Appointment of new Chief Executive, Intellectual Property Office of Singapore

06 MAY 2011

6 May 2011 Posted in Press releases

  1. BG Tan Yih San will assume the appointment of Chief Executive (CE) of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) with effect from 1 June 2011. He succeeds Ms Liew Woon Yin, who has served as CE, IPOS since 1 April 2001. Ms Liew will return to the Singapore Legal Service.

  2. BG Tan, 45, was awarded the Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship in 1985 to study at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Physics), First Class Honours. He obtained a Master of Business Administration from the University of Hull in 1996. BG Tan was also awarded the SAF Postgraduate Scholarship (General Development) and obtained a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University in 1999.

  3. BG Tan served with the SAF for over 26 years, during which he held various key command and staff appointments, including Future Systems Architect, Commander, 3rd Singapore Division and Assistant Chief of the General Staff (Intelligence). BG Tan will retire from the SAF and return to the Administrative Service with effect from 1 June 2011.

  4. Ms Liew played an instrumental role in the formation of IPOS as a statutory board in 2001. Under her leadership, IPOS helped shape an IP landscape in Singapore that is strongly conducive for innovation and investment. It has strengthened considerably Singapore’s IP regime, with significant improvements to various IP Acts including the Copyright, Trade Marks and Patent Acts, and the provision of a highly efficient and robust system for the registration and protection of IP. Today, Singapore’s international rankings in IP protection and rights enforcement are one of the best worldwide and the top in Asia. Ms Liew also led IPOS’ active participation in international IP forums and engagement with partners such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and IP offices of other countries, and helped to establish IPOS as a constructive player on the international IP scene.

  5. The Ministry of Law and IPOS deeply appreciate Ms Liew’s many years of dedicated service and contributions to IPOS, and wish her continued success and fulfilment in her future endeavours. We welcome BG Tan, as IPOS embarks on its next phase of development to build up Singapore as a hub for IP services and capabilities and as we continue to strengthen our IP regime to keep pace with technological advances.

  6. A write-up on BG Tan is included at the Annex.

Annex: About BG Tan Yih San

Last updated on 25 Nov 2012