Philip Yeo

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Philip Yeo (Chinese: 杨烈国; born 1947) is the current outgoing chairman of A*STAR, a government agency in Singapore focused on conducting scientific research.^[1] To that end he recruited, amongst many others, accomplished researchers like Edison Liu, Nancy Jenkins, Neal Copeland, and David P. Lane to work on biomedical research in Singapore's biomedical hub Biopolis.^[2]

Yeo was also the first chairman of the National Computer Board - which he formed - as well as chairman of the Economic Development Board from January 1986 to January 2001. He is married and has a son and a daughter.

1 Education
2 Career
3 Public service
4 Controversy
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Education

Yeo graduated in 1970 in Applied Science (Industrial Engineering) from the University of Toronto under a Colombo Plan scholarship. He obtained a Master of Science (Systems Engineering) from the University of Singapore in 1974. In 1976, he obtained a Master in Business Administration from Harvard University under a Fulbright scholarship.

[edit] Career

Philip Yeo served in the Administrative Service from June 1970 to 31 March 1999. He served in various appointments in the Ministry of Defence, including Permanent Secretary for logistics, technology research & development and defence industries. He left MINDEF to assume the appointment of Chairman, Economic Development Board in January 1986.

During his EDB chairmanship, Yeo redirected EDB's focus from the traditional fields to new areas of business. These include promoting services, developing high-tech industries like semiconductors, aerospace and specialty chemicals, nurturing local small and medium-sized enterprises and encouraging Singapore companies to make direct investments abroad. Yeo pioneered Singapore's participation in overseas infrastructure development projects such as those in the Bintan Industrial Estate and the Wuxi-Singapore Industrial Park in China.

During this time, Philip Yeo also served as the first Chairman of the National Computer Board (now Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore from 1981 to 1987. He played a leading role in formulating and championing Singapore's first national computerisation plan to evolve the nation into the information age.

Yeo was Board Member (from 1980) and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Singapore Technologies Holdings from 1987 to 1993. He also served as Chairman of Sembawang Corporation (1994 - 1998) and the successor SembCorp Industries (1998-1999), Pidemco Land (1999 - 2000) and CapitaLand formed from Pidemco after a merger (2000 -).

Yeo will step down as Chairman of A*STAR and become chairman of the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board (Spring Singapore) on 1 April 2007. He will also become senior adviser on science and technology to the Minister for Trade and Industry. Lieutenant General Lim Chuan Poh, Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Education will become A*STAR's deputy chairman in November 2006, and chairman when Yeo steps down in April 2007.^[3]

[edit] Public service

For his public service, Yeo was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 1974, the Public Administration Medal (Gold) in 1982 and the Meritorious Service Medal in 1991. In 1987, he was awarded the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, USA for the period March to May 1987.

In 1994, the Indonesian Government conferred on Yeo its highest civilian honour, the Bintang Jasa Utama (the First Class Order of Service Award) in recognition of his role in fostering good bilateral ties between Indonesia and Singapore. In 1996, Yeo was conferred the Ordre National du Merite (National Order of Merit) for his contribution and leadership in enhancing ties between Singapore and France. In February 1998, Yeo was honoured by the Belgian Government with the Commander of the Belgium National Order of the Crown for his personal merits in promoting the cooperation between Belgian and Singapore industries.

In June 1997, Yeo was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering by his alma mater, the University of Toronto in recognition of an illustrious alumnus.

In November 1998, the international Society of Design and Process Science honoured Yeo with the K T Li Award for contributing significantly to economic and societal development. He was recognized for his contribution to Singapore's economic development and for his pioneering role in the development of Singapore's IT industry.

On 9 August 2006, he was awarded the Order of Sang Nila Utama (First Class), one of Singapore's most prestigious National Day Awards. In September 2006, he was the first Singaporean to receive Harvard Business School's Alumni Achievement Award.

[edit] Controversy

See also : Censorship in Singapore

Philip Yeo has been embroiled in controversy regarding government scholarships and the associated bonds, duties, and obligations from time to time.

In 1998, as Chairman of EDB, he decided to name holders of government scholarships who wished to break their bonds to shame them. This was unpopular and the Singaporean public was divided between the concept of a scholarship as a duty, or a mere contractual agreement which could be broken in return for the stated penalties. The debate culminated in Yeo challenging an MP, Chng Hee Kok, to resign for his views. ^[4] ^[5] This led to even more unhappiness at the audacity of a civil servant talking down to an elected Member of Parliament. Then Deputy Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong had to intervene in what was seen as a face-saving rebuke for both - that Philip Yeo was wrong to tell Chng Hee Kok to resign, but Chng had also been wrong in arguing that it was acceptable for scholars to break their bonds because they were merely legal contracts.^[5]

In May 2005, the controversy of A*STAR bond-breakers was revived when The New Paper published an article about him writing in his book that men in Singapore even when serving National Service (NS) were wimps, whiny, and immature.^[6] The reason Yeo gave was that all bond-breakers since early 90s were Singapore men. The anger was further fuelled when a female A*STAR scholar, Chng Zhenzhi, backed his statements and openly declared that Singapore men were fine until "(once) they enter NS, they complain a lot."^[7] In the same month, Chen Jiahao, a Singaporean Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign made several posts on his blog, caustic.soda which were allegedly defamatory of Philip Yeo and/or A*STAR.^[8] Because the exact post which was considered offensive was not made known, all posts were later removed voluntarily, and replaced with an unreserved apology to "A*STAR, its Chairman Mr. Philip Yeo, and its executive officers for the distress and embarrassment" caused.^[9] This action was believed to be taken under threat of legal action for libel by A*STAR. ^[10] The incidents upset several members of the local blogging community^[7] for his statements, the perceived ham-fisted censorship, and the chilling effect on free speech on the Internet.