New NKF CEO Tim Oei: Let's move on from the past
New National Kidney Foundation (NKF) chief executive Tim Oei wants a fresh start for Singapore’s largest dialysis provider, in the wake of a scandal involving his predecessor.
Speaking at his first press conference since his appointment in late May, Oei, 58, responded to multiple questions on the organisation’s past troubles. He told reporters at the NKF headquarters on Thursday (7 September), “The past is the past. Things have been done, I cannot undo all those.
“I would like to go past that. I would like to see control-alternate-delete and let’s move on…Let’s focus on what we have done and can do for the patients.”
Oei was chosen by a five-member committee, which reviewed more than 50 candidates over a five-month period. A lawyer by training, Oei was recruited from social services provider AWWA, where he worked for nearly a decade.
Oei’s predecessor Edmund Kwok was sacked last year following a “personal indiscretion” with a male employee. A police report has been lodged and investigations are ongoing.
In 2005, the entire NKF board resigned following the T. T. Durai financial scandal. The former NKF CEO was later jailed in 2007 for misleading NKF with a falsified invoice.
‘A very steady fellow’
On Thursday, Oei was sitting alongside chairman Koh Poh Tiong and interim CEO Eunice Tay, who will continue to assist in the transition till the end of September. Koh confirmed that Oei began his tenure two weeks earlier than the initial start date of 4 September as he was “impatient” to get to work.
Koh praised Oei as “level-headed”, “strategic” and “a very steady fellow”. Tay, who previously served as CEO from 2006-13, also noted Oei’s “vast experience” in the social work sector.
Koh stressed that he had met many of the NKF’s major donors in the wake of Kwok’s sacking. “And it was very encouraging, because they say that they will continue to support us, because that matter was a personal indiscretion, which you and I cannot control. They say that as long as the stewardship of the funds, their donations, is well taken care of, (they will continue to support us).”
Oei, a father of three, acknowledged that he encountered scepticism when he decided to take on the role, but said he wanted to focus on the work. “When I told people I want to join NKF, the first thing they ask is about the past. I say, have you considered about the patients? A lot of people forget about the patients and their lives.”
Asked how his family responded to his taking on such a high-profile role, Oei said that they were supportive and quipped, “As a lawyer, I never got so much publicity before.”
Raising funds
NKF currently serves more than 4,200 patients. More than 90 per cent of them have hypertension as well, while some 62 per cent also have diabetes.
To meet rising demand, NKF will build seven more dialysis centres, including an integrated renal centre, by 2020. Koh cited the 2016 United States Renal Data System (USRDS) annual report, which said that Singapore ranks number one in the world for diabetes-induced kidney failure.
Singapore also ranks in the world’s top five for incidence (new cases) and prevalence (existing cases) of kidney failure.
According to Koh, NKF spent $100 million in 2016, and this is expected to rise to $150 million in 2020. He noted that it costs about $2 million to build a small dialysis centre, and an additional $2 million for each centre’s basic expenses annually.
Asked how the NKF intends to raise funds to meet these expenses, Koh said that NKF would draw on the expertise of its board members, many of whom work in the corporate and business world. It also hopes to increase its donor base, which currently stands at 167,000, down from a peak of about 250,000 during Durai’s reign.
Pledging to back Oei “100 per cent”, Koh said, “I look forward to working with Tim…if Tim succeeds, if Tim looks good, the board looks good.”
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