New leadership at the helm of SMU Advisory Board for Real Estate Programme

Mapletree Awards recognise academic excellence of Real Estate Track students, as part of Mapletree Real Estate Programme

03 Mar 2021

Singapore, 2 March 2021 (Tuesday) – Mapletree Investments (“Mapletree” or “the Group”) and Singapore Management University (“SMU”) are pleased to jointly announce new appointment holders of the SMU Advisory Board for the Real Estate Programme, which provides industry insights into evolving industry trends and strategic inputs for SMU’s Real Estate Track including the curriculum and research initiatives. The 11-member Board comprises members who are esteemed leaders in the fields of real estate, tax, investment, finance and law, and have taken on a new three-year term starting from 15 November 2020.

Mapletree’s Group Chief Financial Officer, Ms Wendy Koh, has assumed chairmanship of the Advisory Board, with SMU’s Dean of Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Professor Gerard George, continuing as Vice Chairman. She succeeds Mr Wong Mun Hoong, Mapletree’s Regional Chief Executive Officer, Australia & North Asia, who completed his three-year term. Two new members have been appointed to the Advisory Board, namely, Mr Michael Ngu, CEO, Architects 61; and Ms Priya Kini, Managing Director and Head of Global Banking, Singapore, HSBC. Mr Vincent Koo, Managing Director, DCA Architects; and Mrs Eng-Kwok Seat Moey, MD and Head (Capital Markets), DBS, have stepped down from the Board with the expiry of their terms. Please refer to Annex 1 for the full list of members.

In addition, Mapletree and SMU are also pleased to announce the recent recipients of the Mapletree Awards for Academic Year (AY) 2019-2020 from the SMU Real Estate Track. The Mapletree Awards, valued at $8,000 each, aim to motivate undergraduate students from the Real Estate Track who have achieved excellent academic results and demonstrated strong interest and aptitude in real estate investments and finance through participation in Real Estate study trips and internships. Seven Mapletree Awards have been presented to-date.

The four recent Award recipients are:

Chew Ying Ting, Year 2, School of Economics
Bryan Yeo Chai Liang, Year 3, School of Economics
Brandan Koh Yee Swee, Year 3, Lee Kong Chian School of Business; and
Shawn Low XueXun, Year 4, Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Mr Hiew Yoon Khong, Mapletree Group Chief Executive Officer, said, “Since education is one of the four key pillars of Mapletree’s corporate social responsibility programme, we are encouraged by this second batch of students and hope to motivate them to strive for further academic excellence through the Mapletree Awards. We would also like to thank the outgoing Chairman and members of the Advisory Board for their counsel, industry insights and support which has made the Programme a success.”

The Advisory Board was set up in 2017 in conjunction with the launch of the Mapletree Real Estate Programme, established with a $3 million endowed donation.

Professor Gerard George, Dean of SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business and Vice Chairman of the Advisory Board for Real Estate Programme, said, “We are pleased to continually co-create with industry partners a real estate finance specialisation that caters to the sector’s talent needs. With multi-disciplinary expertise and training in the latest sector-specific knowledge and skills, I’m confident that graduates of the SMU Real Estate Track will be highly sought after by the industry. In Mapletree, we have found a like-minded partner with a passion for developing real estate leaders, and we look forward to deepening our collaboration. Special appreciation also goes to the outgoing Advisory Board members for their invaluable contribution.”

The Mapletree Real Estate Programme also supports real estate study trips (which have enabled some 64 students to learn from the industry in China, Vietnam and South Korea) and speaker events such as the Mapletree Annual Lectures^[1]and Mapletree-SMU Real Estate Forum^[2].

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Enclosures (in PDF attachment):