George Yeo is a former politician and Brigadier-General who is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore. He served for 23 years in the Singapore Government. He graduated from Christ’s and has been an Honorary Fellow of the College since 2009.

He came up to Christ’s in 1973 to study Engineering. After graduating in 1976 he served in the Singapore Armed Forces as a Signals Officer, then in 1979 he attended the Singapore Command and Staff College, graduating top of his class, before transferring to the Air Force, where he later became Head of the Air Plans Department.

George went to Harvard Business School in 1983 and after graduating with an MBA he returned to Singapore in 1985 and was appointed Chief-of-Staff of Air Staff, then in 1986 became Director of Joint Operations and Planning in the Ministry of Defence. He resigned from the SAF in 1988 with the rank of Brigadier-General, to enter politics. He became a Member of Parliament for the governing People’s Action Party (PAP) and from 1988 to 2011 served in various roles, including as Minister for Information and the Arts, Health, Trade & Industry, and Foreign Affairs. He was also Chairman of the Young PAP and represented the Eurasian community in the Cabinet.

George is the Founding Patron of the Asia Competitiveness Institute at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore, having facilitated the establishment of the Institute in 2006 as a research centre aiming to build intellectual leadership and network for understanding and developing competitiveness and sustainable growth in Asia. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the School since 2011. From 2012 to 2021 he was with Kerry Group in Hong Kong, including as Chairman and Executive Director of Kerry Logistics Network from 2012 to 2019. He was a member of the Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See in 2013-2014 and the Vatican Council for the Economy from February 2014 to July 2020. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of several institutions, is an advisor to a number of organisations and independent non-executive director of various companies. He is also Distinguished Nonresident Fellow of the Contemporary China and the World at the University of Hong Kong.

 

Credit: U.S. State Department / photography by Michael Gross