David Lim

David Lim has extensive business, managerial and leadership experience in both the public and private sector in Singapore and overseas over more than twenty years.
His roles over the past decade include CEO of world leading port operator, the Port of Singapore Authority; CEO of the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park based in Shanghai, leading an international consortium; and CEO of Jurong Town Corporation, which develops industrial facilities in Singapore and invests throughout the region.
Mr Lim entered politics in 1997 and has served as Singapore’s Minister of State for Defence, Chairman of the National Youth Council, Minister of State for Information and the Arts and, most latterly, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts.
He left his Cabinet post earlier this year to pursue opportunities in the corporate sector.
As an honours graduate in civil engineering, David Lim began his career with Singapore’s Ministry of Defence, developing computerized logistics systems for the Air Force and Navy.
This led to his joining the National Computer Board and his involvement in setting up the Civil Service Computerisation Programme.
He later joined the Economic Development Board, and subsequently headed its North American operations, based in New York.
He has also worked for Sembawang Corporation as Executive Vice President.
47-year-old Mr Lim earned his honours degree in civil engineering in 1977 from the University of Melbourne after achieving the rare distinction of being awarded both the Colombo Plan Scholarship and the President’s Scholarship, reflecting his all round capabilities.
He completed an MBA at the National University of Singapore in 1989 and the Program for Management Development at Harvard in 1990.
Mr Lim was made an Eisenhower Exchange Fellow in March 1998 and appointed a member of the Eisenhower Fellowship International Advisory Council in 1999.
Mr Lim is married with three school-age children.