He graduated with a bachelor's degree (first class honours) in electrical and electronic engineering from Imperial College London in 1990.

He was awarded the Singapore Armed Forces Postgraduate Scholarship in 2001 and went on to obtain a Master of Science in management from Stanford University in 2002.

[6] After retiring from the military, Chew became the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Utilities Board (PUB), Singapore's national water agency on 8 December 2011 to 30 September 2014.

[7] Subsequently, he was appointed as Chief Executive of the Land Transport Authority from 1 October 2014 to 11 November 2016 until his resignation from the public service.

[8] He also sits on the board of Jurong Port Pte Ltd and is also a member of the Singapore Quality Award Governing Council.