Koh Boon Hwee

Mr Koh Boon Hwee chairs the NTU Board of Trustees. He is also the Chairman of Credence Partners Pte Ltd, Sunningdale Tech Ltd, Yeo Hiap Seng Ltd, Far East Orchard Ltd, AAC Technologies Holdings Inc, Rippledot Capital Advisers Pte Ltd and FEO Hospitality Asset Management Pte Ltd.

Since taking the Chairmanship of the NTU board 20 years ago, Mr Koh has overseen the university’s transformation from a practice-oriented teaching university to an internationally-recognised research university.

Mr Koh has a first class honours degree in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London and an MBA (Distinction) from Harvard Business School. He launched his career at Hewlett-Packard, rising to become its Managing Director in Singapore, and was the Executive Chairman of the Wuthelam Group for 10 years. During his 15-year term as the Chairman of the Singapore Telecom Group (SingTel) and its predecessor organisations, Mr Koh led the telecommunications company through a successful public listing and its subsequent growth into one of Asia’s leading integrated communication service providers.

As the Chairman of Singapore Airlines Ltd, Mr Koh steered Asia’s most successful national carrier through several trying periods including the September 11 incident in 2001 and record fuel price hikes in 2005. Despite these challenges, the airline remained profitable, generating record revenues in fiscal year 2005.

He subsequently joined DBS as a Director and became its Chairman. He stepped down from the Chairmanship in April 2010 after helping the bank post record revenues despite the financial crisis in 2008 to 2009.

Mr Koh currently serves on the board of Agilent Technologies, Inc and a non-profit, the Hewlett Foundation.