Lee Hsien Yang

Lee Hsien Yang (born 24 September 1957)[3] is a Singaporean senior management executive. Lee is the younger son of Singapore's first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, and the younger brother of the current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. He was formerly a Brigadier-General in the Singapore Armed Forces.

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Lee.

Lee Hsien Yang
李显扬
Chief Executive Officer of SingTel
In office 1995–2007
Non-Executive Director and Chairman of Fraser and Neave
In office 2007–2013
Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore
In office 2009–2018
Personal details
Born	(1957-09-24) 24 September 1957 Singapore
Political party	Progress Singapore Party (PSP) (2020–present)[1][2]
Spouse(s)	Lim Suet Fern
Relations	Lee Kuan Yew (Father) Kwa Geok Choo (Mother) Lee Hsien Loong (Brother) Lee Wei Ling (Sister)
Children	Li Shengwu (Son) Li Huanwu (Son) Li Shaowu (Son)
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge Stanford University
Occupation	Business executive
Military service
Allegiance	Singapore
Branch/service	Singapore Army
Years of service	1976 - 1994
Rank	Brigadier-General

Lee Hsien Yang
Traditional Chinese	李顯揚
Simplified Chinese	李显扬
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lǐ Xiǎnyáng

After retiring from the Singapore Armed Forces, Lee was recruited to be the CEO of SingTel in 1995. He left in 2007 to become the Non-Executive Director and Chairman of Fraser and Neave and subsequently left in 2013. In 2009, he was scouted to be the chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and left in 2018.

Education

Lee was awarded the President's Scholarship and the Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship[4] by the Public Service Commission after finishing his secondary education at Catholic High School[5] and pre-university education at National Junior College.[6] He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge with a double first in engineering science and holds a Master of Science in management from Stanford University.[4]

Career

Lee served in command and staff positions in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and held the rank of Brigadier-General. After leaving the military, he joined SingTel in April 1994 as the Executive Vice President of Local Services.[7] In May 1995, he became its Chief Executive Officer and held this appointment until March 2007.[4] He was replaced by Chua Sock Koong, SingTel's financial chief, on 1 April 2007.[8]

In September 2007, Fraser and Neave appointed Lee as a Non-Executive Director and Chairman-Designate with effect from 6 September 2007. Lee assumed the position of Non-Executive Chairman of the Company and Consultant on 15 October 2007.[9] On 1 July 2009, Lee was appointed as the Chairman of the restructured Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS)[10] by Singapore's Transport Minister Raymond Lim.[11] On 26 February 2013, it was announced that Lee had stepped down from the board of Fraser and Neave.[12]

Lee has held other positions such as: Board Member and Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Singapore Exchange; Independent Director of the Islamic Bank of Asia (a subsidiary of DBS Bank) and the Australian & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ); Member of the Governing Board of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy; Member of the Board of Asia Pacific Investment; Chairman of Republic Polytechnic; Member of Rolls-Royce Holdings's international advisory board.[4][13]

Lee once said in 2006 that he has "no great interest to pursue a career in politics."[7] He later joined the Progress Singapore Party in 2020, citing that the PAP has lost its way, it is no longer the PAP of its founding principles that Mr Lee Kuan Yew had envisioned.[1][2]

Lee stepped down as Chairman of CAAS on 1 July 2018. He is succeeded by Mr Edmund Cheng Wai Wing.[14]

Political career

On 24 June 2020, Lee joined the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) led by the former Member of Parliament (MP), Tan Cheng Bock.[1][2] The PSP is one of the opposition parties that are running against the incumbent People's Action Party (PAP) government, which is led by Lee's elder brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Lee decided not to run as a candidate for the 2020 general election, stating that "Singapore doesn't need another Lee".[15]

Personal life

Lee is the younger son and youngest child of former Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew and Kwa Geok Choo. His elder brother, Lee Hsien Loong, is the current Prime Minister. His elder sister, Lee Wei Ling, is a former director of the National Neuroscience Institute.[5]

Lee is married to lawyer Lim Suet Fern, the daughter of economist Lim Chong Yah.[16] She is the founder and managing partner of Stamford Law Corporation and a former president of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA).[17] The couple have three sons: Li Shengwu, Li Huanwu, and Li Shaowu.[13] Their eldest son, Li Shengwu, is currently serving as Assistant Professor in Economics at Harvard University. He graduated from Balliol College of the University of Oxford as the top student in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics programme in 2009.,[18] with a MPhil degree in Economics from Oxford in 2011, and a PhD degree from Stanford University in 2016.[19] Li Huanwu came out as gay in July 2018.[20] He married his partner, Heng Yirui, in South Africa on 24 May 2019.[21]

Administrator of Lee Kuan Yew's will

Lee and his sister, Lee Wei Ling, are the joint administrators and executors of Lee Kuan Yew's will. However, they were in a dispute in 2017 with Lee Hsien Loong over their late father's will with regard to the house at 38 Oxley Road. They "felt threatened by Lee Hsien Loong's misuse of his position and influence over the Singapore government and its agencies to drive his personal agenda". They alleged that their brother thwarted the will of their father in order to use the house as a monument to milk his father's legacy. They also criticised the influence of the first lady Ho Ching over the government, and alleged that the Prime Minister harboured political ambitions for his son, Li Hongyi.[22] A special parliamentary session was held to clear the Prime Minister of any wrongdoings and the siblings agreed to keep the dispute private after the session.[23][24]

Lee Kuan Yew Family Tree

Lee Bok Boon 1846–1920 Seow Huan Neo 1850–c. 1931 Lee Hoon Leong 1871–1942 Ko Liem Nio 1883–1959 Lee Chin Koon 1903–1997 Chua Jim Neo 1907–1980 Lee Kuan Yew 1923–2015 Kwa Geok Choo 1920–2010 Dennis Lee Kim Yew 1925-2003[25] Gloria Lee (Woo) Sau Yin[26] Freddy Lee Thiam Yew 1927-2012[27] Eleanor Ngo Puay Chin[26] Monica Lee Kim Mon b. 1929 or 1930[28] George Chan Chor Cheung[26] Dr Lee Suan Yew b. 1933[29] Pamela Chong[26] Wong Ming Yang 1951–1982 Lee Hsien Loong b. 1952 Ho Ching b. 1953 Lee Wei Ling b. 1955 Lee Hsien Yang b. 1957 Lim Suet Fern b. 1957 Li Xiuqi b. 1981 Li Yipeng b. 1982 Li Hongyi b. 1987 Li Haoyi b. 1989 Li Shengwu b. 1985 Li Huanwu b. 1986 Li Shaowu b. 1995

References

1. Koh, Fabian (24 June 2020). "GE2020: Lee Hsien Yang joins Tan Cheng Bock's Progress Singapore Party but mum on whether will contest July 10 election". The Straits Times. The Straits Times. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
2. "GE2020: Lee Hsien Yang joins Tan Cheng Bock's Progress Singapore Party". CNA. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
3. "新加坡李氏家族，学历最低的竟然是他！". shicheng.news (in Chinese). 30 April 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
4. "Lee Hsien Yang". INSEAD Leadership Summit Asia 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
5. "Swiss hotel desk clerk decreed Lee Kuan Yew to be Chinese". newnation. 27 November 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
6. "The Lee Family Tree: Profiles Of Every Lee Member Involved In The Dispute". MSNEWS. 16 June 2017. Archived from the original on 20 April 2020.
7. "SingTel CEO Lee Hsien Yang to call it quits". The Economic Times, The Times of India. 22 July 2006. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
8. "SingTel names its financial chief CEO". China Economic Net. 22 September 2006. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
9. "Fraser and Neave appoints Lee Hsien Yang as Non-Executive Director and Chairman-Designate" (PDF). Fraser and Neave. Retrieved 5 September 2007.
10. "Our Authority Members". Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
11. "Appointment of Authority Members for Restructured Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore". SG Press Centre. 29 June 2009. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
12. Chan, Dennis (26 February 2013). "Lee Hsien Yang, 7 other directors step down from Fraser & Neave board". The Straits Times. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
13. Raj, Conrad (4 September 2007). "Lee Hsien Yang tipped to be F&N chairman". AsiaOne News. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
14. "Appointment of Chairman of The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore". Ministry of Transport. 21 June 2018. Archived from the original on 20 April 2020.
15. Koh, Fabian (1 July 2020). "Singapore GE2020: Lee Hsien Yang says he chose not to stand for political office". The Straits Times. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
16. Basu, Radha (8 December 2009). "'I owe my life to education'". AsiaOne News. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
17. "Mrs Lee Suet Fern". Nanyang Technological University. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
18. "Three S'poreans come out tops at Oxford". AsiaOne. 18 August 2009.
19. Li, Shengwu (28 February 2020). "Shengwu Li CV" (PDF). Google Docs. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
20. Power, Shannon (23 July 2018). "Grandson of Singapore's founder Lee Kuan Yew comes out as gay". Gay Star News. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
21. "Lee Hsien Yang's 2nd son, Li Huanwu, marries boyfriend in South Africa". Mothership.sg. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
22. Holmes, Oliver (14 June 2017). "Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong denounced by siblings". the Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
23. Kotwani, Monica; Zhu, Melissa; See Kit, Tang (3 July 2017). "PAP MPs raise questions over Oxley Road dispute in Parliament debate". CNA. Archived from the original on 15 December 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
24. Abu Baker, Jalelah; Chia, Lianne (3 July 2017). "'An ugly media circus': Workers' Party urges settlement of Oxley Road dispute in court". CNA. Archived from the original on 11 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
25. "Kuan Yew's brother Dennis dies". Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
26. "Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore, and his family, 1989 – BookSG". National Library Board, Singapore. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
27. "Lee Kuan Yew bids farewell to brother". Archived from the original on 20 February 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
28. "The Lee Kuan Yew I remember: His sister Monica Lee, 85". Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
29. Lee Kuan Yew (1998). The Singapore Story. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish.