Personal portfolio Singapore
Ethan JamesYam Ka Wai.
I study Business Administration at Singapore Polytechnic and work across commercial research, student product development and youth policy.
01 / Portfolio index
Selected work
Reading the multipurpose shipping market
Comparing charter benchmarks and mapping what wind cargo could mean for multipurpose vessels.
Designing a student planner
Turning scattered timetables, deadlines and revision plans into one student workflow.
A route to help for young people online
Designing a clearer response when young people need help with an online safety incident.
02 / Experience
Where I’ve worked
I study Business Administration at Singapore Polytechnic. My experience spans commercial research, building a student product, frontline operations and community work.
- Product and entrepreneurshipManaging Director · SociusFlow
- Shaping the product direction for a student planner that brings together timetables, deadlines, revision and daily planning. My work covers feature priorities, team coordination and decisions about how AI should handle student data.
- Commercial researchBusiness Administration Intern · MOL Drybulk
- Compared charter benchmarks for multipurpose vessels, researched wind turbine blade movements and examined what project-cargo demand could mean for vessel operators.
- MarketingMarketing Assistant to Head of Marketing · StainAway
- Progressed from supporting marketing work to leading the marketing function in a student venture.
- EducationDiploma in Business Administration · Singapore Polytechnic
- Coursework spans financial management, consumer research, business operations and digital service design. I have also served as a class vice-chair and helped guide visitors at Open House.
- CommunityGrassroots and community volunteering · Seletar–Serangoon
- Support Meet-the-People Sessions through petition writing and volunteer coordination, and have led work on the branch’s voucher distribution programme.
- Youth developmentSecretary and Head of HR · Mentorship Lab
- Helped coordinate a Seletar–Serangoon Youth Network mentoring programme for secondary-school-age participants.
- Policy debateTeam lead · Singapore Model Parliament 2026
- Brought The Heartland Parliament team together to debate Singapore’s economic competitiveness and defend a proposal for a nuclear-skills development pilot.
- Policy simulationPrime Minister · Singapore Model Cabinet
- Led Cabinet 8 through a simulation on community support and sustainable careers in the arts. Our team developed a proposal covering fair commissioning, access to space and participation in live arts.
- RecognitionFirst Runner-Up · Singapore Youth Policy Competition
- My team developed the Youth Digital Safety Pathways Framework to clarify what happens after online harm is identified and how schools, platforms and other organisations can respond.
03 / Writing
Notes and reflections
Posts on policy discussions, learning journeys, product development and the people I’ve worked with.
Read the archive ↗04 / Interests
What I follow
- Public policy and international affairs
- Singapore’s foreign policy, ASEAN, education, social mobility and how public institutions weigh trade-offs.
- Technology and student productivity
- AI-assisted planning, product design and the privacy decisions that come with building for students.
- Shipping and commercial research
- Multipurpose vessels, project cargo and the practical limits of using market benchmarks.
- Music and outside interests
- Playing keyboard, going to concerts, reading, skateboarding and floorball.