Did you know Ng Kok Song is a business executive from Singapore? This piece lets you know Ng Kok Song’s wife, spouse, partner, children and other information you need. But then, who is Ng Kok Song?
Ng Kok Song is a Singaporean investment manager who is the co-founder and executive chairman of Avanda Investment Management. He was previously group chief investment officer at Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC where he completed a 42-year career in the investment of Singapore’s foreign reserves. He also held positions at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
Ng Kok Song (Chinese: 黄国松; pinyin: Huáng Guósōng) was born on February 11, 1948, and is age 75 years old. He is the son of Singaporean parents and was born in Singapore. He was the second of 11 children born to a fish auctioneer and a housewife. He grew up in an attap house with a thatched roof, mud floor and two bedrooms in Kangkar, near modern-day Sengkang, close to the Serangoon River. To support his family, Ng helped his father sort fish at the local market and tended the family’s chickens.
Ng was baptized into the Catholic Church when he was seven years old where he served as an altar boy at the nearby Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Singapore in Hougang. He studied at Montfort School (predecessor of Montfort Junior School and Montfort Secondary School) for 12 years while also looking after his younger siblings.
He later won a scholarship to study engineering in Canada but was unable to proceed due to his family’s financial situation. Instead, he took up a scholarship from the Public Service Commission to study physics at the University of Singapore (now known as the National University of Singapore) and graduated with a Bachelor of Science with honours in 1970. In 1980, Ng graduated with a Master of Science in Business Administration and Management from Stanford University.
Ng Kok Song started his career in the Ministry of Finance of Singapore in 1970. From 1971 to 1986, he joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) where he rose to become a director. Ng was also the founding Chairman of the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX), now incorporated into the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
Ng joined the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) in 1986, which had been formed to manage Singapore’s foreign reserves. He assumed the role of GIC’s chief investment officer in 2007 and retired in 2013. The Singapore Government awarded Ng the Meritorious Service Medal in 2012, in recognition of his contributions to building and managing the nation’s reserves.
He was a member of the Strategic Committee of Agency France Tresor from 2001 to 2014. The Government of France conferred on him the titles of Legion of Honour “La Croix de Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur” in 2011 and Order of Merit “Officer de l’ordre National du Merite” in 2003. The CFA Institute conferred on him the Thomas L Hansberger Leadership in Global Investment Award in 2013.
Ng Kok Song is on the CFA Institute’s Advisory Council for the “Future of Finance” project, a long-term global effort to shape a trustworthy financial industry that better serves society. In 2015, Ng founded Avanda Investment Management with two former GIC colleagues, Quah Wee Ghee and Sung Cheng Chih.
Avanda Investment Management received support from leading institutional investors whose contributions helped launch the firm with around US$4 billion in assets. By 2022, its assets had more than doubled to US$10 billion, making it one of Singapore’s fastest-growing investment firms.
He has been Chairman Emeritus of the Wealth Management Institute at the Nanyang Technological University since 2017. He is on the board of directors of 65 Equity Partners (a global investment firm) and on the Global Advisory Board of PIMCO. In public administration (education), he serves on the board of governors for the Asia School of Business in Malaysia.
From 2017 to 2023, he served on the governing board for the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is highly respected in the financial community for his contributions to Singapore’s investments. Ng is a Christian belonging to the Catholic denomination, and is an avid proponent of Christian meditation and its benefits, having been taught by a Benedictine monk, Laurence Freeman. It was said that he taught Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister of Singapore, how to meditate in the late 2000s.
On 15 July 2023, Ng Kok Song indicated he was “deliberating” running for the 2023 presidential election. On 19 July, he turned up at the offices of the Elections Department while accompanied by his family to collect the eligibility forms required to be nominated as a presidential candidate. He intends to submit himself for considerations under the requirements of the public service deliberative track, based on his tenure as the Chief Investment Officer at GIC.
Ng Kok Song Wife: Who Is Ng Kok Song Wife?
Ng Kok Song married his first wife Patricia Chee in 1972. He met his first wife as schoolmates at Montfort School. The couple had three children together. Chee was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2003 and died in 2005. Since 2020, Ng is engaged to Sybil Lau, a Canadian-born Singaporean who is 30 years younger than him. Ng’s mother died in 2021.