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Mr Lee Hsien Yang
The Year 2004 Hall of Fame recipient, Lee Hsien Yang, is familiar to many. As the former President and CEO of Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Hsien Yang has been widely acknowledged as the man who has been instrumental in building SingTel from a local telco into a regional powerhouse and who has led the drive by the SingTel Group of companies to tap the growing opportunities made possible by the convergence of IT and telecommunications.
Hsien Yang’s achievements cross national boundaries. His leadership has helped SingTel win Telecom Asia’s Best Asian Telecom Carrier award for six consecutive years between 1998 and 2003. Over the last decade, SingTel has successfully invested in the Asia Pacific region and extended its reach and footprint to more than 20 countries and territories globally. Today, together with its regional partners, SingTel is Asia’s largest multi-market mobile operator serving more than 40 million customers in six markets.
Hsien Yang played a key role in the successful acquisition and turnaround of Optus, SingTel’s subsidiary in Australia. The acquisition was a watershed and remains to this day, the largest ever takeover by a Singaporean company.
On the home front, SingTel has been the leading player in the promotion of IT to both the masses and businesses. Its investments to establish the island’s IT infrastructure has enabled it to grow its broadband customer base to 219,000 as of September last year, a quantum leap from 45,000 just two years earlier. SingTel is now the market leader with an estimated share of more than 60 per cent of all broadband users in Singapore.
The growing popularity of broadband services has contributed greatly to the raising of IT literacy levels of Singaporeans. This, together with SingTel’s consistent investments in infrastructure over the years, will ensure that Singapore remains a major communications hub in this region, supporting the country’s competitive position.
The SingTel Group has led the way in innovation and breakthroughs. Under Hsien Yang’s leadership, the company has accomplished several firsts in the world, and recently became the first operator in the world to offer GPRS roaming to India. Its connectivity into Vietnam is unrivalled and has helped many foreign companies gain access to a hitherto difficult-to-reach market.
Under Hsien Yang’s stewardship, SingTel has been recognised as a company which supports and increases the value of its companies. Besides Optus, one other notable subsidiary is NCS. When SingTel bought NCS in 1997, it was very much a local IT company with annual sales of $100 million.
Today, NCS is ranked among the top 10 in IT professional services in the Asia Pacific region excluding Japan, and delivers annual revenues of over S$500 million. It is represented in six Asian markets with core capabilities in both IT and communications engineering services, and strengths in several sectors including e-government, airport management and financial services.
Hsien Yang understands the heavy responsibility that comes with leading a large corporation. He has set the highest standards of corporate governance, transparency and social responsibility for SingTel. This has resulted in SingTel being recognised by numerous bodies including the Securities Investors’ Association of Singapore.
Hsien Yang is also committed to community development. In 2003, he led the SingTel group of companies in raising S$1.7 million for the SingTel Touching Lives Fund.
The distinctive and distinguished leadership that Hsien Yang has displayed dispels the myth that companies with a public sector heritage cannot be creative and entrepreneurial.
To acknowledge the contributions that he has made to the development of IT in Singapore, SCS is honoured to welcome Mr Lee Hsien Yang to the IT Leader Awards Hall of Fame.
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