On 3 November 2014, Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, Chairperson of HRRC’s Governing Board, took over the leadership of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as its Executive Deputy Chairman. He succeeds Ambassador Barry Desker, who led the RSIS for 14 years.
Under a new RSIS management structure that retains a Deanship for the school, the position of Executive Deputy Chairman was created as the institution’s academic and policy research responsibilities have grown. The RSIS has said that the new structure will allow Ong to oversee the school’s executive and administrative matters and also chart its role as a think tank. Meanwhile, the appointed dean and chief academic officer, Professor Joseph Liow, will focus on the school’s academic development.
Ong Keng Yong he is Ambassador-at-Large at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was High Commissioner of Singapore to Malaysia from 2011 to 2014 and served as Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from January 2003 to January 2008.
