Mr Mano
Sabnani, aged 53, has 25 years of experience in total as a newspaper journalist,
editor, manager, investment banker, and equity
research director. His varied experience has helped him build formidable
knowledge and deep insights in current affairs covering economics and politics
as well as various business sectors, including SMEs and their problems, the
business scenario today, fund raising techniques, IPO preparation, mergers
and acquisitions and financial analysis.
He has an extensive network of contacts among newsmakers, companies, financiers, various professions and media professionals. These contacts, developed painstakingly over 25 years, can be put to good use for the benefit of any organisation. Mano also has strong managerial and supervisory skills, developed while leading a newspaper, a research unit, and an investment banking department.
Mr Sabnani is currently an executive director at Corporate Brokers International, a boutique advisory firm servicing local and regional SMEs as mentors and angels. While servicing SMEs at CBI, Mano has also been helping out as a consultant at MediaCorp's TODAY newspaper and Channel News Asia, focusing on business news coverage and training of journalists.
Prior to that, Mano's most recent position was with the Development Bank of Singapore, as its Managing Director for Equity Capital markets. He helped more than 20 companies in their IPO efforts and these included SMRT Corporation, Singapore Exchange Ltd and Hyflux Ltd. He also helped to put together several M & A deals.
Earlier, Mano was the Managing Director for Investments at Individual Banking, DBS. In that role, he developed several innovative products, such as Eight (an umbrella fund), for DBS Bank's wide customer base. He also developed and managed Investor Online, an Internet-based share trading and advisory service.
From January 1996 to August 1997, Mano was the Director of Research at DBS Securities. Here, he managed a team of 40 analysts and support staff who covered the regional equity markets. Sectors covered included Electronics, IT, Marine, Transport, Property and Banking.
Mano is also a well-known writer and commentator in the mass media. In his 18 years as a financial writer, he rose from a junior reporter in 1977 (as the original "Hock Lock Siew" of Business Times) to be the Editor of BT between 1986 and 1992. From May 1992 to the close of 1995, he was the Managing Editor of The Straits Times and Head of the Editorial Support Unit of the English/Malay newspapers of SPH.
Mano has a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Physics from the University of Singapore. He attended the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD Business School (France) in 1990 and the Press Fellowship programme at Wolfson College, Cambridge (UK), in 1986.
Outside working hours, Mano has been active in the Singapore Press Club as its Vice-President, and is currently in the final stages of the Certified Financial Planner degree programme.