Who are Singapore’s longest-serving blue-chip CEOs?

Singapore caps how long an independent director can sit on a listed board. It sets no limit for the chief executives those directors oversee. Several of the country’s largest companies are about to find out what that means.

At the Singapore Exchange’s annual general meeting on October 23, Loh Boon Chye told shareholders that the bourse should start planning for a new chief executive. He has run SGX since July 2015, and his contract expires in mid-July 2027. No departure date has been set, and he had already raised the matter with the exchange’s chairman.

The announcement matters beyond SGX. The exchange is at the center of Singapore’s effort to revive its equity market, so its own handover will be watched as a model. It also comes as several of the city-state’s best-known companies are led by executives who have been in the job for a decade or more. Meanwhile, the two largest local banks have just shown how quickly a long reign can end once a board decides to act.

The long-tenure club

Measured by time in the top job, the longest-serving chief executives among Singapore’s blue chips are a small group:

Kuok Khoon Hong co-founded the agribusiness group Wilmar International in 1991 and has led it ever since. Roughly 35 years on, he is still its chairman and chief executive.

Wee Ee Cheong, 73, has been chief executive of United Overseas Bank since 2007, when he took over from his father, the late Wee Cho Yaw. He is also deputy chairman.

Goh Choon Phong, 63, became chief executive of Singapore Airlines on January 1, 2011. He will mark 16 years in the role in two months.

Loh Chin Hua has been chief executive of Keppel since January 2014, after two years as its chief financial officer.

Loh Boon Chye, 62, has led SGX for more than 11 years.

None of these men has simply minded the shop. Each has reshaped the company he runs.

Under Loh Chin Hua, Keppel shed its offshore and marine business, which merged with Sembcorp Marine in 2023 to form Seatrium. Keppel then recast itself as an asset manager and operator focused on infrastructure, real estate and connectivity.

Goh steered SIA through the pandemic to a record net profit of S$2.68 billion in the 2023-2024 financial year. He also merged SilkAir into the parent airline and folded the Vistara joint venture with Tata into Air India, which left SIA with a 25.1 percent stake in the enlarged carrier.

Loh Boon Chye took over at SGX after two major trading outages in late 2014 had damaged confidence in the exchange.

So long tenure has often gone hand in hand with ambitious strategy. Boards face a different question: is the same leader the right one for the next decade, and is the company ready if the answer is no?

The banks have already moved

Singapore’s two largest lenders have answered that question recently. Piyush Gupta handed DBS over to Tan Su Shan on March 28, 2025, after 16 years as chief executive. OCBC appointed Tan Teck Leong as chief executive from January 1, 2025, succeeding Helen Wong. Both successors came from inside their banks, and both changes were announced before the handover took effect.

That leaves UOB as the outlier among the three local banks. Wee is the third generation of his family to run the bank, after his grandfather, the founder Wee Kheng Chiang, and his father. He has signaled that he is open to a successor from outside the family, which would be a first for UOB, but no timetable has been disclosed. He has also kept the door open to relatives who earn the job. “Yes, if the family members are interested, they’re more than welcome,” he said at a 2024 briefing, adding that “they need passion, they need love, and they need the desire to be part of the team.”

For investors, the comparison with DBS and OCBC is the main issue. Both rivals now have chief executives early in their tenures, with time to set multi-year strategies. UOB, the smallest of the three, has the longest-serving leader and the least visible succession plan.

The nine-year asymmetry

Singapore’s listing rules are strict about tenure for directors and silent about it for chief executives. Since January 11, 2023, independent directors of SGX-listed companies who have served more than nine years can no longer count as independent. Before that, long-serving directors could keep their status through a two-tier shareholder vote, and companies used that option far more often than regulators had intended.

No equivalent rule applies to chief executives. CEOWORLD Magazine calls this the nine-year asymmetry. The rules assume that a decade on the board erodes a director’s independence, but they put no structural limit on how long an executive can run the company those directors supervise.

There are sound reasons for the difference. A director’s job is to judge management, and long familiarity can blunt that judgment. A chief executive’s job is to execute, and continuity can help, particularly in businesses with long investment cycles such as airlines and infrastructure.

The asymmetry still has consequences. When independent directors rotate every nine years and the chief executive stays for 15 or 20, management ends up with more institutional knowledge than the board. The newest directors may have served a fraction of the CEO’s tenure. That makes it harder for them to push on the one decision only the board can make: when leadership passes, and to whom.

Disclosure has improved. For financial years ending on or after December 31, 2024, SGX-listed companies must disclose the exact pay of each director and the chief executive, broken down into salary, bonuses, share awards and other incentives. That has already drawn closer scrutiny. Goh’s total pay for the year to March 2026 rose 38 percent to S$9.69 million. Over the same year, SIA’s net profit fell 57 percent to S$1.18 billion, though that still beat analysts’ forecasts. SIA has also faced questions this year about whether it will put more capital into Air India, after the carrier reported an annual loss of more than 220 billion rupees.

Why SGX’s own handover matters most

SGX’s transition matters more than an ordinary corporate succession because the exchange is central to Singapore’s attempt to revive its stock market. Recent measures include a 20 percent tax rebate for primary listings and a framework for dual listings on SGX and Nasdaq. A new chief executive will inherit those reforms and will be judged on whether they bring in a meaningful pipeline of listings.

The market barely reacted. On the day of the announcement, SGX shares traded at S$20.73, down 0.5 percent. “I wouldn’t expect succession planning alone to derail SGX’s growth,” said Glenn Yin, director of research at ACCM. He added that uncertainty could weigh on sentiment if the process dragged on.

That is the right test. Loh started the process publicly, nearly two years before his contract ends, which gives the board time to run a proper search. The board can pick an internal candidate or an outsider with international exchange experience, and that choice will show how ambitious Singapore intends to be about its capital markets.

A succession readiness check for long-tenure boards

CEOWORLD Magazine suggests four questions for directors at companies whose chief executive has served more than a decade. They are an editorial framework, not a scored index:

Has the board identified at least two credible internal candidates, and have they been tested in roles with full profit-and-loss responsibility?

Do the independent directors, taken together, have enough tenure and sector knowledge to challenge the chief executive on timing?

Has the company described a succession process to shareholders, even if it has not named a date or a successor?

If the chief executive left within six months, could the board name an interim leader without a public search?

If the answers are unclear, the bigger risk is not that a long-serving CEO stays too long. It is that the board loses control of the timing when change comes.

What to watch

The next 12 months should bring the SGX appointment, and with it a template for how Singapore’s institutions handle leadership change in public. UOB’s board faces the clearest pressure to follow DBS and OCBC. SIA’s shareholders will look for a credible succession plan as Goh passes 16 years in the role and the airline weighs further commitments to Air India.

Long tenure has served several of these companies well. Singapore’s governance rules do not yet require boards to show they have planned for the day it ends, and investors should now ask for that evidence.

Executive takeaways

What changed: SGX’s chief executive has publicly started succession planning, nearly two years before his contract expires. That puts the long tenures at several Singapore blue chips under new scrutiny.

Why it matters: Singapore limits independent directors to nine years but sets no limit for chief executives. At companies with very long-serving leaders, that can shift board influence toward management on the timing of succession.

What leaders should do next: Boards with a CEO past ten years should test succession readiness now, and tell shareholders how the process works even before naming a date.

Key insights

• SGX chief executive Loh Boon Chye, in the job since July 2015, has asked the exchange to begin planning his succession. His contract runs to mid-July 2027, and no departure date has been set.
• Singapore’s longest-serving blue-chip chief executives include Kuok Khoon Hong at Wilmar since 1991, Wee Ee Cheong at UOB since 2007, Goh Choon Phong at SIA since 2011 and Loh Chin Hua at Keppel since 2014.
• DBS and OCBC both changed chief executives in 2025, promoting from inside the bank. UOB is the only one of the three local banks still led by a long-serving executive, with no public succession timetable.
• Since January 2023, SGX rules strip independent status from directors who have served more than nine years. There is no comparable limit for chief executives, a gap CEOWORLD Magazine calls the nine-year asymmetry.
• Mandatory disclosure of exact CEO pay, in force since FY2024 annual reports, has made pay at long-tenure companies easier to scrutinize. SIA is an example: its CEO’s pay rose 38 percent while profit fell 57 percent.

Long-serving CEOs at Singapore blue chips

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