Chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers, Mr J Y Pillay, Retires; Mr Eddie Teo to be appointed as New Chairman

Mr J Y Pillay, Chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers (CPA) will retire on 2 January 2019, when his current term of appointment to the CPA ends. Mr Eddie Teo, currently member of the CPA, will be appointed by the President under Article 37B(3A) of the Constitution as Chairman of the CPA.  Mr Teo’s appointment will be effective from 2 January 2019 to 1 June 2020.

Mr J Y Pillay

Mr Pillay has served on the CPA for eighteen years since 2 January 2001.  He will complete his current term of appointment on 1 January 2019.  He continues to serve as a Member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights (from July 2003); Rector of College of Alice & Peter Tan, National University of Singapore (from July 2011) and Board Member of the Financial Intelligence Authority of the Vatican City State (from June 2014).

Prior to his CPA appointment, Mr Pillay held various senior positions in the civil service, helming the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of National Development as Permanent Secretary, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore as Managing Director.  He was Chairman of SIA from 1972 to 1996, and Chairman of Singapore Exchange from 1999 to 2010.

Mr Pillay was the longest serving Chairman of the CPA, having served in that capacity for 14 years.  During that period, he led the CPA in advising the 6th, 7th and 8th Presidents on matters related to safeguarding of the national reserves and the integrity of the public service.  He actively engaged the government officials and fifth schedule entities in discussing major proposals. 

For his sterling contributions to the Singapore, Mr Pillay was awarded The Order of Nila Utama First Class in 2012.                                                      

Mr Eddie Teo

Mr Eddie Teo was appointed as member of the CPA on 15 August 2018.

Mr Teo served in the Singapore Public Service for 35 years before retiring in 2005. He began his public service career in 1970 in the Security and Intelligence Division (SID) of the Ministry of Defence. He became Director, SID in 1979 and was in that post until 1994. From 1982 to 1986, he held the concurrent position of Director, Internal Security Department, Ministry of Home Affairs. He was Permanent Secretary (Defence) from 1994 to 2000 and Permanent Secretary (Prime Minister’s Office) from 1998 to 2005. From 2006 to 2008, he was the Singapore High Commissioner to Australia. He was also the Chairman of Public Service Commission from August 2008 to July 2018, and Chairman of the Presidential Council for Religious Harmony from September 2017.

PRESIDENT’S OFFICE
17 December 2018