SINGAPORE: Former GIC Chief Investment Officer Ng Kok Song collected eligibility application forms at the Elections Department (ELD) this morning at around 10:30 am, making his interest in running for President clear. The 75-year-old had recently expressed his consideration of running for the presidency, citing the issue’s national importance and personal implications.
Mr Ng retired from the sovereign wealth fund in 2013 after serving there for 27 years and is currently the executive chairman of Avanda Investment Management, an investment firm he co-founded with two former GIC colleagues in 2015.
In the past month, entrepreneur George Goh Ching Wah announced his intention to contest in the upcoming presidential election. Former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam also declared his bid on June 8 and subsequently resigned from the Government and People’s Action Party earlier this month, leaving his parliamentary seat vacant.
Interested candidates for the presidency have been able to collect application forms from the Elections Department or its website since June 13.
Mr Ng joined the public service in 1970 as an investment analyst with the Finance Ministry after graduating from the University of Singapore with a physics degree. He later joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore in 1971 and then GIC in 1986, becoming its first non-expatriate director. In 2007, Mr Ng became GIC’s first Group Chief Investment Officer until his retirement in 2013. He also founded and chaired the Singapore International Monetary Exchange in 1984.
Apart from his role at Avanda Investment Management, Mr Ng holds several other positions, including chairman emeritus and founder of the Wealth Management Institute at Nanyang Technological University.
He serves on PIMCO’s Global Advisory board alongside notable figures such as former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former US Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke.
According to documents obtained from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, Avanda has turned a profit in the last three financial years from 2020 to 2022, with an average shareholder equity of about $73 million.
Whether Mr Ng will qualify for the presidential race, however, remains uncertain as he may need to apply under the private or public sector deliberative track. Article 19(4)(a) of the Constitution requires the chief executive or most senior executive of a firm for at least three years, with the company having average shareholder equity of at least $500 million and making a profit after tax throughout.
It is unclear if Mr Ng qualifies as the most senior executive at Avanda, and as the company does not meet the $500 million shareholder equity requirement. Additionally, Mr Ng’s public service contributions do not align with the specified list of eligible roles for the presidency.
Mr Ng has received several accolades, including the Thomas L Hansberger Award for Leadership in the global investment profession from the CFA Institute in 2013. He was honoured by the French government with the Legion of Honour in 2003 and the Order of Merit in 2011. The Singapore Government awarded him the Meritorious Service Medal in 2012.
Outside of his professional endeavours, Mr Ng is known as an advocate of meditation. Reports have highlighted his role in teaching late Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew how to meditate in the late 2000s. Mr Ng adopted the meditation practice more than 30 years ago with his late wife Patricia, which proved beneficial during her battle with stomach cancer. Patricia passed away in 2005, leaving behind three children.
He is now engaged to Singaporean Sybil Lau, who manages her family’s wealth and serves as a board member of SG Enable, the focal agency for disability in Singapore. Ms Lau accompanied Mr Ng to collect his eligibility forms.