THE Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) will have a new chief, after existing director-general Yap Ong Heng, 55, retires from the Administrative Service.

The new director-general as of Aug 2, 2015, is Kevin Shum Jin-Chyi, 44. Mr Shum is currently deputy secretary (international) in the Ministry of Transport (MOT). Before that, he was director of Comcare and social support in the then-Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, and director of social programmes in the Ministry of Finance.

Mr Shum graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1995 with a degree in social sciences, and subsequently obtained a Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University in 1999.

MOT said that Mr Yap successfully led the restructuring of CAAS after the corporatisation of Changi Airport in 2009. This included "the significant task of rebuilding the corporate branding and organisational culture of CAAS to meet its new vision and mission", MOT said.

MOT said a key initiative Mr Yap took was the setting up of the S$100 million Aviation Development Fund in April 2010. The fund, to grow the aviation industry, was subsequently topped up in 2015 to S$160 million.

Mr Yap also conducted numerous air service agreement negotiations, played a key role in the Changi East development project and implementation of a three runway system, and spearheaded the development and operationalisation of CAAS' third-generation air traffic control system, MOT said.