Tan Ching Yee to chair Acra, among other board changes

PERMANENT secretary for finance, Tan Ching Yee, has been appointed the new chairman of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) board, effective April 1.

Mrs Tan succeeds Lim Soo Hoon, who has been chairman of the Acra board since 2012.

Ms Lim was the first female permanent secretary in Singapore's public service. Among her many accomplishments as Acra's chairman was a holistic review of the Companies Act with major amendments ;ade in 2014 to reduce the regulatory burden for companies and raise business flexibility. A second review she oversaw in 2017 saw the introduction of beneficial ownership requirements to improve corporate transparency.

Mrs Tan has served in various capacities in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts. She was appointed permanent secretary for finance, and permanent secretary of special duties in the Prime Minister's Office in May 2016.

Separately, the board will see four new faces while five existing members have been re-appointed.

The four new members are: Bruce Liang, CEO of Integrated Health Information Systems and chief information officer from the Ministry of Health; solicitor Kevin Wong; Muhammad Hidhir Bin Abdul Majid, principal district judge of the Family Justice Courts; and, Paul Lee, managing partner of RSM Singapore.

The five re-appointed board members include partner at Lee & Lee Advocates & Solicitors, Adrian Chan; managing director and chief operating officer of Asia Pacific at Deutsche Bank AG (Singapore), Chandra Mallika; managing partner at Ernst & Young (Asean and Singapore), Max Loh; chartered accountant Tham Sai Choy; as well as accountant-general, Ow Fook Chuen.

The Acra board comprises sixteen members including its chairman, and will start its new term on April 1.