Don Poh is the Group CEO of Lorna Whiston Schools, a Singapore education brand with a 45 year legacy and more than 75,000 alumni worldwide.
Lorna Whiston Schools was founded by Ms Lorna Whiston in 1980, a British educator who believed that teachers are the most important part of a quality education. Don Poh was taught personally by her during his formative years. At seven years old, he was a shy child who struggled with speech. Through Speech and Drama classes, he discovered the confidence to speak up from within. That early experience shaped the way he views education today.
Company: Lorna Whiston Schools
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company
Don Poh: I come from an entrepreneurial background in education and related sectors. Over the past decade-plus, I’ve founded and scaled several education businesses in Singapore and Southeast Asia, including First Steps Preschool (a Pikler-RIE inspired innovative preschool), Hampton International Pre-School in Bangkok (targeting the premium expatriate and local market), and Edugrow, a leading M&A advisory firm that helped consolidate much of Singapore’s early childhood sector. I also run Curasia Endoscopy, a medical business, which keeps me grounded in operational excellence across industries. This diverse experience has equipped me to lead with a sharp focus on quality, innovation, and sustainable growth—qualities I brought to Lorna Whiston when I stepped in as Group CEO in December 2023.
Lorna Whiston Schools is one of Singapore’s most respected names in children’s education, with a proud 45-year legacy since 1980 and over 75,000 alumni who have benefited from our programmes. We’re best known for producing confident, articulate young learners who love reading, speaking, and expressing themselves clearly from an early age.
How do you personally define success, and how has that definition evolved throughout your career?
Don Poh: Personally, I define success as the ability to create high-impact systems that outlast my own physical presence. Early in my career, my definition was much more traditional and centered on growth metrics like market share and the successful closing of M&A deals through Edugrow. I measured success by how much of the Singapore preschool market I could consolidate or how quickly I could scale a new brand. It was about the “win” and the rapid expansion of the business footprint. As I moved through different industries, from bespoke tailoring at Graziaa to medical services at Curasia, that definition shifted. I began to realize that true success is not just about building a big business but about building a sustainable one that maintains its soul even when it reaches a regional scale. Today, success means seeing a child in our Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur centers develop the same confidence and literacy as a student in our original Singapore schools because the system I built is working exactly as intended.
What lasting impact do you hope to leave through your business, and what steps are you taking to build that legacy?
Don Poh: The lasting impact I hope to leave is a blueprint for how premium, specialized education can be scaled across Southeast Asia without losing its individual touch. I want Lorna Whiston to be remembered as the brand that proved you do not have to choose between “big” and “bespoke.” To build this legacy, I am taking deliberate steps to institutionalize our unique pedagogy. We are investing heavily in our own teacher training academies to ensure that our Bespoke Reading Programme and Speech and Drama standards remain world-class, regardless of how many schools we open. By documenting these processes and fostering a culture of “individualized excellence,” I am ensuring that the brand’s 45-year heritage continues for another 45 years.
Beyond financial success, what initiatives—whether in mentorship, sustainability, or social responsibility—are you most proud of?
Don Poh: One of the initiatives I am most proud of is our commitment to professionalizing the early childhood sector through mentorship and training. Through Edugrow and Lorna Whiston, I have mentored dozens of school owners and educators, helping them transition from struggling “mom and pop” operations to sustainable, high-impact businesses. I am particularly proud of how we have championed the Pikler-RIE philosophy, which is essentially a social responsibility project in itself. It teaches adults to respect infants as competent human beings, a shift in mindset that reduces stress for families and creates more empathetic environments for the next generation. We are not just teaching kids to read. We are teaching a whole ecosystem of educators how to treat children with a higher level of dignity.
What lessons have you learned about leadership that you wish more entrepreneurs understood early on?
Don Poh: The most vital lesson in leadership I wish I had understood earlier is that culture is your only true protection against scale. When you are small, you can supervise everything. When you go regional, your only “eyes and ears” are the values you have instilled in your team. I wish more entrepreneurs understood that hiring for “pedagogical alignment” is far more important than hiring for a prestigious resume. In my experience, a teacher who truly believes in our bespoke, child-centered mission will always outperform a more “decorated” teacher who just wants to follow a script. Leadership is not about being the smartest person in the room. It is about being the most consistent guardian of the brand’s soul.
Looking ahead, how do you see your industry evolving, and what role do you hope to play in shaping its future?
Don Poh: Looking ahead, I see the education industry moving away from standardized, factory-style learning and toward extreme personalization powered by human expertise. While many believe AI and technology are the future, I believe the future is actually “high-touch.” As basic information becomes a commodity, the value of a mentor who can teach critical thinking, public speaking, and confidence will skyrocket.
I hope to play the role of a bridge-builder in this future. I want to show that you can use modern business systems to deliver a traditional, high-quality “bespoke” education to thousands of children across Southeast Asia. By expanding into KL, Jakarta, and beyond, we are proving that the human element of education is the most premium asset there is. We are building the infrastructure so that “individualized” doesn’t have to mean “inaccessible.”
