2 October 2008
HEALTH PROMOTION BOARD APPOINTS NEW CHAIRMAN
Mr Lucas Chow has been appointed Chairman of the Health Promotion Board (HPB) with effect from 1 October 2008, following the retirement of Mr Wong Yew Meng, HPB's Chairman.
- Mr Chow has been a member of HPB's Board since 1 June 2006, before his appointment as Chairman of the Board.
- Mr Chow is the Chief Executive Officer of MediaCorp and a member of its Board of Directors. He started his career with Hewlett Packard (HP) after graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree with honours from the University of Aston in Birmingham, United Kingdom. He held various senior positions in HP before joining SingTel in 1998, holding key positions of Chief Executive Officer (SingTel Mobile), Executive Vice President (Consumer Business) and Executive Vice President (Corporate Business).
- Apart from driving MediaCorp s key initiatives in the digital space and its corporate social responsibility programme, Mr Chow is an active leader in the business and media communities. He sits on several directorial boards and advisory committees, including the National University of Singapore Board of Trustees, British Telecom s Asia Pacific Advisory Board and the directorial boards of MediaRing Ltd and Emobile Ltd.
- Mr Wong Yew Meng is retiring after seven and a half years as Chairman of HPB, which was established as a statutory board on 1 April 2001 to promote health and wellness among all Singaporeans.
- Under his leadership, there have been significant improvements in the health status of Singaporeans. For instance, the proportion of Singaporeans with high blood cholesterol has declined from 25.4 per cent to 18.7 per cent according to the National Health Survey 2004 as compared to the results of the previous National Health Survey 1998. The proportion of Singaporeans who exercised regularly also rose from 16.8 per cent to 24.9 per cent in the same period.
- Mr Wong has always been enthusiastic about using innovative means and collaborating with strategic partners to implement programmes to achieve better health outcomes. These include HPB's collaboration with the food manufacturing industry to develop reduced-salt cooking sauces, working with local personalities to champion the smoke-free cause, garnering the support of 102 Chief Executive Officers who pledged to promote workplace health, and establishing the AIDS Business Alliance in collaboration with several local and multinational corporations, the National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Federation.
- We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to Mr Wong for his invaluable contributions to HPB over the last seven and a half years. He has steered the Board capably since its institution, bringing us closer to achieving our mission of being a centre of excellence in health promotion. We wish him the best in his future endeavours. At the same time, we are pleased to welcome Mr Chow as HPB s new Chairman. My colleagues and I look forward to further improving the health status of Singaporeans under his leadership, said Mr Lam Pin Woon, Chief Executive Officer, HPB.