Er Kwong Wah

Senior Advisor

BBM, PBM, PPA (E), PBS
Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques,
BA Sc (Hons), MBA, Hon Fellow (UWIC), FCIM, FIES, MIPS

A Colombo Plan and Bank of Tokyo Scholar, Mr Er Kwong Wah obtained the Bachelor of Applied Science degree (BASc) with Honors in Electrical Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada in 1970, and the Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester in 1978.

Mr. Er Kwong Wah spent 27 years in the service of the Singapore Government. Whilst in the civil service, he served in various ministries such as the Ministry of Defence, the Public Service Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Community Development. He held Permanent Secretary Position first with the Ministry of Education from 1987-1994 and then with the Ministry of Community Development until his retirement in 1998. After his retirement from the civil service, he was appointed Executive Chairman of Sembawang Maritime and Logistic Ltd till 2001 when he left to take up the position of Executive Director of a leading private tertiary education institution in Singapore. He retired from this institution at the end of 2016.

As Permanent Secretary of Education, he was involved in the planning and development of the universities, the polytechnics, the Institute of Technical Education, and schools in Singapore and the Singapore International School in Hong Kong. Even after his retirement from the Singapore Civil Service, he was actively involved in the Education Sector as a Governor of United World College of South East Asia, and a Member, Board of Trustee of the then SIM University. He was a Member of the Board of Governor of Raffles Institution in Singapore. He is an advisor to NPS International School (School) and Shenton Education Group (Myanmar).

At present, he sits as an independent director on the Boards of several public companies listed in Singapore. The public companies include COSCO Shipping International (Singapore) Ltd, CFM Holdings Ltd, The Place Holdings Ltd, ecoWise Holdings Ltd, Chaswood Resources Ltd, and Luxking Group Holdings Ltd.

After his retirement from the Singapore Civil Service, he was invited to serve in several public and community organizations. These include

•                Board Member, National Environment Agency

•                Chairman, Toa Payoh Central Citizen Consultative Committee

•                District Councilor, Central Singapore Community Development Council

•                Vice-Chairman, Singapore–Sichuan Trade and Investment Committee

•                Deputy Chairman, Singapore Polytechnic International Pte Ltd

•                Member, Project Advisory Group, Bhutan Education City Project, Bhutan

Whilst in the Civil Service, he was conferred the Public Administration Medal (Gold) in 1990.

In 1991, he was conferred the Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the Government of France.

For his contributions in serving the community, he was conferred the Public Service Medal (2004) and the Public Service Star (2009) by the Government of Singapore.

In 2013, he was a recipient of the Service to Education Award from the Ministry of Education, Singapore.