About Us

SecondAct was built by two Singaporeans who believe that the second half of life deserves as much intention as the first.

Meet the Team

Jael’s full bio

Some conversations change everything.

I spent 20 years in Innovation and Insights — listening to people, finding the patterns beneath what they say, and helping organisations understand what their customers and teams actually want. It was work I genuinely loved. But somewhere along the way, I realised I wanted to do it differently — on my own terms, at my own pace, and in service of the people who needed it most.

Five years ago, I made the pivot. I stepped out of the corporate track and into innovation consulting — continuing to do the work I love, but now choosing who I work with, what I take on, and how I show up. Alongside that, I trained as a certified life coach. Not because I had it all figured out, but because I kept seeing the same thing: brilliant, capable people stuck at a crossroads — not for lack of talent or resources, but for lack of clarity about what they actually wanted next.

Some of them had been made redundant in their 40s or early 50s and were quietly unravelling, not only because they couldn’t find another job, but because the job had been such a large part of who they were. Others were still employed but running on empty — going through the motions, waiting for a sign, unsure whether the discomfort they felt was a crisis or an invitation. And a few had done everything right financially, but still couldn’t bring themselves to make the leap, because nobody had helped them design what they were leaping into.

These are the conversations worth having. And they are what SecondAct is here for.

I’ve also learned, through personal loss when my mom died when she was only 54, that time is not something we can take for granted. We don’t always get the chapters we planned for. That belief sits quietly at the heart of everything I do — not as a source of fear, but as a reminder that the version of life you want is worth designing now, not later.

SecondAct exists to hold space for that work — with honesty, warmth, and real stories from people who are figuring it out too.

What I believe

The second act of your career and life deserves the same rigour and intention you brought to the first. It isn’t a winding down. It’s a redesign.

For some people, that may mean planning a deliberate exit from corporate life. For others, it means surviving an unplanned one — and finding out that the disruption, as uncomfortable as it is, contains a real opening. And for others still, it means staying in the game but on completely different terms: choosing the work, the pace, and the people.

There is no single right answer. But there are better and worse ways to navigate the question. SecondAct is here to help you navigate it well.

Jael’s Credentials

I’m a certified Life Coach (CPCC), Agile Team Coach and Facilitator, and Gallup Strengths Coach with over 500 coaching hours. I’ve spent more than 20 years in Innovation and Insights — across Unilever and research and media agencies — and the past five years building my own consulting practice, which means I know how to ask the questions that unlock what someone is really trying to say.

My clients describe me as compassionate and kind, and also as fearless and challenging. I flex easily between the two, always in service of what the client actually needs.

My top Gallup Strengths are Connectedness, Strategic, Arranger, Positivity, and Communication — which means in our conversations, you can expect pattern-spotting, fresh perspectives, encouragement, and a clear eye on what truly matters to you.

I’m also the author of Life Happily Ever After — a practical, coaching-led book to help you pursue more fulfilment and satisfaction in your life.

I currently split my time between the Netherlands and Singapore, having also lived in Shanghai for four years. Singapore is where I grew up and built my early career — and it’s the community I most want to serve with this work.

If any of this resonates — whether you’re just beginning to think about your next chapter, or you’re ready to have a real conversation about it — I’d love to hear from you.

Jacqueline’s Full Bio

Good ideas need good foundations. Jacqueline is the reason everything we do at SecondAct SG is grounded in sound theory — not just lived experience or good intentions, but research that actually holds up.

Jacqueline knows firsthand what it means to pivot. In 2016, at 34, she made a decision that surprised most people around her: she left teaching and stepped into academia — not as a career move in the conventional sense, but as a deliberate act of following what she was genuinely curious about. She enrolled in a PhD programme, choosing depth over certainty, and long-term fulfilment over short-term security.

It paid off. Jacqueline holds a PhD (cum laude) in Educational Psychology from Erasmus University Rotterdam. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, her work lies at the cutting edge intersection of Gen AI, Cognitive Load Theory, motivation, self-regulated learning, metacognition, to support better learning.

Her story is a quiet reminder of something SecondAct believes deeply: that meaningful pivots don’t have a minimum or maximum age, and that following genuine curiosity — even when it’s inconvenient, even when it doesn’t fit the expected timeline — tends to lead somewhere worth going.

Her academic expertise is what shapes the frameworks behind SecondAct’s coaching and content. Central to our approach is Self-Determination Theory — a well-established motivational framework that identifies three core drivers of human motivation and wellbeing:

• Autonomy — the freedom to make meaningful choices about your own life
• Relatedness — feeling genuinely connected to the people and communities that matter to you
• Competence — doing things that make you feel capable, valuable, and appropriately stretched

These three needs don’t disappear when the career script runs out — if anything, they become more urgent. Whether someone is navigating a forced redundancy, planning a deliberate pivot, or finally stepping back from decades of full-throttle work, the question underneath is almost always the same: how do I build a life that still feels like mine? When autonomy, relatedness, and competence are all present, people don’t just cope — they thrive. When they’re missing, people drift. Everything SecondAct does is designed to help people find and sustain all three.

Beyond her research, Jacqueline is also the creative force behind the SecondAct brand identity — bringing the same thoughtfulness and precision to our visual language as she brings to everything else.

She has lived and worked in Singapore, Shanghai, and the Netherlands, bringing a genuinely international perspective to questions about ageing, purpose, and what it means to live well across multiple chapters of life.

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Together, Jael and Jacqueline bring a rare combination of coaching practice, human insights expertise, and academic rigour to a conversation that people need to have — openly, honestly, and with real warmth.