Patsian Low

Patsian is currently Director of the Philanthropy Division in the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC). She is privileged to work with a passionate team to provide programmes that promote and engage philanthropy from different donor sectors in Singapore. Some initiatives include the online philanthropy platform www.sggives.org, independent charity and programme analysis services for grantmakers and foundations, a quarterly Funders Roundtable, the Philanthropy in Asia Summit, among others. Patsian facilitates a module on Assessing Social Impact in the executive course for non-profit leaders, iLEAP, at the Lien Centre for Social Innovation. She also regularly conducts social impact training sessions and helps in judging social venture competitions.

Before joining NVPC, Patsian provided independent research and consultation in microfinance and social finance, worked on white papers on Microfinance in Asia, Non-Profit Media Strategies, Social Finance, Venture Philanthropy, among others. She was a mentor/trainer for the UNITAR Afghan Fellowship Programme, an active programme in Afghanistan’s post-war redevelopment. She is also an accredited United Nations Capital Development Fund/Asian Development Bank Institute Microfinance Trainer of Trainers. Patsian holds board roles as the Treasurer for Social Venture Partners (Singapore), a venture philanthropy society, and the current President and founding member of the Microfinance Society (Singapore), the first Singapore-based microfinance interest group.

Among all of this, Patsian finds some quiet time with her husband, who is a humanitarian aid logistics expert and volunteer trainer, and their two daughters. In an earlier phase of life, Patsian has 14 years of senior-level financial sector experience in U.S., Hong Kong and Singapore within various global institutions like Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank and State Street. She holds an MBA (Marketing) from New York University’s Leonard N Stern School of Business, and a B.Sc. in Finance from Binghamton University (State University of New York).