(January 4, 2013) — Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund will soon have a new chief investment officer, effective February 1, 2013.
Lim Chow Kiat will succeed Ng Kok Song as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation’s (GIC) Group Chief Investment Officer (GCIO). In October, Ng was profiled in aiCIO‘s Power 100 list–a list of the most influential and powerful asset owners on earth.
Lim, 42, is currently the Deputy GCIO, after having joined the firm in 1993.
Ng, 64, will be retiring after 42 years in the management of Singapore’s foreign reserves, a release by the GIC said. He started his career as an investment analyst in the Ministry of Finance in 1970. He moved to the Monetary Authority of Singapore when it was formed in 1971 and took over the function of managing Singapore’s reserves. In 1986, five years after GIC was formed, he joined GIC as the first non-expatriate director, and headed the equities and bond department. “Later as Deputy Managing Director and then Managing Director (Public Markets), Mr Ng played a critical role in managing GIC’s investments in public markets and vastly expanding GIC’s investment capability. He was appointed GIC’s first GCIO in 2007, where he integrated GIC’s investment strategy at the total portfolio level across the public and private markets,” the GIC stated.
“Mr Ng Kok Song’s contributions are numerous and extensive. He was key to many important decisions that have established GIC’s reputation as one of the largest and most well-regarded global, long-term investors,” the sovereign wealth fund’s Group President Lim Siong Guan said in a statement.
Ng will be advisor to GIC in the role of chair of Global Investments. He will be a member of GIC’s International Advisory Board, and an advisor to the Investment Strategies Committee and the Group Executive Committee. He will also continue as a Director on the Boards of GIC Asset Management (GAM), GIC Real Estate, and GIC Special Investments.