6th military colleague (BG ranked) joins Des Kuek at SMRT

[Confuseous]

Less than a month after ex-air force man ME8 Lee Ling Wee, 47, was appointed Senior Vice President of SMRT’s new division for maintenance and engineering in May, he has been tasked to take over the position of Executive Vice President of Trains, effective Monday (24 Jun).

The post was vacated by Mr Khoo Hean Siang, 65, last Sunday when his employment contract with SMRT expired.

Prior to joining SMRT, Mr Lee headed the RSAF’s air-engineering and logistics department, and has more than 25 years of experience in engineering and maintenance in the air force.

He is the sixth person with military background whom SMRT chief executive Desmond Kuek has brought into SMRT.

Mr Lee will take charge of all train operations, engineering and maintenance for the North-South, East-West and Circle Lines and for Bukit Panjang LRT.

With Mr Lee’s appointment, the bulk of senior management under former chief executive Saw Phaik Hwa has been replaced.While in RSAF, Mr Lee held the rank of Military Expert 8 – equivalent to a Brigadier-General.

- http://www.tremeritus.com/2013/06/21/air-force-veteran-takes-over-entire-train-ops-at-smrt/

 

[PrinceCharming]

It was reported on page B2 of The Straits Times, 21 June 2013.

Or in Today's online edition: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/lee-ling-wee-appointed-executive-vp-trains-smrt

***********************************************************

By
Woo Sian Boon, Today
-
20 June

SINGAPORE — Less than a month after ex-military man Lee Ling Wee, 47, was appointed senior vice-president of SMRT’s new division for maintenance and engineering, the transport operator has announced that Mr Lee has taken over the position of Executive Vice President of Trains, effective Monday (June 24).

The post was vacated by Mr Khoo Hean Siang, 65, last Sunday when his employment contract with SMRT expired.

As Senior Vice President for Maintenance and Engineering, Mr Lee — who joined SMRT on May 20 — had been responsible for the maintenance and engineering aspects of trains, as well as the tracks, quality assurance, innovation and power.

With his new appointment, Mr Lee will relinquish this position — renamed Senior Vice President for Systems and Engineering Division — to Mr Ng Bor Kiat, 56, former director of corporate development for the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources. He was also formerly director of land systems in the Defence Science and Technology Agency.

Prior to joining SMRT, Mr Lee, 47, headed the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s air-engineering and logistics department, and has more than 25 years of experience in engineering and maintenance in the air force.

He is the sixth person with military background whom SMRT chief executive Desmond Kuek has brought onto SMRT’s 20-member senior management board to help the company get back on track since the two major train disruptions in December 2011 that saw then-chief executive Saw Phaik Hwa resign.

Other hires include vice-president of human resources Gerard Koh, 42 and vice-president of train operations Alvin Kek, 45. Both men were previously with the Singapore Armed Forces.

SMRT also announced restructuring to its Trains Group, “to encourage cross-functional learning as well as operational priorities”.

For example, under the new structure of the Operations Group, each line operational unit will be embedded with its own first-line maintenance function, with the purpose of improving unit integration and allowing for more direct control over routine maintenance functions.

 

[PrinceCharming]

When you see increasing numbers of ex-military men occupying posts in companies or GLCs providing essential services in Sinkieland, you should know that there would be an imminent change in leedership (read: leadership) such as the passing on of the old leetator (read: dictator).

Essential services have to be secured in the event of mass protests or demonstrations brought on by the change of LEEgime.

 

[Orion]

How they got the job when they have 0 experience to do the job well?

 

[Narong Wongwan]

How they got the job when they have 0 experience to do the job well?

Why cannot? He used to be in charge of jet plane repairs....what's a train compared to flying machines?

 

[ionzu]

How they got the job when they have 0 experience to do the job well?

they will cope much better than the previous marketing team from DFS. our trains need engineers to run them, not marcom types.

 

[steffychun]

Lee held the rank of ME8--cocked uip rank

At least Desmond Kuek was Lieutenant General

 

[Narong Wongwan]

Lee held the rank of ME8--cocked uip rank

At least Desmond Kuek was Lieutenant General

Imagine this retard ME8 goes for some regional or international convention with overseas counterparts.

 

[No_Collar]

My friend in smrt said that the new ceo is many times better than butch Saw. Just a couple of days ago one of Saw kaki-nang who is a VP got demoted...

 

[winnipegjets]

Senior VP to Executive VP in one month ....even SMRT practise expeditious career advancement. So, Lee's compensation jumps from $40k a month to $60k a month?

Kuek told sinkees that it will take 5 years to resolve the current problems in the SMRT. Is he going to be able to expeditiously resolve these problems now that he has implemented expeditious career advancement for his kakis?

Will these scholars who have moved to SMRT still enjoy the public pension upon retirement?

 

[watchman8]

My friend in smrt said that the new ceo is many times better than butch Saw. Just a couple of days ago one of Saw kaki-nang who is a VP got demoted...

To use Saw as comparison is setting the bar too low.

 

[watchman8]

How they got the job when they have 0 experience to do the job well?

At least he's a sinkie engineer and worked as an engineer for years. The only blemish is that he's a scholar, otherwise everything else sounds good.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

Lee held the rank of ME8--cocked uip rank

At least Desmond Kuek was Lieutenant General

Something to add...
In case you dun already know....
This dumbo ME scheme was the brain child of kee chew

 

[nanjingren]

I think we should allow the new guys to come in. We can't expect them to rectify the system that was screwed up by Saw on an immediate basis. Forget whether they are paper generals but we need so see how these guys perform at a specified timeframe.

 

[steffychun]

Imagine this retard ME8 goes for some regional or international convention with overseas counterparts.

Enh ME8 is BG equivalent

 

[winnipegjets]

I think we should allow the new guys to come in. We can't expect them to rectify the system that was screwed up by Saw on an immediate basis. Forget whether they are paper generals but we need so see how these guys perform at a specified timeframe.

These PAPer generals come in with little track record to show. If we are spending that much on them, we can get true talents from overseas - people who have track records to show.
These PAPer generals will secretly hire overseas expertise to do the job and then claim credit. And we will have to pay hire fares because of the unnecessary spending on another layer of bureaucracy because of the scholar system.

 

[winnipegjets]

At least he's a sinkie engineer and worked as an engineer for years. The only blemish is that he's a scholar, otherwise everything else sounds good.

Trains move on rails, aircraft flies. Huge difference, IMHO.

He is going to hire foreign expertise - those who have real experience and track record - to fix it. He is just a layer of bureaucracy that we don't need, chewing up millions in tax dollars.

 

[Velma]

Give Desmond Kuek some space. Although rumours have been flying around that his attitude in the SAF is shit and how much his wife loves to boast about her husband's ex-position, we should give him some grace period. Remember that he had inherited an administration that is in shambles and a management so bad that it makes the SMEs shine. That bitch spent so much on retail, which should have been a side income rather than main revenue, instead of spending on the engineering sector which required attention the most. Remember those technicians who appeared for the inquiry? They are simply pure amateurs who only know the bits and pieces of technical stuff. This pretty much shows how much damage that the Bitch Saw's administration had did to SMRT. At least, he is clearing the old and bringing in new people (though they are his ka kias) but there might be a chance that his new team might have better standard than previous.

 

[mojito]

We need more generals to make up for sinkies' lack of leadership qualities in the private sector.

 

[ChaoPappyPoodle]

Give Desmond Kuek some space. Although rumours have been flying around that his attitude in the SAF is shit and how much his wife loves to boast about her husband's ex-position, we should give him some grace period. Remember that he had inherited an administration that is in shambles and a management so bad that it makes the SMEs shine. That bitch spent so much on retail, which should have been a side income rather than main revenue, instead of spending on the engineering sector which required attention the most. Remember those technicians who appeared for the inquiry? They are simply pure amateurs who only know the bits and pieces of technical stuff. This pretty much shows how much damage that the Bitch Saw's administration had did to SMRT. At least, he is clearing the old and bringing in new people (though they are his ka kias) but there might be a chance that his new team might have better standard than previous.

Isn't Desmond Kuek the kuniang that went for an extended holiday within the first two months on his new job? This kind of piece of shit is a deadwood that will screw taxpayers for years to come and there won't be any significant change to the service since his masters are set on increasing ridership exponentially.