HONG KONG (April 18, 2017) – Khoo Teng Chye, Executive Director for the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC), Ministry of National Development (MND), Singapore, has been appointed Chairman of Singapore for the Urban Land Institute (ULI), an interdisciplinary research and education institute with more than 40,000 members dedicated to leadership in real estate and land use and creating thriving communities worldwide.
Khoo, who was formerly the Chief Executive of PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency and Chief Executive Officer/Chief Planner at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), is ULI’s first Council Chair to come from the public sector in Asia Pacific. As ULI Singapore Chairman, he will lead the Executive Committee in Singapore, which will continue to focus their efforts in providing long-term thinking and sustainable solutions for the city’s ongoing development.
ULI Singapore has been extremely active in the city for a number of years. The National Council has advised on a number of issues related to urban development and in 2016, ULI Singapore, together with the CLC completed a piece of research on “Creating Liveable Cities through Car-lite Urban Mobility” which proposed practical recommendations on moving cities towards a more sustainable mobility future with reference to the city-state. This is the third initiative that ULI has worked on together with CLC, with the other two being defining 10 Principles for Liveable High Density Cities and producing a report on Creating Healthy Places through Active Mobility. One of Khoo’s core objectives, as Chairman, is to extend this relationship between the two organisations further, and to continue to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and understanding with regards to sustainable urbanisation.
Khoo’s second objective is to help ULI play an active role in supporting some of the exciting new developments in Singapore, like the proposed second Central Business District at Jurong Lake. Khoo believes that many of ULI’s international members are in the unique position to advise and work with the Singapore urban planning and real estate community.
The World Cities Summit takes place in Singapore every two years and is a platform for government leaders and industry experts to address liveable and sustainable city challenges, share integrated urban solutions and forge new partnerships. Khoo’s third key objective is to help ULI serve as a strategic partner to the event, as it has in the past, and work on exciting new initiatives planned for the event in 2018.
“I firstly became familiar of ULI’s work when I was working for the URA so it is an honour for me to be invited to be Chairman of ULI Singapore,” said Khoo. “Urbanisation is a complex process everywhere in the world and the public sector has to work with the private sector for it to be a success. ULI helps both sides come together, through providing new models of collaboration, and I look forward to helping extend ULI’s mission in Singapore.”
“We’re very excited that Khoo Teng Chye will be leading the national council in Singapore as he has been a great advocate of ULI in the past,” added John Fitzgerald, Chief Executive Officer of ULI Asia Pacific. “His knowledge of the Singapore real estate industry is unparalleled and with his leadership I am confident that ULI will continue to play an important role to the development of the city.”
Under Khoo’s leadership, ULI Singapore Executive Committee members include Frank Khoo, Global Head of Asia, Real Assets, AXA Investment Managers; Daniel Cerf, CEO, Cache Logistics Trust; Blake Olafson, Managing Partner, Asia Capital Real Estate; Scott Dunn, Vice President, Southeast Asia, AECOM; Bernard Phang, Managing Director, GIC; Darren Sabom, Head of Underwriting, APAC & Head of Southeast Asia Acquisition; Magdelene Chua, Partner, PwC Singapore; David Huang, Partners Group; Gaurang Khemka, Founder, URBNarc; Terence Tang, Managing Director, Colliers International; Niel Thassim, Head of Asia, Private Funds Group, Brookfield Asset Management; Choon Fah Ong, CEO, Edmund Tie & Company; Augustine Tan, Executive Director, Far East Organisation; Yu-Ning Hwang, Director (Land & Liveability), Strategy Group, Prime Minister’s Office; Benett Theseira, Managing Director, Head of Asia-Pacific, PGIM Real Estate
Also published on Medium.