Desmond Kuek

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Desmond Kuek Bak Chye is a Singaporean former lieutenant-general who served as Chief of Defence Force from 2007 to 2010. He joined the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) in 1981 and rose through the ranks, including a stint as Chief of Army in 2003.

After leaving the military, Kuek was Permanent Secretary for the Environment and Water Resources from 2010 to 2012. He then became president and group chief executive of SMRT Corporation, serving from 2012 to 2018. He led major rail renewal projects and helped guide SMRT through a period of upheaval, including the company becoming privately held under Temasek in 2016. Under his watch, reliability on the North-South and East-West lines improved.

In 2018, he founded a leadership consultancy, Genium & Co. In 2019, he joined UBS as divisional vice chairman for global wealth management and was head of UBS’s Sustainable Finance group. In January 2023, he became executive director and chief executive officer of Temasek Trust, Temasek’s philanthropic arm. He has also held various advisory roles and board positions.

Education and personal life: Kuek attended Anglo-Chinese School and ACS Junior College. He won the SAF Overseas Scholarship in 1982 to study at the University of Oxford, where he earned a Master of Arts in engineering science, and later earned a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University. He was born on 28 August 1963 and is married to Claudel Kuek.