Sea, Grab founders join EDB board

THE founders of two Singapore-based tech companies have been named to the board of the Economic Development Board (EDB), in a leadership reshuffle announced on Friday.

Forrest Li, the chairman and chief executive of New York-listed Internet platform Sea, and Tan Hooi Ling, co-founder of Grab, are two of three new faces joining the EDB board from Feb 1.

They will join representatives of more traditional industries who have been reappointed to the 16-member board, such as ExxonMobil's regional chairman and managing director, Gan Seow Kee; General Electric's regional president and CEO for Asia-Pacific, Wouter Van Wersch; president of Procter & Gamble Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Magesvaran Suranjan; and president and CEO of SATS, Alex Hungate. 

Also reappointed to EDB's board was Patrick Tay, assistant secretary-general of NTUC.

Sea's Mr Li had earlier served on Singapore's 30-member Committee on the Future Economy, while Grab's Ms Tan is part of the National University of Singapore (NUS) board of trustees.

Otherwise, Liew Wei Li, Singapore's deputy director-general of education for schools and director of schools at the Ministry of Education, is the third new member of the EDB board, while Tan Gee Keow, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, finishes her term today.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Trade and Industry has also added two men to the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) board, effective Feb 1.

The new A*Star board members are Ravinder Singh, president of ST Engineering Electronics and a former army chief; and Arunjai Mittal, a former EDB board member who is now non-executive chairman of integrated circuit design startup Zero-Error Systems.

Josephine Kwa, director of Barghest Building Performance, as well as NUS president Tan Eng Chye and his Nanyang Technological University counterpart Subra Suresh, have also been re-appointed to A*Star's board.