Does a VCFM CEO need five years of conventional fund-management experience?

Start by reading the requirements for the right category.

For an A/I LFMC, Appendix 1 sets five-year relevant-experience minimums for the CEO, directors and relevant professionals. At least one executive director needs five years of portfolio-management experience relevant to the proposed activities, asset classes and markets. The VCFM requirements in Appendix 4 do not reproduce that five-year matrix. Separate staffing, residency and fit-and-proper requirements remain. MAS’s fund management guidelines, Appendices 1 and 4

There is a second distinction. Relevant experience for private equity and venture capital can include experience in the industries of the proposed investee companies. That recognition applies to PE/VC funds generally; it is not exclusive to VCFMs. MAS’s fund management FAQs, question 13

So the useful question is: what does this person’s experience demonstrate about their ability to perform the proposed role?

Direct venture capital or investment-management experience remains beneficial, and someone with both that background and substantial sector expertise would naturally present a stronger profile.

But a pharmaceutical specialist should assess the relevance of their pharmaceutical career, rather than assume the absence of a conventional finance CV ends the discussion.

In the pharmaceutical example, the proposed mandate gave the sector experience its significance. Someone who understands pharmaceutical businesses may bring useful judgment to assessing their commercial prospects and the risks behind a promising presentation.

That does not mean every pharmaceutical job supports every pharmaceutical VC strategy equally. You need to explain the work you performed and where it connects to the investments you plan to make.

Consider a hypothetical founder whose experience centres on commercialising pharmaceutical products. A mandate focused on businesses approaching commercialisation gives the applicant a fairly direct connection to explain. A mandate focused on very early research platforms may require a different account of the expertise available to assess those opportunities.

I would ask the same practical questions whatever the sector:

  • Which part of the industry did you work in, and for how long?
  • What decisions were you responsible for, rather than merely present for?
  • Which commercial, technical or execution risks did you assess?
  • How will that experience inform the proposed fund’s investment decisions?

“Twenty years in healthcare” leaves a lot for the reader to work out. Twenty years doing what, in which businesses, and with what responsibility?

A tightly defined mandate can make that answer easier. If the business plan promises investments across unrelated industries, the CV needs to support that breadth. A specialist’s strongest case usually starts with the expertise they can actually demonstrate.

Treat the MAS CV like a job interview

When I review a CV for a fund management licence application, I think of it as preparing for a job interview.

You are applying for a particular role. The reader needs to see why your experience equips you to do that job. A list of prestigious employers and senior titles is only the starting point.

Make the directly relevant years easy to identify. Give clear dates for each role, describe the relevant industry segments and separate the responsibilities that support the proposed mandate from the rest of your career. If two appointments overlapped, show that honestly rather than counting the same period twice.

Then quantify what you can substantiate: years in the relevant segment, the number of people supervised, the business units or projects overseen, and the scope of your decision-making responsibility. Include other useful measures where they genuinely explain your role and you have evidence for them.

For an illustrative CV rewrite, “senior executive responsible for business growth” could become:

Led the commercial assessment of pharmaceutical business opportunities, supervised a team of six and held responsibility for recommending which projects received further resources.

That wording is useful only if it is true. It tells the reviewer something about judgment, supervision and accountability.

Describe your contribution to achievements too. “The company completed three acquisitions” is less informative than explaining what you assessed, which recommendation you made and what you were accountable for. Keep confidential information appropriately anonymised, but retain enough substance to show the work.

Do not relabel an operating-business portfolio as an investment fund portfolio. Pharmaceutical product or business portfolio experience can have value on its own terms. Calling it conventional fund management creates a different claim that you may then be asked to substantiate.

The best CV makes the relevance understandable without making the reviewer guess. Keep the dates, responsibilities and examples consistent with the business plan and application forms, and have supporting records or references available for the claims that matter.

Show that you can manage people and take responsibility

A proposed CEO also needs to explain their management experience. MAS’s FAQ says directors and the CEO should have managerial or supervisory experience as part of their relevant background. MAS’s fund management FAQs, question 13

Some applicants are strong specialists but underplay this part of their CV. Others use a senior title without explaining what they managed.

Set out who reported to you, what you supervised and which decisions required your approval. Did you recruit and assess staff? Allocate resources? Oversee several functions? Resolve problems when a project or business did not go according to plan?

Those details help distinguish personal expertise from experience leading an organisation. A person can be an excellent scientist, engineer or commercial specialist without having demonstrated every responsibility expected of a CEO.

Bring the explanation forward into the proposed VCFM role. Identify what the CEO will actually do, the time commitment and the responsibilities held by the other key people. A title in an organisation chart should correspond to a real job someone is ready to perform.

Your own investment portfolio is a different kind of experience

An applicant sometimes points to years of investing personal money as evidence of fund-management experience. MAS does not treat investing one’s own money or family money as relevant experience for an FMC seeking to manage third-party money. MAS’s fund management guidelines, section 3.8

Keep proprietary or self-investing clearly identified. A good personal return does not establish what responsibilities you held for outside investors, and using “fund manager” loosely can make the application harder to assess.

For a sector specialist, the more useful exercise is often to describe their industry work properly. Do not bury substantial business experience under a long account of personal stock picks that does little to explain the proposed VC mandate.

The hidden roadblock: outside interests and conflicts

The industry experience may be the strongest part of the application. It can also lead to the next set of questions.

Specialist founders often hold directorships or shares in companies in their sector. They may have advisory roles, consulting arrangements or businesses they still help run. Those connections deserve attention early in a VCFM application.

Suppose, as an illustration, a founder holds shares in a business that could become a fund investment. How will the investment be assessed? Who will challenge the terms? What happens if the founder’s existing shareholding benefits from the transaction?

Or suppose the founder remains an executive in an operating business. How much time will the VCFM receive, and which business takes priority when both need a decision?

Start with a complete inventory of outside roles and interests. Record the company, the nature of the role or holding, the time commitment, remuneration where relevant, and any likely overlap with the fund’s mandate. Include indirect interests where they could affect the assessment.

Then work through the actual decision process. Depending on the circumstances, proposals might include independent assessment, recusal from conflicted decisions, restrictions on certain transactions or appropriate investor disclosure. A recusal only helps if someone with suitable authority and judgment remains to make the decision. “We will manage conflicts” needs an explanation of who does what.

MAS’s guidelines say CEOs and executive directors may be required to divest outside business interests where conflicts or reputational risks cannot be adequately mitigated. Appendix 4 also addresses VCFM conflict mitigation. MAS’s fund management guidelines, section 3.9 and Appendix 4

A comment MAS makes about one applicant’s outside appointment or shareholding should be read in that applicant’s circumstances. It does not establish a universal rule that every specialist founder must resign every directorship or sell every sector investment.

The practical mistake is leaving this assessment until late in the application. Bring the interests into the discussion while the roles and business plan are still being settled.

Before you submit the VCFM application

Read the CV alongside the proposed investment mandate and ask whether they tell a coherent story. The reviewer should be able to understand the relevant sector experience, the applicant’s decisions and management responsibilities, and how those will be used in the VCFM.

Next, check the outside interests against that same mandate. A company mentioned as evidence of experience may also need to appear in the conflicts assessment. Inconsistencies across documents invite questions that careful preparation could have addressed.

Finally, assess the proposed people and roles together. Experience is one admission issue; the wider application still needs a credible business plan and an appropriate operating presence. Our Singapore fund management licence application guide covers the broader preparation.

The pharmaceutical example is a useful reminder to look closely at what an applicant has done. His relevant sector career supported the proposed mandate despite the absence of a conventional finance fund-management background. The application needed to explain that experience on its merits.

If you are planning a VCFM application, bring us the proposed mandate, your CV and your outside interests before you commit to the submission. We can help assess the fit and identify what needs a clearer explanation. Explore our MAS fund management licence application support, review our fees, or contact Advisors Assemble to discuss your plans.

Regulatory references reviewed on 11 October 2026.