Philip Yeo
Encyclopedia
Philip Yeo Liat Kok is the Chairman of both SPRING Singapore and Singbridge International Investments(SBII). He was formerly the Special Adviser for Economic Development in the Prime Minister's Office
from April 2007 to August 2011. Until 2007, he was the chairman of A*STAR, a government agency in Singapore
focused on conducting scientific research. Yeo was also the first chairman of the National Computer Board - which he formed - as well as chairman of the Economic Development Board from January 1986 to January 2001. In the private sector Yeo has chaired numerous company boards, including: Singapore Technologies Holdings, Sembawang Corporation , and CapitaLand
. Yeo is currently the Chairman of a-iTrust(Ascendas India Trust - Asia's first listed India property trust) and Accuron Technologies. In addition, he is a non-executive director on the Board of Directors of City Developments Limited, Bumi plc, and UOB Bank
. He is married and has a son and a daughter.
under a Colombo Plan
scholarship. He obtained a Master of Science (Systems Engineering) from the University of Singapore in 1974. In 1976, he obtained a Master in Business Administration from Harvard University
under a Fulbright scholarship.
Yeo has been conferred honorary PhDs from University of Toronto
, Karolinska Institutet
in Sweden, National University of Singapore
, Monash University
and Imperial College London
for his work in Economic Development in Singapore and Asia. Like George Yeo
, Teo Chee Hean
, Dr. Tony Tan Keng Yam, and many others, Yeo was also a student from St. Joseph's Institution.
, including Permanent Secretary
for logistics, technology research & development and defence industries at age 33. He left MINDEF to assume the appointment of Chairman, Economic Development Board
in January 1986.
During his EDB chairmanship, Yeo redirected EDB's focus from the traditional fields to new areas of business. These included: Internationally exportable services; developing high-tech industries like biomedical science,
semiconductors, aerospace
and specialty chemicals; nurturing local small and medium-sized enterprises and encouraging Singapore companies to make direct investments abroad. Yeo pioneered Singapore's participation in overseas infrastructure development projects such as those in the Bintan Industrial Estate and the Wuxi-Singapore Industrial Park in China.
During this time, Philip Yeo also served as the first Chairman of the National Computer Board (now Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
from 1980 to 1987. He played a leading role in formulating and championing Singapore's first national computerisation plan to evolve the nation into the information age
.
Yeo was Board Member (from 1980) and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Singapore Technologies Holdings from 1987 to 1993. He also served as Chairman of Sembawang Corporation (1994–1998) and the successor SembCorp Industries (1998–1999), Pidemco Land (1999–2000) and CapitaLand
(2000-2003)formed from Pidemco after a merger in 2000.
Yeo was the Chairman of A*STAR from 2000 to 2007. As Chairman of A*STAR he was credited with developing Singapore to become a leading centre for biomedical research and development in Asia within fields such as the biological mechanisms of infection, functional genomics, and stem cell research. To that end he recruited, amongst many others, accomplished researchers like Edison Liu
, Nancy Jenkins, Neal Copeland, and David P. Lane
to work on biomedical research in Singapore's biomedical hub Biopolis
.
Yeo stepped down as Chairman of A*STAR and become chairman of the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board (Spring Singapore) on 1 April 2007. He was also appointed senior adviser on science and technology to the Minister for Trade and Industry.
In his role as Advisor for Economic Development in the Prime Minister’s Office from April 2007 to August 2011, Yeo assisted in expanding Singapore's economic space through forging new economic links and providing strategic inputs in Singapore government partnerships with foreign governments who value Singapore's development expertise, including countries in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America as well as those in Russia.
Yeo continues to be active on Boards of global companies. He is currently a non-executive director on the Board of Directors of City Developments Limited, Bumi plc, and UOB Bank
.
in 1974, the Public Administration Medal (Gold)
in 1982 and the Meritorious Service Medal
in 1991. In 1987, he was awarded the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, USA for the period March to May 1987.
In 1994, the Indonesian Government conferred on Yeo its highest civilian honour, the Bintang Jasa Utama (the First Class Order of Service Award) in recognition of his role in fostering good bilateral ties between Indonesia and Singapore. In 1996, Yeo was conferred the Ordre National du Mérite
(National Order of Merit) for his contribution and leadership in enhancing ties between Singapore and France.
In June 1997, Yeo was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering by his alma mater, the University of Toronto in recognition of an illustrious alumnus.
In February 1998, Mr. Yeo was honoured by the Belgium Government with the Commander of the Belgium National Order of the Crown
for his personal merits in promoting the cooperation between Belgian and Singapore industries.
In November 1998, the international Society of Design and Process Science honoured Yeo with the K T Li Award for contributing significantly to economic and societal development. He was recognized for his contribution to Singapore's economic development and for his pioneering role in the development of Singapore's IT industry.
Mr Yeo was awarded the CEO Lifetime Achievement Award, Asia Pacific IPA Awards in 2003.
In May 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of medicine by the Board of Research at Karolinska Institutet. The award was given for Yeo's efforts in building medical research and education in Singapore, in collaboration with leading universities throughout the world, including Karolinska Institutet. He was also cited for helping to catalyze collaborative agreements between Karolinska Institutet and A* STAR, and between Karolinska Institutet and the National University of Singapore. These agreements led to significant exchanges of researchers and students between Singapore and Sweden.
In the same month, Yeo was awarded the Nikkei Prize for Science and Technology "in honor of his strong leadership in drafting and implementing Singapore's science and technology strategy, particularly in biomedical sciences."
On 9 August 2006, he was awarded the Order of Nila Utama (First Class)
, one of Singapore's most prestigious National Day Awards.
In September 2006, he was the first Singaporean to receive Harvard Business School's Alumni Achievement Award. Harvard credits him with moving Singapore's economy into manufacturing sectors like televisions, disk drives, petrochemicals, and most recently the biomedical sciences.
In November 2007, Yeo was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Science by Imperial College of UK for his focus on building up Science and Technology in Singapore.
In December 2007, the Japanese government conferred the Order Of The Rising Sun, Gold And Silver Star
, which represents the second highest of eight classes associated with the award. Yeo is among eight Singaporeans, including Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who have received this conferment since 1967.
In April 2008, Yeo was awarded the Distinguished Service (Star) award by the National Trade Unions Congress in Singapore. The award is the Singapore Union's highest honor for a non-unionist. Yeo was conferred the award for his contributions to the transformation of Singapore and direct efforts of job creation.
In November 2008, Yeo was awarded the University of Toronto Engineering Alumni Medal 2008.
In March 2009, Yeo was awarded BioSpectrum’s first Asia Pacific Life Time Achievement Award for the role he played in Singapore’s rise as a hub for the life sciences industry and for setting up the Biopolis and Fusionopolis technology complexes.
When Yeo joined the EDB in 1986, EDB had a few MNCs who had donated annual scholarships: Sundstrand-EDB Scholarship(1982); Minebea (1985).
Some of the key scholarship programs that Yeo set up at EDB include: Seiko Epson (1987–1988), Yokogawa Electric (1988), Shimano (1993), Daicel Chemicals (1994) and Siemens (1995); Mobil (now ExxonMobil) (1997), Singapore Inc (SIS) (1997) and Promising Local Enterprise Scholarship (1996).
In 1989, Sir Paul Girolami, then Chairman of Glaxo, asked Yeo what Glaxo could do to demonstrate its appreciation to Singapore. Yeo immediately suggested a scholarship program. Shortly after that meeting, Glaxo sent S$50 million in two cash cheques to the EDB resulting in the creation of the Glaxo-EDB scholarship program. Since its launch in1990, the Glaxo-EDB scholarship has trained over 300 BS/MSc scholars.
When Yeo arrived at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in 2001, he found that fewer than 20% of PhD holders in A*STAR's institutes were Singaporean, and few among them were young scientists. Yeo immediately set up his boldest scholarship yet by setting up the A*STAR Graduate Academy to implement the plan to train up 1,000 PhD scholars that would eventually return to Singapore and undertake research in fields like information technology, engineering, molecular biology, biochemistry and medicine. One of the hallmarks of Yeo's personal style is the amount of personal attention he gives to his scholars. He takes great pains to remember personal details about their background and also closely tracks their academic performance. He regularly meets with them to buy them meals whenever he is near their overseas universities on his regular business trips abroad.
Philip Yeo has been embroiled in controversy regarding government scholarships and the associated bonds, duties, and obligations from time to time.
In 1998, as Chairman of EDB, he decided to name publicly the holders of government scholarships who broke their bonds in order to shame them. This created a controversy generating public debates on whether those who received scholarship have a moral obligation to serve, or whether the scholarship is merely a contractual agreement which could be broken in return for the stated penalties. The debate culminated when MP Chng Hee Kok questioned Yeo's decision. Yeo responded by calling for Chng to resign his seat in Parliament because of his view.
This led to even more unhappiness at the audacity of a civil servant talking down to an elected Member of Parliament. Then Deputy Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong
had to intervene in what was seen as a face-saving rebuke for both - that Philip Yeo was wrong to tell Chng Hee Kok to resign, but Chng had also been wrong in arguing that it was acceptable for scholars to break their bonds because they were merely legal contracts.
In May 2005, the controversy of A*STAR bond-breakers was revived when The New Paper
published an article about him writing in his book that men in Singapore were wimps, whiny, and immature even though they have served the National Service
(NS). The reason Yeo gave was that all bond-breakers since early 90s were Singapore men. The anger was further fuelled when a female A*STAR scholar, Chng Zhenzhi, backed his statements and openly declared that Singapore men were fine until "(once) they enter NS, they complain a lot." Philip Yeo served in the part-time NS Special Constabulary (SC) from 1976/78 with the rank of Inspector.
In the same month, Chen Jiahao, a Singaporean Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
was threatened with legal action for accusing A*Star and Philip Yeo of "bribing universities for taking in PhD students" under the moniker AcidFlask on his blog caustic.soda. Jiahao went on to accuse A*Star of "giving out gobs of honey to universities who will sign back-door agreements for taking in scholars without going through the formal application procedure.” Philip Yeo and A*Star responded with threat of legal action, stating that the statements made in AcidFlask’s blog would have been understood to mean that A*Star had acted corruptly in its dealings with universities. The statements also cast serious aspersions on A*Star's scholars to the effect that they were not admitted to their universities on merit but only because their universities were bribed by A*Star to do so. A*Star demanded a public apology from Chen and that the offending and defamatory postings in AcidFlask's 3 March 2005 blog be deleted. Chen chose to shut down his entire blog-site. All posts were removed voluntarily, and replaced with an unreserved apology to "A*STAR, its Chairman Mr. Philip Yeo, and its executive officers for the distress and embarrassment" caused. The incidents upset several members of the local blogging community for his statements. In February 2007, Yeo, in the comments of another blog, revealed the exact posts that were considered defamatory.
In 2006, Philip Yeo began to face criticism for his Biotech strategy. As billions in taxpayers' money had been spent to develop the Biomedical Industry in Singapore. Philip Yeo countered his critics by pointing out that Biomedical manufacturing output had quadrupled from S$6 billion in 2000 to S$23 billion in the 5 years that the country had been investing in the sector. In that short period, the Biomedical industry grew to account for over 5% of Singapore’s GDP and 10,600 high value added jobs. In addition, Yeo also pointed out that during the 5 years of investment, more than 25 companies started research centres in Singapore, including three corporate R&D laboratories run by Eli Lilly and Company
, GlaxoSmithKline
and Novartis
.
In late 2006, Dr. Lee Wei Ling, head of National Neuroscience Institute
, publicly questioned the policy of Philip Yeo and A*Star, asserting that they were wrong by putting public money on competing with western countries on cutting-edge research. She said that Singapore should instead focus on niche areas in Biotech research.
Yeo's work in developing the biomedical industry has received praises by some analysts including Nature
correspondent David Cyranoski who wrote that "Singapore's impressive advances in biomedicine are driven by the energetic personality of Philip Yeo." In response to his daughter's comments, Lee Kuan Yew
has stated the following: "This issue has been deliberated over a period of several months in Cabinet and decided by PM Goh and cabinet. The policy has been continued by PM Lee and his cabinet. We have made significant investments in time and resources. We have to get the most out of what we have put in."
Prime Minister's Office (Singapore)
The Prime Minister's Office is a ministry of the Government of Singapore that handles the ministries and other political matters that are of great importance to the nation, such as corruption and elections. It is headed by the Prime Minister and his top political staff...
from April 2007 to August 2011. Until 2007, he was the chairman of A*STAR, a government agency in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
focused on conducting scientific research. Yeo was also the first chairman of the National Computer Board - which he formed - as well as chairman of the Economic Development Board from January 1986 to January 2001. In the private sector Yeo has chaired numerous company boards, including: Singapore Technologies Holdings, Sembawang Corporation , and CapitaLand
CapitaLand
CapitaLand Limited is the result of a merger in the year 2000 of then DBS Land and Pidemco Land. It is one of Asia's largest real estate companies. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, the company's core businesses are real estate development, hospitality and real estate financial services...
. Yeo is currently the Chairman of a-iTrust(Ascendas India Trust - Asia's first listed India property trust) and Accuron Technologies. In addition, he is a non-executive director on the Board of Directors of City Developments Limited, Bumi plc, and UOB Bank
United Overseas Bank
United Overseas Bank Limited , abbreviated as UOB is a bank incorporated in Singapore. It was founded 6 August 1935 by Kuching-born Datuk Wee Kheng Chiang, father of the present United Overseas Bank Group Chairman, Mr...
. He is married and has a son and a daughter.
Education
Yeo graduated in 1970 in Applied Science (Industrial Engineering) from the University of TorontoUniversity of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
under a Colombo Plan
Colombo Plan
The Colombo Plan is a regional organization that embodies the concept of collective inter-governmental effort to strengthen economic and social development of member countries in the Asia-Pacific Region...
scholarship. He obtained a Master of Science (Systems Engineering) from the University of Singapore in 1974. In 1976, he obtained a Master in Business Administration from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
under a Fulbright scholarship.
Yeo has been conferred honorary PhDs from University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, Karolinska Institutet
Karolinska Institutet
Karolinska institutet is a medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area, Sweden, and one of Europe's largest medical universities...
in Sweden, National University of Singapore
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore is Singapore's oldest university. It is the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curriculum offered....
, Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
and Imperial College London
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
for his work in Economic Development in Singapore and Asia. Like George Yeo
George Yeo
George Yeo Yong-Boon is a former politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party , he served in the Cabinet from 1991 to 2011 as the Minister for Information and the Arts , Minister for Health , Minister for Trade and Industry and Minister for Foreign Affairs...
, Teo Chee Hean
Teo Chee Hean
Teo Chee Hean is a politician from Singapore. A member of the governing People's Action Party , he is currently the country's Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Home Affairs and Co-ordinating Minister for National Security, and a Member of Parliament for the Pasir Ris-Punggol Group...
, Dr. Tony Tan Keng Yam, and many others, Yeo was also a student from St. Joseph's Institution.
Career
Philip Yeo served in the Administrative Service from June 1970 to 31 March 1999. He served in various appointments in the Ministry of DefenceMinistry of Defence (Singapore)
The Ministry of Defence is a ministry of the Government of Singapore entrusted with overseeing the national defence needs of the Republic of Singapore. It is the headquarters of the Singapore Armed Forces...
, including Permanent Secretary
Permanent Secretary
The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...
for logistics, technology research & development and defence industries at age 33. He left MINDEF to assume the appointment of Chairman, Economic Development Board
Economic Development Board
-Overview:The Economic Development Board is a statutory board of the Government of Singapore that plans and executes strategies to sustain Singapore as a leading global hub for business and investment....
in January 1986.
During his EDB chairmanship, Yeo redirected EDB's focus from the traditional fields to new areas of business. These included: Internationally exportable services; developing high-tech industries like biomedical science,
semiconductors, aerospace
Aerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
and specialty chemicals; nurturing local small and medium-sized enterprises and encouraging Singapore companies to make direct investments abroad. Yeo pioneered Singapore's participation in overseas infrastructure development projects such as those in the Bintan Industrial Estate and the Wuxi-Singapore Industrial Park in China.
During this time, Philip Yeo also served as the first Chairman of the National Computer Board (now Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore
The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore is a statutory board of the Singapore Government, under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts .-History:...
from 1980 to 1987. He played a leading role in formulating and championing Singapore's first national computerisation plan to evolve the nation into the information age
Information Age
The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...
.
Yeo was Board Member (from 1980) and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Singapore Technologies Holdings from 1987 to 1993. He also served as Chairman of Sembawang Corporation (1994–1998) and the successor SembCorp Industries (1998–1999), Pidemco Land (1999–2000) and CapitaLand
CapitaLand
CapitaLand Limited is the result of a merger in the year 2000 of then DBS Land and Pidemco Land. It is one of Asia's largest real estate companies. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, the company's core businesses are real estate development, hospitality and real estate financial services...
(2000-2003)formed from Pidemco after a merger in 2000.
Yeo was the Chairman of A*STAR from 2000 to 2007. As Chairman of A*STAR he was credited with developing Singapore to become a leading centre for biomedical research and development in Asia within fields such as the biological mechanisms of infection, functional genomics, and stem cell research. To that end he recruited, amongst many others, accomplished researchers like Edison Liu
Edison Liu
Edison Liu is the current president of Human Genome Organization, HUGO-Education:1983-1987Postdoctoral Fellow - Dept. of Microbiology, University of California at San Francisco, CA Edison Liu is the current president of Human Genome Organization, HUGO-Education:1983-1987Postdoctoral Fellow - Dept....
, Nancy Jenkins, Neal Copeland, and David P. Lane
David P. Lane
Sir David Philip Lane FRS, FRSE FRCPath is a British oncologist. He is best known for his work on the p53 tumour suppressor protein. Besides his position at the University of Dundee, he also founded the Cyclacel biotechnology company and is the Chief Scientist of Cancer Research UK.He was made a...
to work on biomedical research in Singapore's biomedical hub Biopolis
Biopolis
Biopolis is an international research and development centre located in Singapore for biomedical sciences. It is located in One-North in Buona Vista, near Dover, and is close to the National University of Singapore, the Singapore Polytechnic, the Institute of Technical Education, the National...
.
Yeo stepped down as Chairman of A*STAR and become chairman of the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board (Spring Singapore) on 1 April 2007. He was also appointed senior adviser on science and technology to the Minister for Trade and Industry.
In his role as Advisor for Economic Development in the Prime Minister’s Office from April 2007 to August 2011, Yeo assisted in expanding Singapore's economic space through forging new economic links and providing strategic inputs in Singapore government partnerships with foreign governments who value Singapore's development expertise, including countries in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America as well as those in Russia.
Yeo continues to be active on Boards of global companies. He is currently a non-executive director on the Board of Directors of City Developments Limited, Bumi plc, and UOB Bank
United Overseas Bank
United Overseas Bank Limited , abbreviated as UOB is a bank incorporated in Singapore. It was founded 6 August 1935 by Kuching-born Datuk Wee Kheng Chiang, father of the present United Overseas Bank Group Chairman, Mr...
.
Public service and awards
For his public service, Yeo was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver)Pingat Pentadbiran Awam
The Pingat Pentadbiran Awam was instituted in Singapore in 1963 and has three grades:* Emas * Perak * Gangsa...
in 1974, the Public Administration Medal (Gold)
Pingat Pentadbiran Awam
The Pingat Pentadbiran Awam was instituted in Singapore in 1963 and has three grades:* Emas * Perak * Gangsa...
in 1982 and the Meritorious Service Medal
Pingat Jasa Gemilang
The Pingat Jasa Gemilang , instituted in Singapore in 1962. The Medal may be awarded to any person who has performed service of conspicuous merit characterised by resource and devotion to duty, including long service marked by exceptional ability, merit and exemplary conduct within Singapore...
in 1991. In 1987, he was awarded the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship, USA for the period March to May 1987.
In 1994, the Indonesian Government conferred on Yeo its highest civilian honour, the Bintang Jasa Utama (the First Class Order of Service Award) in recognition of his role in fostering good bilateral ties between Indonesia and Singapore. In 1996, Yeo was conferred the Ordre National du Mérite
Ordre National du Mérite
The Ordre national du Mérite is an Order of State awarded by the President of the French Republic. It was founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle...
(National Order of Merit) for his contribution and leadership in enhancing ties between Singapore and France.
In June 1997, Yeo was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering by his alma mater, the University of Toronto in recognition of an illustrious alumnus.
In February 1998, Mr. Yeo was honoured by the Belgium Government with the Commander of the Belgium National Order of the Crown
Order of the Crown (Belgium)
The Order of the Crown is an Order of Belgium which was created on 15 October 1897 by King Leopold II in his capacity as ruler of the Congo Free State. The order was first intended to recognize heroic deeds and distinguished service achieved from service in the Congo Free State - many of which acts...
for his personal merits in promoting the cooperation between Belgian and Singapore industries.
In November 1998, the international Society of Design and Process Science honoured Yeo with the K T Li Award for contributing significantly to economic and societal development. He was recognized for his contribution to Singapore's economic development and for his pioneering role in the development of Singapore's IT industry.
Mr Yeo was awarded the CEO Lifetime Achievement Award, Asia Pacific IPA Awards in 2003.
In May 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of medicine by the Board of Research at Karolinska Institutet. The award was given for Yeo's efforts in building medical research and education in Singapore, in collaboration with leading universities throughout the world, including Karolinska Institutet. He was also cited for helping to catalyze collaborative agreements between Karolinska Institutet and A* STAR, and between Karolinska Institutet and the National University of Singapore. These agreements led to significant exchanges of researchers and students between Singapore and Sweden.
In the same month, Yeo was awarded the Nikkei Prize for Science and Technology "in honor of his strong leadership in drafting and implementing Singapore's science and technology strategy, particularly in biomedical sciences."
On 9 August 2006, he was awarded the Order of Nila Utama (First Class)
Darjah Utama Nila Utama
The Darjah Utama Nila Utama is Singapore's third most important national honour and was instituted in 1975.There are 3 grades of the Order of Nila Utama:*the First Class, consisting of the Badge and the Star of the Order...
, one of Singapore's most prestigious National Day Awards.
In September 2006, he was the first Singaporean to receive Harvard Business School's Alumni Achievement Award. Harvard credits him with moving Singapore's economy into manufacturing sectors like televisions, disk drives, petrochemicals, and most recently the biomedical sciences.
In November 2007, Yeo was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Science by Imperial College of UK for his focus on building up Science and Technology in Singapore.
In December 2007, the Japanese government conferred the Order Of The Rising Sun, Gold And Silver Star
Order of the Rising Sun
The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun...
, which represents the second highest of eight classes associated with the award. Yeo is among eight Singaporeans, including Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who have received this conferment since 1967.
In April 2008, Yeo was awarded the Distinguished Service (Star) award by the National Trade Unions Congress in Singapore. The award is the Singapore Union's highest honor for a non-unionist. Yeo was conferred the award for his contributions to the transformation of Singapore and direct efforts of job creation.
In November 2008, Yeo was awarded the University of Toronto Engineering Alumni Medal 2008.
In March 2009, Yeo was awarded BioSpectrum’s first Asia Pacific Life Time Achievement Award for the role he played in Singapore’s rise as a hub for the life sciences industry and for setting up the Biopolis and Fusionopolis technology complexes.
Scholarships
One of the hallmarks of Philip Yeo has been his passion in developing people. In the course of his career he has sent thousands of Singaporeans to top universities around the world on government funded scholarships. In return for government funding to complete their studies in university, these scholars make a commitment to return and serve the Singapore government for a period of six years.When Yeo joined the EDB in 1986, EDB had a few MNCs who had donated annual scholarships: Sundstrand-EDB Scholarship(1982); Minebea (1985).
Some of the key scholarship programs that Yeo set up at EDB include: Seiko Epson (1987–1988), Yokogawa Electric (1988), Shimano (1993), Daicel Chemicals (1994) and Siemens (1995); Mobil (now ExxonMobil) (1997), Singapore Inc (SIS) (1997) and Promising Local Enterprise Scholarship (1996).
In 1989, Sir Paul Girolami, then Chairman of Glaxo, asked Yeo what Glaxo could do to demonstrate its appreciation to Singapore. Yeo immediately suggested a scholarship program. Shortly after that meeting, Glaxo sent S$50 million in two cash cheques to the EDB resulting in the creation of the Glaxo-EDB scholarship program. Since its launch in1990, the Glaxo-EDB scholarship has trained over 300 BS/MSc scholars.
When Yeo arrived at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in 2001, he found that fewer than 20% of PhD holders in A*STAR's institutes were Singaporean, and few among them were young scientists. Yeo immediately set up his boldest scholarship yet by setting up the A*STAR Graduate Academy to implement the plan to train up 1,000 PhD scholars that would eventually return to Singapore and undertake research in fields like information technology, engineering, molecular biology, biochemistry and medicine. One of the hallmarks of Yeo's personal style is the amount of personal attention he gives to his scholars. He takes great pains to remember personal details about their background and also closely tracks their academic performance. He regularly meets with them to buy them meals whenever he is near their overseas universities on his regular business trips abroad.
Controversy
- See also : Censorship in SingaporeCensorship in SingaporeCensorship in Singapore mainly targets sexual, political, racial and religious issues, as defined by out-of-bounds markers.-Implementation:The Media Development Authority approves publications, issues arts entertainment licences and enforces the Free-to-air TV Programme Code, Cable TV Programme...
Philip Yeo has been embroiled in controversy regarding government scholarships and the associated bonds, duties, and obligations from time to time.
In 1998, as Chairman of EDB, he decided to name publicly the holders of government scholarships who broke their bonds in order to shame them. This created a controversy generating public debates on whether those who received scholarship have a moral obligation to serve, or whether the scholarship is merely a contractual agreement which could be broken in return for the stated penalties. The debate culminated when MP Chng Hee Kok questioned Yeo's decision. Yeo responded by calling for Chng to resign his seat in Parliament because of his view.
This led to even more unhappiness at the audacity of a civil servant talking down to an elected Member of Parliament. Then Deputy Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong
Lee Hsien Loong
Lee Hsien Loong is the third and current Prime Minister of Singapore. He is married to Ho Ching, who is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Holdings. He is the eldest son of Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew....
had to intervene in what was seen as a face-saving rebuke for both - that Philip Yeo was wrong to tell Chng Hee Kok to resign, but Chng had also been wrong in arguing that it was acceptable for scholars to break their bonds because they were merely legal contracts.
In May 2005, the controversy of A*STAR bond-breakers was revived when The New Paper
The New Paper
The New Paper is Singapore's second-highest circulating paid English-language newspaper, first launched on July 26, 1988, by Singapore Press Holdings . According to SPH, its average daily circulation for August 2010 was 101600....
published an article about him writing in his book that men in Singapore were wimps, whiny, and immature even though they have served the National Service
National Service in Singapore
Conscription in Singapore, called National Service , requires all male Singaporean citizens and second-generation permanent residents who have reached the age of 18 to enrol in the military...
(NS). The reason Yeo gave was that all bond-breakers since early 90s were Singapore men. The anger was further fuelled when a female A*STAR scholar, Chng Zhenzhi, backed his statements and openly declared that Singapore men were fine until "(once) they enter NS, they complain a lot." Philip Yeo served in the part-time NS Special Constabulary (SC) from 1976/78 with the rank of Inspector.
In the same month, Chen Jiahao, a Singaporean Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
was threatened with legal action for accusing A*Star and Philip Yeo of "bribing universities for taking in PhD students" under the moniker AcidFlask on his blog caustic.soda. Jiahao went on to accuse A*Star of "giving out gobs of honey to universities who will sign back-door agreements for taking in scholars without going through the formal application procedure.” Philip Yeo and A*Star responded with threat of legal action, stating that the statements made in AcidFlask’s blog would have been understood to mean that A*Star had acted corruptly in its dealings with universities. The statements also cast serious aspersions on A*Star's scholars to the effect that they were not admitted to their universities on merit but only because their universities were bribed by A*Star to do so. A*Star demanded a public apology from Chen and that the offending and defamatory postings in AcidFlask's 3 March 2005 blog be deleted. Chen chose to shut down his entire blog-site. All posts were removed voluntarily, and replaced with an unreserved apology to "A*STAR, its Chairman Mr. Philip Yeo, and its executive officers for the distress and embarrassment" caused. The incidents upset several members of the local blogging community for his statements. In February 2007, Yeo, in the comments of another blog, revealed the exact posts that were considered defamatory.
In 2006, Philip Yeo began to face criticism for his Biotech strategy. As billions in taxpayers' money had been spent to develop the Biomedical Industry in Singapore. Philip Yeo countered his critics by pointing out that Biomedical manufacturing output had quadrupled from S$6 billion in 2000 to S$23 billion in the 5 years that the country had been investing in the sector. In that short period, the Biomedical industry grew to account for over 5% of Singapore’s GDP and 10,600 high value added jobs. In addition, Yeo also pointed out that during the 5 years of investment, more than 25 companies started research centres in Singapore, including three corporate R&D laboratories run by Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
, GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...
and Novartis
Novartis
Novartis International AG is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, ranking number three in sales among the world-wide industry...
.
In late 2006, Dr. Lee Wei Ling, head of National Neuroscience Institute
National Neuroscience Institute
The National Neuroscience Institute is a medical institute located in Singapore specialising in the neurosciences. It is a national referral centre. There are over 20 subspecialties that are served.-History:...
, publicly questioned the policy of Philip Yeo and A*Star, asserting that they were wrong by putting public money on competing with western countries on cutting-edge research. She said that Singapore should instead focus on niche areas in Biotech research.
Yeo's work in developing the biomedical industry has received praises by some analysts including Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
correspondent David Cyranoski who wrote that "Singapore's impressive advances in biomedicine are driven by the energetic personality of Philip Yeo." In response to his daughter's comments, Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades...
has stated the following: "This issue has been deliberated over a period of several months in Cabinet and decided by PM Goh and cabinet. The policy has been continued by PM Lee and his cabinet. We have made significant investments in time and resources. We have to get the most out of what we have put in."