Former CIO of GIC Ng Kok Song announces bid to run for Singapore presidency
The 75-year-old shows up at the Elections Department to collect forms; sees election as 'issue of great national importance'
SINGAPORE — Ng Kok Song, the former chief investment officer of Singapore asset management company GIC, has announced his bid to run for presidency on Wednesday (19 July).
CNA reported that the 75-year-old announced his intention to run for Singapore presidency on his website, while The Straits Times reported that Ng showed up at the Elections Department on Wednesday morning to collect the forms for presidency.
He was accompanied by his 45-year-old fiancee Sybil Lau as well as his three children.
Ng is currently the executive chairman of Avanda Investment Management, whom he co-founded with two former GIC colleagues in 2015.
His announcement of his candidacy comes after prior declarations by Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Harvey Norman Ossia founder, George Goh.
He was previously reported to be “deliberating” running for presidency and saw the matter as "an issue of great national importance".
Investment analyst to presidential candidate
According to media reports, Ng had graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) majoring in Physics, before joining the Finance Ministry as an investment analyst in 1970.
The Public Service Commission scholarship recipient moved to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) a year later, when it was formed.
Five years after GIC's formation, Ng headed the equities and bonds department in 1986, and was the company's first non-expatriate director. He became GIC’s first group chief investment officer in 2007, and held the post before retiring in 2013.
Ng was also the founder and chairman of the Singapore International Monetary Exchange in 1984, which was later incorporated into the Singapore Exchange as its derivatives arm.
He is also currently the chairman emeritus and founder of the Wealth Management Institute at Nanyang Technological University, and serves on PIMCO’s Global Advisory board alongside former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former US Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke.
According to documents obtained by The Straits Times from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, Avanda Investment Management has turned a profit and an average of about $73 million in shareholder equity in the last three years.
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