Who is SMRT’s incoming chief Neo Kian Hong?

SINGAPORE — Former chief of defence force (CDF) Neo Kian Hong, who is currently permanent secretary for defence development, will helm SMRT as group chief executive officer from Aug 1.

The 54-year-old will take over from Mr Desmond Kuek, who is stepping down from his post after nearly six years, the embattled rail operator announced on Wednesday (April 18).

A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) overseas scholar, Mr Neo enlisted in the SAF in 1983, and spent three decades scaling the military ladder.

The electrical and electronic engineering graduate from King’s College London held various leadership posts throughout his years in the military, including chief of Army, commander of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, and commander of the 9th Singapore Division.

He was pivotal to the SAF’s modernisation efforts that included equipping soldiers with handheld gadgets and laptops to facilitate training.

He reached the pinnacle of his military career when he succeeded Mr Kuek as the seventh CDF in March 2010 — a post he held for three years until he retired in March 2013.

Known for his deep strategic thinking and clear operational directions, some of the military missions that went smoothly under Mr Neo’s watch were the SAF’s deployments to Afghanistan and the Gulf of Aden.

During his military service, Mr Neo also led several large-scale efforts and crisis management operations.

He was the SAF’s contingent commander for the International Force for East Timor in 1999, and helped set in motion the national contact and tracing system during the 2003 Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak. At the height of the outbreak in 2003, he was the Health Ministry’s director of operations.

After hanging up his uniform, Mr Neo, who holds a master’s degree in the management of technology from the United States’ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined the elite Administrative Service.

He was named permanent secretary for education development at the Education Ministry in 2013.

In June last year, the graduate of Harvard Business School’s advanced management programme became the Defence Ministry’s permanent secretary for defence development.

Mr Neo also chairs the DSO National Laboratories — the Republic’s largest defence research-and-development organisation — and the Defence Science and Technology Agency, and serves on the board of government-linked group Singapore Technologies Engineering.

Announcing Mr Neo’s retirement from the Administrative Service on Aug 1, the Public Service Division thanked the top-ranking civil service officer for his “many years of dedicated service and outstanding contributions”, and wished him “the best as he continues to serve Singapore in a different capacity”.