Staff

Kelly Quah – College Director

Prior to joining Raffles College of Design & Commerce, Kelly was heading one of the largest Private Training Provider in Singapore since 1995. Her experience includes sales and marketing, management and operations. She was posted to New Zealand 5 years ago and is currently responsible for Raffles College in New Zealand. She holds a Bachelor of Business (Marketing). Kelly is currently embarking on a Post-graduate in Teaching with the University Of Auckland.

Herbert Sima – Academic Director

Herbert’s extensive experience in working with people from different industries in the facilitation of processes for developing company’s future direction is an important asset in terms of managing the link between academic programmes and business. His previous working experience as a manager in a branch of a famous hotel group in Asia, in a business consulting firm in New Zealand, and in other professional firms have helped him to gain the experience to combine theory and practice. He is a dedicated, passionate and industry experienced academic.

He has been running his own business in New Zealand since 2003. As entrepreneur he has been involved in all stages of growing the company, starting from scratch up to the development of new business. His life experiences in different countries and regions, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, France, Australia and New Zealand enhanced his career development.

Herbert holds a Masters (Marketing), BCom (Hons), DipInternational Trade, DipBA.

Mike Katash – Sales & Marketing Manager

Mike has an extensive working experience in Marketing, Advertising, Sales, Business Development and Business Operations. While leading major E- marketing and IT campaigns and managing high profile accounts in North America and Europe, Mike has managed to implement innovative methods which derived turnover of Millions of dollars to his stake holders along his rich and successful career.

Mike holds a B.A degree in Business Administration, minor in Marketing from New England College (Henniker, New Hampshire. United States of America), and a Diploma in Marketing and Sales Promotion from The Management College (Netanya, Israel).

Merlyn Yin – Student Services Manager

Prior to joining Raffles College of Design & Commerce, Merlyn has extensive experience working in Singapore for 17 years. She holds a Bachelor of Accountancy from the National University of Singapore. Merlyn began her career in Accounting as an Assistant Accountant, moved on to work as Church Administrator for 3 years. Subsequently, her passion for education led her to utilize her skills to seek the position of Administration Manager with the Ministry of Education. Her service at the Ministry of Education lasted 8 years. During that time, she held the position of Administration Manager at a primary school and was later transferred to the same position at a secondary school.

Naweed Qadir – IT Manager

Naweed has been with the IT field for the last 16 years. He worked in Bureau Veritas, American International University, USAID, Karrox-AIS Technologies, Auckland Institute of Studies St Helens and several other companies. Currently Naweed is also working as an independent IT consultant in his own company, The IT Design & Solutions Limited. Naweed’s core field in IT includes Local and Wide Area Networking with Security. Naweed also specialize in IT Infrastructure solutions and web technologies. He has also been actively involved with teaching in IT from Level 3 to Level 7 for last 10 years. Naweed holds a Bachelor in Management Information Systems and Business Administration; he is also currently doing his thesis for his Masters of Business Administration. Being a technology evangelist specializing in Microsoft technologies, his passion also includes photography, music and produces his own songs.

Bruce Whitford – Programme Manager/Graphic Design Lecturer

Bruce has 30 years of design experience in the field of advertising, illustration and design. This background gives students a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw upon. Bruce teaches Painting and Drawing, Art and Design History, Graphic Design, Academic writing, iMovie and Storyboarding. Bruce has been teaching professionally for 8 years, and has specialist knowledge in the areas of Graphic Design theory, Art and Design History, Print production, and Drawing.

Fahim Hussain – Finance Manager

Fahim joined Raffles in September 2009. Prior to that, he was the Audit Manager for a Chartered Accounting firm in Auckland, during which time he gained extensive knowledge in private training establishments such as Raffles. Fahim holds a B.A. from the University of the South Pacific, majoring in Accounting and Finance. Fahim loves his sports and is a die-hard supporter of the All Blacks and Warriors.

Kwanwoo Hahn – Programme Leader- Digital Animation

Hahn is 3D Digital Animation Lecturer at Raffles College of Design & Commerce. He has an extensive working experience as a Graphic Designer and a 3D Animator. Hahn began his career as a Graphic Designer in the USA and Auckland, NZ. Following that he specialized 3D Animation.

Before Hahn started lecturing at Raffles College, he created advertisement for television commercials, short films and architectural visualizations. Moreover, He worked as a 3D animator at Animation Studio, Post Production and Visual Effects Company in Seoul and in Auckland. Hahn is doing Freelance Computer Graphic Design while lecturing at RCDC.

Hahn has an appreciation for many disciplines and his goal in life is to become a best 3D Computer Graphic Artist.

Hahn holds a Bachelor of Art and Design, majoring Graphic Design, a Graduate Diploma of Creative Technologies, a Diploma of 3D Computer Animation and a Maya training certificate.

Leanne Miller – Programme Leader - Digital Photography

Leanne has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, with a major in Photography, from the School of Art in Dunedin. Since graduating she has worked in Milan Italy, and in New Zealand as a freelance photographer for International clients, specializing in Fashion and Advertising. She also has experience teaching and designing Degree Level Photographic Programs and continues to work as a Freelance Photographer.

Ashley Chow – Lecturer - Animation

Ashley studied at Digitrain in 2003 and gained a Diploma in Graphic Design. The following year he attended South Seas Film and Television school and studied towards a Diploma in Traditional Animation. From there he went on to work as a freelance animator for various production companies, both locally and internationally as a pre-production designer specializing in storyboards and digital ink & paint as well as background painting. Some of his work can be seen on the third season of Brotown which screened on TV3 in November of 2006.

Keith Crawford – Lecturer - Graphic Design

Keith has extensive experience in the design industry, both as a lecturer and a designer, specializing in design for print. This includes a publishing background where he worked with ‘BBC books’ and ‘History Today Magazine’. He has also worked for the Science Museum in London developing large format exhibitions. Keith’s interests include history and culture and he will be encouraging students to consider these areas when developing their designs conceptually. In ‘University College Kensington’ in London, he taught creative techniques as well as courses in corporate identity, copy writing and advertising.

Pavel Laletin – Lecturer - Computing

Pavel Laletin is a Computing Lecturer at Raffles College of Design & Commerce in Auckland, New Zealand. He has been with the organization for more than 3 years now, delivering NZQA accredited and nationally recognized IT courses – National Diploma in Computing Level 5 & 6. Main topics covered in those courses include: hardware and software installation, software development, database management, computer problems troubleshooting, network installation/administration.

Before coming to New Zealand in 2006, Pavel was studying IT/computer science for 5 years and management for 3 years and as a result received qualifications of System Engineer from Krasnoyarsk State Technical University (Russia) and Management Specialist from International Management Institute (Russia) and Open University Business School (UK). His IT-related experience includes working in a variety of roles, such as Database Developer / Programmer, Researcher, IT Support Specialist, Software Product Sales Manager, Head of the IT Department, Consultant and Project Manager.

Pavel was employed by different organizations and worked on contract projects related to different industries: IT/web, Banking, Transport, Consulting, as well as both Governmental and Non-Governmental.
Pavel has interests in IT-related businesses, internet technologies and applications, software development, security, project management, open source, financial markets, entrepreneurship, science and research.

Grace Chow – Librarian/ Student Services Officer

Grace joined Raffles in 2006. Prior to joining Raffles College of Design & Commerce, New Zealand, she has more than 10 years experience in account/studio mangement in the Singapore design industry. She is currently responsible for supporting the Student Services Department and management of the library.

Gary Qing – Finance Executive

Gary has graduated the Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting & Finance) from the University of Auckland. His ultimate dream is to become a great accountant, and a good citizen of the world.

Christina Yek – Senior Education Consultant

Christina has a Bachelor of Art and Design, majoring in photography from Auckland University of Technology. After graduating, she has worked in retail operation management for an international imaging solution company for almost 4 years. In search of new challenge, she joined the marketing team in Raffles College of Design and Commerce in August 2008.

Sheetal Shrestha Singh – Receptionist/ Administration Officer

Sheetal Shrestha Singh, I’m a person with dreams of doing something and becoming somebody in life. I completed my secondary school education in Fiji and came to New Zealand in 2008 to further my studies at tertiary level. Prior to joining Raffles College of Design and Commerce as a receptionist/ administration officer I was a student here studying New Zealand diploma in business, level 6. I have had 2years of experience working as a market researcher for UMR Research in Auckland which helped prepare me for my current position. I love meeting new people, interacting and making friends where ever I go. Teamwork is something that I greatly believe in making this position ideal for me. I take this role as a step towards new beginnings.