SIMC appoints QC Edwin Glasgow and SC George Lim as co-chairmen

THE Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) said on Monday that Queen's Counsel (QC) Edwin Glasgow and Senior Counsel (SC) George Lim have been appointed co-chairmen of SIMC, with effect from Jan 1, 2016.

Mr Glasgow and Mr Lim previously held the positions of chairman and deputy chairman of SIMC respectively.

They had co-chaired the International Commercial Mediation Working Group whose recommendations to the Singapore government in November 2013 included the establishment of SIMC as an international mediation service provider.

From Jan 1, members of the SIMC board of directors are: Edwin Glasgow, QC, 39 Essex Chambers; George Lim, SC, Wee Tay & Lim; Professor Lawrence Boo, The Arbitration Chambers; Chow Kok Fong, Equitas Corporation Pte Ltd; Han Kok Juan, Ministry of Law; Bonnie Hobbs, Accenture; Lok Vi Ming, SC, Rodyk & Davidson; John Pyall, Munich Re; Viswa Sadasivan, Strategic Moves; and Lucien Wong, Allen & Gledhill.

Mr Sadasivan, CEO of Strategic Moves, and Ms Hobbs, managing director and associate general counsel at Accenture, had joined the board last April, while Mr Han, deputy secretary of the Ministry of Law, joined the board last November.

Poon Hong Yuen, former deputy secretary of the Ministry of Law and now chief executive of Spring Singapore, has stepped down from the board.

SIMC, which began operations in November 2014, said as at Jan 15 this year that it had received seven cases with dispute amounts ranging from S$5 million to more than S$600 million.

The cases included disputes in the sectors of construction, oil and gas, shipping, aviation and the sale/supply of goods and services, spanning across companies from Singapore, Cayman Islands, Germany, India, South Korea and the United States, among others.

Of the seven cases, SIMC said three were Arb-Med-Arb cases jointly administered with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre. Arb-Med-Arb is a process that combines arbitration and mediation.