George Yeo – Keynote Speaker

Former Singaporean foreign minister and Chairman and Executive Director of Kerry Logistics Network (KLN), George Yeo Yong-Boon has a wide background in politics, business and the military.

Yeo has been Chairman and Executive Director of Kerry Logistics Network Limited (a subsidiary of Kerry Group Limited) since August 2012. Yeo is also a Board Member of Kerry Holdings and AIA Group. He decided to retire in April however he has remained Senior Advisor, making monthly visits to the headquarters in Hong Kong.

In his 23 years as a well-respected statesman in the Singapore Government, George Yeo served in a multitude of roles, such as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Information, and Minister for the Arts, Health, and Trade and Industry. During Yeo’s tenure as a foreign minister he became the driving force behind a number of policies that involved a deepening of ties with the US, including a free trade agreement negotiated in 2003, and a security framework agreement in 2005 that ensured continued Singaporean cooperation with the US in Iraq, Afghanistan and in combating piracy on the Gulf of Aden.

George Yeo served in various capacities in the Singapore Armed Forces. After graduating from the Singapore Command and Staff College in 1979 Yeo joined the Republic of Singapore Air Force. He was later appointed Chief of Staff of the Air Staff before moving on to Director of Joint Operations and Planning in the Defence Ministry, where he attained the rank of Brigadier-General.

Yeo graduated from Cambridge University with a double first in engineering. He then obtained a master of business administration degree (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School in 1985 where he is now on the Panel of Advisors to the Dean of the school. George Yeo later became the Chancellor of Nalanda University and a member of the University Governing Board. He is also a member of the International Advisory Board of IESE Business School, the International Advisory Committee of Peking University, the International Advisory Committee of Mitsubishi Corporation, the Vatican Council Commission for Reference on the Organisation of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See and the International Advisory Panel of China Eco-Forum Global.