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Mini Case - The Prime Minister's Powerful Better Half

Ho Ching is the CEO of Temasek Holdings, a Singaporean investment company. She rose to this powerful position through her experience in the civil service and government connections after marrying Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's current prime minister. As CEO, Ho oversees a portfolio worth over $50 billion and influences many of Singapore's leading companies. Under her leadership, Temasek has expanded its focus beyond Singapore and into other Asian markets like India, seeking new opportunities for growth.

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Alyson Fortuna
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490 views2 pages

Mini Case - The Prime Minister's Powerful Better Half

Ho Ching is the CEO of Temasek Holdings, a Singaporean investment company. She rose to this powerful position through her experience in the civil service and government connections after marrying Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's current prime minister. As CEO, Ho oversees a portfolio worth over $50 billion and influences many of Singapore's leading companies. Under her leadership, Temasek has expanded its focus beyond Singapore and into other Asian markets like India, seeking new opportunities for growth.

Uploaded by

Alyson Fortuna
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Mini case: The Prime Minister’s Powerful Better Half

Ho Ching’s power has been recognized by many. As chief executive officer of Temasek
Holdings, she ranked number 18 on a list of Asia’s most powerful businesspeople and number
24 on the Forbes list of the world’s most powerful women. How did a shy, Stanford-educated
electrical engineer end up with this kind of power? Ho was a government scholar who started
off in civil service and ended up working for the Defense Ministry in Singapore. There she met
and married Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore’s current prime minister and the son of Lee Kwan
Yew—one of modern Singapore’s founding fathers. Ho’s experience, education, and
connections led to her appointment as chief executive of Temasek, where she oversees a
portfolio worth over $50 billion and influences many of Singapore’s leading companies.

Temasek Holdings was established in 1974 in an attempt by the Singapore government to


drive industrialization. Through Temasek Holdings the Singapore government took stakes in
a wide range of companies, including the city-state’s best-known companies: Singapore
Airlines, Singapore Telecommunications, DBS Bank, Neptune Orient Lines, and Keppel Corp.
The company’s website describes Temasek’s “humble roots during a turbulent and uncertain
time” and its commitment “to building a vibrant future [for Singapore] through successful
enterprise.” Ho’s appointment to Temasek in May 2002 caused some controversy; as her
prime minister husband has a supervisory role over the firm. Ho denies any conflict of
interest:

The issue of conflict does not arise because there are no vested interests. Our goal is to do
what makes sense for Singapore, I don’t always agree with him (Mr. Lee) and he doesn’t
always agree with me. We have a healthy debate on issues.

In her role as CEO, Ho is pushing for a more open policy and an aggressive drive into the Asian
market. Under Ho’s leadership Temasek has decided to publicly disclose its annual report with
details of its performance—details that have formerly remained private and been known only
to Temasek executives.

Ho is concentrating on broadening Temasek’s focus beyond Singapore, most recently opening


an office in India. At a conference of top Indian companies, Ho appealed to investors to look
to India for opportunities for Asian growth:

Since the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the word Asia had lost a bit of its sparkle. But that
sparkle is beginning to return. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Asia economic miracle referred to
East Asia, specifically Japan. The 1970s and 1980s saw the emergence of the four Asian Tigers
of Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Now is India’s turn to stir, standing at an inflexion point, after 10 years of market liberalization
and corporate restructuring. Since 1997, Singapore’s trade with India grew by 50 percent, or
a respectable CAGR of about 7.5 percent. Confidence is brimming in India, and Indian
companies began to reach out boldly to the world over the last five years.

All these waves of development have shown that Asia, with a combined population of 3 billion,
has been resilient. If Asia continues to work hard and work smart, honing her competitive
strengths and leveraging on her complementary capabilities across borders, the outlook in the
next decade or two looks very promising indeed.

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