A sense of adventure may have drawn Shih Fang (Dino) Ng (’01) from his home city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to study in Canada, but he chose Acadia for two practical reasons. First, Acadia offered a Bachelor of Computer Science with a twinning program at Sedaya College, Malaysia (Sedaya became UCSI University in 2008.) Second, it offered the Acadia Advantage. “Each student was given a personal laptop, and the way the school taught and students learned was so unique,” he says.

Today, Ng is Executive Director and Group Chief Technology Officer – and a co-founder – of Revenue Group of Companies, specializing in e-commerce payment platforms. And although he is back in Kuala Lumpur, he has never forgotten Acadia.

“There are many sweet memories: staying with friends from different backgrounds and cultures, sharing laughter and stories of our on-campus life,” he says. In his first year, he lived in Seminary House. Later, when he moved off-campus, his basement apartment was a popular meeting place for friends. “The door was always open, and it was totally amazing. It felt like home.”

Among his mentors at Acadia were Dr. Uwe Wilhelm, who taught him German in his first semester. “He’s the one who gave me the experience of exploring different languages and cultures, and the ability to appreciate unique skills,” he says. “It was more than learning a second language. It was learning how to connect with people.”

Other mentors were Dr. Les Oliver (’62), who helped students develop soft skills and be creative, and Dr. Tomasz Muldner in Computer Science, whose attention to detail and teaching skill are reflected in Ng’s experience today.

For Ng, a highlight of campus life was his involvement with the Acadia Chinese Club. He joined in first year and by second year was a committee member. In third year, he became the club’s president, creating awareness of traditional Chinese events and hosting joint events with other clubs to enrich Acadia’s multiculturalism.

After graduating, he helped to start up a web/e-commerce business in Montreal. “During that time, back in Malaysia, a florist shop owned by my current business partners was seeking to increase sales volume from different channels, and e-commerce was the right choice,” he says.

This was in the early 2000s, when e-commerce was considered high risk, and banks were reluctant to support smaller businesses, so Ng and his partners started an e-commerce channel link with a warehouse and payment system. Seeing an opportunity to meet a growing need, they created the company that became Revenue Group of Companies.

In 2015, he established the Ng Scholar-Bursary in Computer Science at Acadia.