Humans of HTX: Dauntless and ambitious

HTX Assistant Chief Executive (ACE) (Programmes) Colin Tan has been fearless ever since he was a kid.

Once, during his growing up years, his friends dared him to ride pillion on a bicycle down a steep slope. He didn’t even think twice before accepting the challenge.

“Why did I do it? I guess the thought of heading into the unknown simply excites me,” he quipped.

This bravado of his, he added, could also be due to his upbringing.

“Something I learnt from observing my mother raise four very playful children almost single-handedly, all while managing the quirks of living with extended family, is that no matter how difficult a situation, it is possible to persevere and work through it,” he said.

“It’s easy to run away when you encounter a problem, but I’ve learnt to deal with problems head-on.”

It thus shouldn’t come as a surprise that the man chose to pursue a degree in electrical engineering – simply because he heard it was the toughest engineering course around.

But that’s not to say that Colin had no interest in engineering.

During his growing up years, he often dabbled with light bulbs, switches and batteries alongside his father. In 1995, he kicked off his first job in an electronics firm, focusing on research and development in audio and visual set-ups.

While this was closely aligned with what he had studied in university, he found himself wishing he could do more.

“I wanted to achieve big things. I didn’t want to just build small radios and Hi-Fi systems,” he said.

“I wanted to make a difference.”

Pioneering a new era

And this was exactly why he pounced on a career opportunity with the Singapore Police Force (SPF) some three months into his first job. He explained that it was then a pivotal time of change for the SPF as they were recruiting engineers to enhance technological capabilities for their operations. He saw this as a chance to be a part of revolutionary transformation.

For his first major project with the SPF, he led a team in rolling out a new digital trunked radio system, or Command, Control and Communication (C3) system, that offered secured communications for over 10,000 police and civil defence officers.

It was a big deal, not just because it was a safer and more advanced system, but also because it was the Home Team’s first-ever joint operations capability.

What’s more, the system also materialised at a time where security tensions ran high due to terrorist threats – which meant its guardrails had to be foolproof.

In the years to come, Colin continued to effect meaningful change in public safety with his work with the SPF. He led teams in implementing police cameras across major housing estates, and in introducing the “mobile man pack” – the first, rudimentary version of the body-worn cameras adorned by police officers on duty today.

Colin was later scouted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in 2018 to help build its science and technology arm, which became HTX.

Pivoting to strategy work was no walk in the park, he admitted. But holding his mother’s philosophy close to heart, he embraced the steep learning curve and successfully set up HTX’s Joint Capabilities Programme Management Centre (JCPMC), which builds enterprise capabilities for the Home Team in terms of communications and digital infrastructure, data and cybersecurity.

The unit has since evolved into HTX’s Enterprise Group (EG).

Of the many projects he led as the group’s head, one which he fondly recalls was the consolidation of MHA’s data centres and developing the ministry’s sovereign cloud capability.

Why? Because the scale was massive and technology novel. Garnering stakeholders’ support and piecing the operational puzzle together was a feat like no other.

The result was a powerful, secure and future-proof data and cloud set-up that could handle deep analytics; one which was ready for artificial intelligence (AI) even before the generative AI wave had hit.

“No one in my team had ever done something like this. We had to figure it all out ourselves,” he recalled.

Accelerating the Home Team

Today, Colin leads HTX’s Programme Management Group (PMG) as the ACE of Programmes, managing the teams that work directly with Home Team users to deliver and deploy HTX’s scientific and technological solutions.

“Much like putting fuel into a car, HTX’s Centres of Expertise develop a range of solutions for the Home Team, like the different grades of fuel you see at a petrol station. The PMG is like the fuel pump – the nozzle that gets fitted into the car at the final stage to deliver the right product, enabling the car to run effectively,” he mused.

The greatest challenge at the moment, he shared, lies in equipping the PMG to handle uncertainties of the future.

“We worked on petrol vehicles, then electric vehicles came along,” he said.

“We need to continuously reinvent ourselves as multi-disciplinary experts so we’re able to handle what’s coming.”

There’s always time for fun

Despite his demanding schedule, Colin has somehow managed to find time to pursue part-time studies in the Wharton University of Pennsylvania’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO) Programme. He is also due to become the Chief Learning Officer of HTX this year.

But the man isn’t all work and no play. In fact, he firmly believes in the latter.

Back in 2004, in what he describes as “the time of his life”, he chased the highs of new outdoor experiences like hiking, skiing and travelling while pursuing a Master of Science in the University of Southern California under a Singapore Police Force (SPF) scholarship.

These days, his idea of fun relaxing is the weekly runs and squash sessions with his son.

He’s also planning to master the drums one day.

“I have zero musical experience, but I think learning the drums will afford me motor skills that will keep me mentally healthy as I age,” he laughed.