DBS Bank Chief Executive Piyush Gupta will be the new Chairman of SMU from Jan 12, 2023. He will be taking over from founding Chairman Ho Kwon Ping, who will step down on Jan 11. Mr Ho accepted the Government’s invitation in 1997 to create SMU, Singapore’s third university, and led it for 25 years. In a statement yesterday, the University said Mr Ho and former Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan laid out the features that became the university’s calling card: Its strong management and social science offerings, as well as delivering a broad-based education to students. SMU said yesterday that Mr Ho pushed the university to be more than a business school. Under his leadership, SMU grew from having just a school of business to a university with eight schools focusing on fields such as computing and information systems, economics, law and social sciences. SMU President Professor Lily Kong said that the University was deeply indebted to Mr Ho for his wisdom and counsel. Education Minister Chan Chun Sing also thanked Mr Ho for his contribution in establishing SMU as Singapore's first autonomous university. "I look forward to working with Piyush and am confident that he will build on Kwon Ping's good work to take SMU to greater heights," he said.