New CEO for Health Promotion Board (HPB)

Mr Zee Yoong Kang will take over as CEO of the Health Promotion Board (HPB) on 1 March 2013.  He succeeds Mr Ang Hak Seng, who will be assuming the post of Chief Executive Director of the People’s Association.  Mr Zee will be appointed as CEO-Designate on 15 February 2013.

2.         Mr Zee Yoong Kang is the founding CEO of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) LearningHub as well as the founding CEO of NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i).  He joined NTUC in 2003, and had served as Director (JobLink) and Director (Job Re-creation Department).  Under his leadership, NTUC LearningHub was transformed from an in-house training department into the largest training services provider in Singapore, with business operations in China and the Middle East.

3.         Prior to joining NTUC, Mr Zee had worked at Bain and Co as a management consultant, handling merger projects and marketing penetration strategies.  He was with the Singapore Administrative Service from 1993 to 1999. Mr Zee received his Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) (Honours) from Oxford University, and a Master of Business Administration (Honours) from the University of Chicago.

4.         With his proven track record in engaging diverse stakeholders at NTUC, Mr Zee will play an integral role to further promote the HPB’s cause of encouraging Singaporeans to lead a healthy lifestyle, together with its partners and health advocates.

5.         Under Mr Ang’s capable leadership, HPB has implemented many initiatives to encourage healthy living in Singapore.  With his strong networking skills, he has been able to rally the support of different stakeholders, such as the grassroots committees to reach out to the community, and fervently pushed out the message of making healthy living a default and pervasive lifestyle.  He set up a Health Ambassador Network, which has grown to 4,500 volunteers who share a passion to start a healthy lifestyle social movement by promoting healthy living among their family, friends and peers.  During his tenure in HPB, Mr Ang won the SHRI Leading CEO Award, and HPB was recognised with the Public Service Best Practice Award 2012 in Public Engagement.

6.         Mr Ang has also been a driving force behind the organisation’s efforts to make health screening more convenient, accessible and affordable for Singaporeans.  He led the major push to bundle the various screening tests recommended for the general population, and to streamline processes so that these are delivered as a one-stop service to the public.  There was also an increased effort to move health promotion programmes upstream to the early childhood years via new programmes targeting young parents and pre-schools.  HPB’s school health promotion framework was recently awarded a Special Recognition by the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific.

7.         Mr Lucas Chow, Chairman of HPB, said, “Hak Seng has brought health promotion to a wide cross-section of Singapore society to a new height within a short period of time. This is evident from the successful implementation of various strategic programmes to engage the communities.  For example, making healthier food more accessible to Singaporeans through the Healthier Hawker Centre Programme and enhancing our national tobacco control programme through the World Conference on Tobacco or Health held in Singapore in 2012.  His dedication and contributions will be missed. We wish him all the best in his new role.  We are pleased to have Yoong Kang taking over the helm from Hak Seng and look forward to another exciting chapter for HPB under the new leadership.”

8.         The Ministry of Health and the Health Promotion Board wish to express their deep appreciation to Mr Ang Hak Seng for his sterling contributions, and at the same time extend a warm welcome to Mr Zee Yoong Kang as the new Chief of HPB.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH