Singapore's first financial planning textbook, a project titled A Singapore Guide to Personal Financial Planning (1999, ISBN 981-04-1263-0), which was published by Financial Perspectives and co-published by RMIT University. This project involved academics and practitioners of finance in Singapore.