Abu Bakar completed an Executive MBA at SMU last year, even though he was not a university graduate. In an interview with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Abu Bakar said that the course was quite easy because it was relevant to his job. "In fact, to me it was very timely because you have a new company to run, because it's totally a new start-up yard," he said. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Keppel Shipyard's joint-venture shipyard based in Qatar.