MR TAN WAH THONG, Chairman of the Anglo-Chinese Schools Board of Governors (ACS BOG), has decided to call it a day. He retired on March 17, 2008 after more than 13 years at the helm of the board.
Bishop Dr Robert Solomon has appointed Mr Richard Seow, a member of the ACS BOG, to succeed him. Mr Seow is Chairman of Parkway Holdings Ltd, a public listed company (see related story below).
Mr Tan, 69, had spent much of his life in public service prior to his appointment as Chairman of ACS BOG. At various times between 1985 and 1990, he had served on the boards of the National Crime Prevention Council, Skills Development Funds Advisory Committee, Vocational & Industrial Training Board, National Wages Council, Jurong Town Corporation, Central Provident Fund Board, and the Singapore National Employersâ Federation.
Although he officially retired from his business in 1993, he continued to put in long hours of work in the ACS Schools. As Chairman of the ACS BOG since 1995, he has played the role of servant leader, always facilitating the work of ACS leaders while looking towards the endeavours in which all the seven ACS Schools are joint participants.
He has expanded the ACS Family with the addition of ACS (International) Singapore and ACS (International) Jakarta. The symbiotic relationship between The Methodist Church in Singapore and the ACS Schools has been strengthened, and the ACS Family has benefited much from his leadership.
The period between 1995 and 2008 saw the rebuilding of two new schools, ACS (Barker Road) and ACS (Primary) and the major renovation and rebuilding of ACS (Junior).
Major additions, renovations and expansive upgrading of Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) were completed at a cost of nearly $21 million.
At ACS (Independent), great improvements and expansion of facilities and curriculum took place, and a âthrough-trainâ programme was begun. The total cost of the Integrated Campus Extension and Prime Projects was about $60 million and ACS (Independent) contributed about $20 million. The expansion was designed primarily with the International Baccalaureate Diploma programme in mind.
By the end of 2007, the total population of the seven ACS Schools had grown to more than 10,000 students with about 800 teachers. The academic standards of the schools improved with ACS (Primary) and ACS (Junior) consistently achieving 100-per-cent PSLE passes, while ACS (Barker Road), ACS (Independent) and ACJC achieved excellent absolute and value-added rankings.
ACS (International) also did well academically with its pioneer cohort achieving very high A*/A grades in the 2007 IGCSE exams and exceeded the results of other international schools in Singapore as well as the world average.
All the ACS Schools are currently among the top schools in their own category and have remained the most popular and sought-after schools in Singapore.
Mr Tan was awarded the Public Service Medal (PBM) in 2006.
Bishop Dr Solomon, in his ACS Founderâs Day message this year, thanked Mr Tan for his âsterling leadership and dedicated serviceâ. âMr Tan has requested to retire as Chairman of the Board, having served in that position since 1996. He has served the ACS family well and with great passion, and God has used him to initiate many new growing edges for ACS. We are grateful to God for him and wish him Godâs richest blessings.â
New ACS BOG head is Chairman of Parkway Holdings
THE newly-appointed Chairman of the ACS Board of Governors, Mr Richard Seow, is the Chairman of Singapore Exchange-listed Parkway Holdings Ltd, a leader in private Asian healthcare services.
Born in Singapore in 1962, he received his early education at Anglo-Chinese Junior School, Anglo-Chinese Secondary School and Anglo-Chinese Junior College.
A fourth-generation ACSian, he is the great-grandson of the late Mr Seow Poh Leng, who is well remembered as the ACS Old Boy who, in 1936, instituted the medal awarded to the top ACS boy at the Senior Cambridge/GCE âOâ Level Examinations.
The younger Mr Seow has two sons in ACS â an elder son in ACS (I) and a younger one in ACS (Barker Road), making them fifth-generation ACSians.
Prior to his involvement with Parkway, he worked in investment banking for 16 years. He headed the South East Asian Investment Banking franchise for Citigroup based in Singapore where he also established the firmâs Asian Technology Investment Banking Group.
Before joining Citigroup, from 1994 to 1999, he was with Goldman Sachs where he was Chief Operation Officer for Asian Investment Banking and Head of Investment Banking Services for Singapore and Malaysia. From 1992 to 1994, he was based in Hong Kong working in J. P. Morganâs Financial Advisory Mergers & Acquisitions Group. From 1988 to 1992, he was with Security Pacific Bank with postings in Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
Mr Seow received his commission from the Singapore Armed Forces in 1984, where he was a Sword of Honour winner. He completed his undergraduate education with a BS Economics from the University of Oregon and received his MBA from the University of Southern California.
He and his wife Jacqueline have a daughter and three sons. He is currently worshipping at the ACS (International) Preaching Point.