Speaking with the Boards 2025
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Yuen Kuan Moon: Passion a requisite for public service directorships
For a seat at their boardroom table, the pre-requisite is passion, says the Chairman of the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Council. “If you take on a role for the sake of having the title, you will not make time for it.”
Since its first batch of students in 1963, Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) has prepared learners for the challenges of their time. A statutory board headed by a 17-member NP Council, the polytechnic now offers 36 diplomas and five common entry programmes through eight academic schools and operates a Continuing Education and Training Academy for adult learners. Like corporate boards, the NP Council has a fiduciary duty to stakeholders and comprises members appointed for skilled expertise. But for a seat at this table, says Yuen Kuan Moon, Chairman of the NP Council, the pre-requisite is passion. “If you take on a role for the sake of having the title, you will not make time for it.”
An alum of NP, Yuen is Group CEO and Executive Director of Singtel, ASEAN’s largest telco, which under his stewardship underwent a strategic reset focused on connectivity, digital services and digital infrastructure. It was a passion for “talent development and producing local talents for Singapore Inc” that led Yuen to service at public sector organisations such as NP, where he chairs its governing and executive body. He also serves on Singapore Institute of Management’s board of directors and was previously a board member at SkillsFuture Singapore.
You serve on both corporate boards and at statutory boards. How different are the two particularly in responsibilities and composition?
The obvious difference is that one is for-profit. A person typically serves on a corporate board for specific professional reasons. For statutory boards and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) that have a social mission, it is about contributing expertise and time to something you are passionate about. Both have a fiduciary duty to stakeholders and both must be able to discharge its responsibilities.
For the Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) Council, apart from having stakeholders like the Ministry of Education, our board requirements take guidance from our NP2030 vision, which has four strategic themes: Southeast Asia Readiness, Social Sustainability, Flexible Pathways and Industry Relevance. With those pillars in mind, we bring relevant people on board. For example, as part of the vision of growing Southeast Asia-ready talents, we sought board members from large companies like SATS Ltd. and SAP
Singapore to contribute their experiences. For Industry Relevance, we ask ourselves, “What is relevant?” So for tech, we brought in Dr Ayesha Khanna, CEO and Co-Founder of ADDO AI and an expert in AI. Apart from serving as a Council member, she has also given inspiring talks to students. There’s an expectation that our Council members contribute beyond a fiduciary duty.
Is it hard to find board talent then? Many with sought-after expertise have full-time jobs.
It’s interesting you ask this question. I think if busy executives are passionate about something, they will find time. It’s all about time management and time allocation. I fly 30 weeks out of 52 weeks, and I’ve never missed a single Council session, even before I became the Chair of the NP Council. If you take on a role for the sake of having the title, you will not make time for it. Fortunately, IHLs appeal to the heart, and hence it is sometimes easier to find board members for IHLs than corporate boards.
In fact, one of the first things I did when I took over as Chair was to request that members attend Council meetings in person. Yes, technology allows us to meet virtually, but we’re better able to assess a person’s commitment and passion in-person. Also, our understanding of the institution is built through interactions during and beyond Council meetings, including those with staff and students.
With passionate people wanting the best for the organisation, how do you, as Chair, guide discussions? One imagines that some have strong views.
My duty is to make sure that members aren’t just all-agreeing but challenging each other to refine our plans, to guide and support management towards a shared vision. But you are right, when people are passionate, they tend to express their views strongly. It’s imperative for the Chair to make sure we get alignment. But first, we need to cater time for deliberation so that everyone’s view is heard. If we allow Council members to express their views freely, we will get more positive dynamics. Then we contextualise the debate by going back to our mission and north star – the NP2030 Vision. How does what we’re debating add value? When there’s a guiding principle, it’s a lot easier to iron out differences on position.
Appointments to the Council are driven by requirements, which are experience and skills based. Was it happenstance or intentional that gender also became evenly balanced in the last year or so?
Looking at who we brought on board more recently – Ms Tan Chee Wei from SATS Ltd., Ms Eileen Chua from SAP Singapore, Ms Kok Moi Lre from PwC Singapore and Ms Isabel Chong from Siemens – the expertise they bring is diverse. It’s human resources, accounting services and consulting, digitalisation and technology.
It’s a learning journey rather than a competition to see which board can achieve gender targets. Our Council currently comprises 47% women, but I don’t even see it. I’m agnostic to gender. I’ve come up in an environment where I’m able to say let’s get in the best person for the job. That’s been the case at Singtel. My predecessor, the former Group CEO, was also a woman.
My personal view is that you can’t be overly conscious about one gender over the other. You’ll end up with push back from people for artificially creating a scheme or a target that is unrealistic.
If you go on a clear-minded vision of saying these are the needs of the organisation, and from there cast a wide net, you’ll be able to find diverse talent whether it is gender, race or age. It may seem like happenstance but it’s intentional through a clear purpose and mission.
"If you go on a clear-minded vision of saying these are the needs of the organisation, and from there cast a wide net, you’ll be able to find diverse talent whether it is gender, race or age."
The Public Service Division (PSD) has put in place a six-year term limit for directors of statutory boards. Is it a positive?
It’s a good guideline. We’d have to ask PSD why six years, instead of nine years like SGX-listed companies, or eight, or another duration, but I believe it’s because they are encouraging board renewal. When you encourage board renewal, you create room for diversity. And when you have diversity, you’re going to have different perspectives and better effectiveness and outcomes. If there’s no tenure limit, it’s difficult to ask people to step down. If they feel that they’ve been doing a good job, why step them down? But as boards transit from no cap on tenure to six years, there must be some flexibility, because you can’t afford to have so many people leaving around the same time. And within the framework, I think boards need to create a situation where it’s maybe a third of the board that is up for renewal every two years, which makes sense for continuity. Of course, that’s a lot more work for the management and Chair to continuously attract the right talent and to onboard them.
Quite a few seasoned directors recommend that new directors gain exposure at statutory boards or at IPCs before looking for a large or listed company board role. What do you think of this approach?
This is my personal view, not NP’s – I think the responsibility and duties for corporate boards and statutory boards are quite different, at least in the fields that I’m in. Most people serve at a statutory board because they want to contribute and give back. If you are not passionate about this, don’t do it.
Now, if I were to fill a corporate board seat, would I see the candidate differently in terms of them being able to discharge their duties just because they had prior board experience at a statutory board? I don’t think the two are correlated. I would look at it purely from the value the candidate brings from a corporate standpoint. If every board limits its candidate search to only those with board experience, there will never be enough board talents to go around.
Some directors are going to be very experienced, and some you bring on for their management experience or other capabilities. Just as with the other diversity dimensions, there needs to be a balance in board experience.
This conversation was first published in Speaking with the Boards 2025, an accompaniment to Singapore Board Diversity Review 2025.
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