Dr Zainal received his doctorate in the USA in Management and Organisation. A Fellow of Certified Practising Accountant (FCPA) in Singapore and a Fellow of Certified Management Consultant (FCMC) in Japan and Singapore, Mr Tan began his career at MayBank Group in Singapore, before moving on to Bank of Tokyo and UOB Bank. He later worked on numerous projects at the national and industry level in the areas of business and transformation, as well as on promoting entrepreneurship and productivity development, on behalf of the Singaporean government agency NPB (National Productivity Board).

At the end of the 1980s, Dr Zainal worked as a technical expert (TES) at the Asian Productivity Organization. For more than 20 years, he has been a TES consultant to the governments of Brunei, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Thailand, advising and supporting them in developing national and industry-specific strategies and action plans to promote business excellence, human resource development, and productivity growth.

In the mid-1990s, after almost 20 years of industry, consulting and training experience, Dr Zainal left his post with the Singaporean government to start his own business. APG Consulting & AqilQisti Technology Groups have offices in Brunei, Darussalam, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

He served as the vice president of international business at the PSB Academy Group for six years before moving to the UAE Academy Abu Dhabi in 2009, where his consulting team successfully completed various projects of national and organisational importance in key government ministries and agencies.

During this period, Dr Zainal established the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, as the first Chairman of which he managed a fund worth billions on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government to promote business start-ups in Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Today, Dr Zainal is a partner at Lamprecht Leadership Consultants AG, where he is responsible for the Asian region and the Singapore office.