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Philip Yeo (Chinese: 杨烈国; born 1947) is the newly appointed chairman of Spring Singapore, Special Advisor for Economic Development of the Prime Minister's office and former chairman of A*STAR, a government agency in Singapore focused on conducting scientific research.^[1] 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^[2] in Singapore's biomedical hub Biopolis.^[3]

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. He is married and has a son and a daughter.

Contents 1 Education 2 Career 3 Public service 4 Controversy 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

Yeo graduated in 1970 in Applied Science (Industrial Engineering) from the University of Toronto 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.

Philip Yeo served in the Administrative Service from June 1970 to 31 March 1999. He served in various appointments in the Ministry of Defence, including Permanent Secretary for logistics, technology research & development and defence industries. 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 include promoting services, developing high-tech industries like 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.^{[citation needed]}

During this time, Philip Yeo also served as the first Chairman of the National Computer Board (now Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore from 1981 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 formed from Pidemco after a merger (2000 -).

Yeo will step down as Chairman of A*STAR and become chairman of the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board (Spring Singapore) on 1 April 2007^[4]. He will also become senior adviser on science and technology to the Minister for Trade and Industry. Lieutenant General Lim Chuan Poh, Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Education will become A*STAR's deputy chairman in November 2006, and chairman when Yeo steps down in April 2007.^[5] Yeo has also been appointed the Special Advisor for Economic Development in the Prime Minister’s Office with effect from 1 April 2007. He will assist the Prime Minister’s Office in establishing new economic links with interested foreign governments who value Singapore’s development experience, and provide strategic inputs to establish strategic partnerships and open up opportunities with other fast-growing economies.^[6]

For his public service, Yeo was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) 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 February 1998, Yeo was honoured by the Belgian 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 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 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.

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. ^[7]

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."^[8]

On 9 August 2006, he was awarded the Order of Sang 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.^[9]

See also : Censorship in Singapore

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.^{[10] [11]} 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.^[11]

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).^[12] 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."^[13]

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.^[14] 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.^[15][16] The incidents upset several members of the local blogging community^[13] for his statements. In February 2007, Yeo, in the comments of another blog, revealed the exact posts that were considered defamatory.^{[17] [18]}

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, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. ^[19]

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.^[20]

In February 2007, Philip Yeo left a comment on the blog e pur si muove inviting its author, Elia Diodati, who is widely acknowledged to be AcidFlask reincarnate, to tea.^[21] That comment sparked a debate between him and some blog commenters, and ended acrimoniously, with Yeo calling e pur si muove "an obnoxious smelling swamp full of envious, fouled mouthed small toads" and referring to the commenters who had engaged him as "green eyed toads".^[22] Elia Diodati declined the tea invitation after Yeo, amongst other things, called him "a small frog in a deep well who knows not the majesty of the ocean. Yet croaks noisily."^[23] Despite the unproductive debate, some have hailed this internet encounter as a watershed for the blogosphere, it being the first time a prominent Singapore government personage had engaged in non-anonymous discourse on a blog.^[24]

Yeo's work in developing the biomedical industry has received accolades from all over the world. Nature has reported that "Singapore's impressive advances in biomedicine are driven by the energetic personality of Philip Yeo." ^[25] In response to his daughter's comments, Mr. 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."^[26]

• Philip Yeo Biography

1. ^ "Singapore's man with a plan", The Economist, 2004-08-12.
2. ^ Dennis Normile, An Asian Tiger’s Bold Experiment, Accessed 4 April 2007
3. ^ Walsh, Bryan. "Stem Cell Central", Time Magazine, 2006-07-23.
4. ^ Philip Yeo, A*STAR Chairman, At His Farewell Lunch Hosted By The Minister For Trade And Industry, Accessed 24 March 2007
5. ^ Chang Ai-Lien. "S'pore's science salesman turns sights on SMEs", The Straits Times, 21 Oct 2006.
6. ^ Prime Minister's Office. "Special Advisor for Economic Development in the Prime Minister’s Office" (press release).
7. ^ Karolinska Institutet, KI Honorary Doctorate, Accessed 21 February 2007
8. ^ Nikkei, Nikkei Prize for Science and Technology, Accessed 21 Feb 2007.
9. ^ Harvard, Alumni Achievement Award, Accessed 21 Feb 2007.
10. ^ Lim, Y.. "Let-fly King", The New Paper, 10 Mar 1998.
11. ^ ^{a b} Tan Ooi Boon. "White knight, Black knight", The New Paper, May 08, 2005.
12. ^ Tan Ooi Boon. "Forget wimps, I prefer women", The New Paper, May 08, 2005.
13. ^ ^{a b} Chua K. H.. "Whips up howls of protest", The Straits Times, 15 May 2005.
14. ^ Chen Jiahao, Press release, 6 May 2005. Accessed 28 Oct 2006.
15. ^ caustic.soda Accessed 31 Oct 2006.
16. ^ John Burton. "Singapore threatens to sue internet dissenter", Financial Times, 8 May 2005. Retrieved on October 28, 2006.
17. ^ A*star, "Clarification from A*Star over AcidFlask incident"
18. ^ A*star, "Damaging Statements about A*STAR by Chen Jiahao (AcidFlask)"
19. ^ EDB/A*Star, "Biomedical Industry Review 2006", 6 February 2007
20. ^ P N Balji. "Citizen Lee launches a debate ... and a waiting game", Today, 12 February 2007.
21. ^ Philip Yeo,"e pur si muove: The smugness of ignorance I, comment 5"
22. ^ Philip Yeo, "e pur si muove: The smugness of ignorance I, comment 112"
23. ^ Philip Yeo, "e pur si muove: The smugness of ignorance I, comment 65"
24. ^ Aaron Ng,"Elia Diodati versus Philip Yeo: a watershed for blogosphere"
25. ^ David Cyranoski, "Singapore: An irresistible force"
26. ^ Chen Huifen. "Singapore to push ahead with Biomed", Business Times, 15 Mar 2007.

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