Ho Ching to handover Temasek Holdings’ top seat for a “second time” on Oct 1 after 17 years of service
Outgoing chief executive of Temasek Holdings, Ho Ching, will be stepping down from the board on Friday (Oct 1).
Mdm Ho, who is also the wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said she has been “very much” a part of the leadership succession process after being in the company for 17 years.
The company announced that its portfolio was at S$90 billion when Mdm Ho was appointed CEO in 2004. Since then, it has tripled to over S$300 billion, even through the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Taking over the role is Temasek International CEO Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara.
Mr Dilhan joined Temasek coming from a major law firm as a leading corporate lawyer.
As the CEO of Temasek International, he was responsible for the investor role of the company, managing its investment and portfolio activities, reports noted.
Executive director of Temasek Holdings, Lee Theng Kiat, will also be retiring beginning Oct 1.
DPA Note: Ho Ching had previously left the position once to former BHP Billiton Ltd head, Charles “Chip” Goodyear.
However the handover failed, and Ho Ching returned back to the position. Ho Ching ended up continuing the role of the CEO of Temasek for another whopping 12 more years.
Mr Goodyear was appointed a Member of the Board on 1 February and CEO-Designate on 1 March. He was to succeed Ms Ho Ching as CEO on 1 October 2009.
Four months into the leadership transition, the Temasek Board and Mr Goodyear have concluded and accepted that there are differences regarding certain strategic issues that could not be resolved. In light of the differences, both parties decided that it is in their mutual interests to terminate the leadership transition process and hence the executive relationship with effect from 15 August 2009. Mr Goodyear will also step down from the Temasek Board effective the same date.
This is stark because she seemed to be originally be handing over in a rather “normal” situation of serving after 5 years after being appointed in 2002. The appointment was met with alleged conflict of interests then, as she is seen as a “member of the Lee family” (Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter-in-law.) and it riled up suspicion of a “Lee dynastic rule theory”. Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, Ho Ching’s husband was the Deputy Prime Minister at that time.
Temasek holding is incorporated in 1974.
In our research, it seems that Ho Ching’s CEO position seems to be a rather “new” position created only in January 2004. Ho Ching became Director of Temasek Holdings in January 2002, and upgraded to Executive Director in May 2002. The rise is definitely nothing short of phenomenal. We can’t find any information of a CEO before Ho Ching.
The announcement to appoint Goodyear to replace her in 2009 was met with surprised both locally and internationally, as Temasek is seen as a government agency of sort, and people were skeptical or even worried about having an “outsider” or foreigner taking over the top spot over a corporation that may have access to sensitive information that may implicate Singapore’s national security.
The inability to find a new replacement as the CEO for Temasek, mirrors the failings of her husband on the political stage – as Lee Hsien Loong’s succession plan had been draggy and ultimately ended in failure, when “Prime Minister Elect” Heng Swee Kiat gave up taking over the role after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic delayed his appointment. Citing the lack of time in his potential reign for him to make a difference, suggested Lee to find someone younger, throwing the entire succession plan into chaos.
Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, the successor to the Temasek top job will likely to be smoother. Dilhan Pillay’s nationality is currently unknown from our research, but is likely to be Singaporean. Dilhan currently do not have a wikipedia entry (thus making his identity a bit of a mystery to the general public).
Curiously, Dilhan Pillay looks a lot like Joseph Yuvaraj Pillay (J.Y. Pillay), Singapore top ranking civil servant from 1961 to 1995, Chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers and acting President of Singapore (whenever the Singapore President is away). But you can be somewhat assure, that they are not related, as J Y Pillay is recorded by Singapore’s Government archive to have only one daughter.
Dilhan studied in Anglo-Chinese School (ACS), and graduated from NUS with a Bachelor of Law (Honours). He got his Masters of Law from the University of Cambridge in 1990. After Cambridge, he became an associate of WongPartnership LLP (a law firm) from 1992 to 1994. 1994 to 2006, Dilhan became a partner. And from 2007 onwards, he became the managing partner.
Dilhan joined Temasek Holdings as an advisor around June 2010 and went on to become the Head of Portfolio Management in September the same year. Dilhan later became Head of Enterprise Development Group and dropped the role in May 2016, as he is appointed the Co-President and Joint Head for Investment. A year later in October 2017, Dilhan Pillay became Deputy CEO of Temasek International. April 2019, he assumed the role of CEO / Executive Director of Temasek International.
1 October 2021 (tomorrow as of this article), he will succeed Ho Ching to the top position, as the Executive Director and CEO of Temasek Holdings. He will be holding the CEO appointment of Temasek International concurrently.
His wholly Singaporeans background and being a Temasek insider for the past 10+ years means that this succession is likely to be successful, and finally put the “conflict of interest” allegations on Ho Ching finally to rest.
Regardless whether is indeed any form of conflict of interests, Ho Ching oversaw an over 300% increase in valuation of Temasek’s portfolio, from 90 billion Singapore dollars in 2004, to over 300 billion Singapore dollars today, despite the global financial crisis (sub prime crisis) and the Covid-19 pandemic. Her “conflict of interest” position, also ironically, gave investors and Singaporeans a sense of stability and predictability, as the likelihood of Temasek breaking pace with the PAP-led Singapore Government is near to zero during her reign.
As Singapore enters a new phase of its history, with much uncertainty surrounding Singapore’s pandemic affected economy, failed-and-ongoing Prime-Ministerial succession debacle, declining trust in the Presidential Election as well as a series of seeming hiccups by the ruling party in parliament – the successful handover of the Temasek leadership is a much welcome news for those with a stake in the future of Singapore.