Leader, the Teacher & You : Leadership Through the Third Generation

"Everyone - regardless of profession - will benefit from reading this uniquely designed and highly original book. It is full of human insights, and it has a deep understanding of successful leadership, an appreciation of selflessness as the key to our collective future, an awareness of history's relevance to our lives and an unflinching emphasis on excellence. Siong Guan Lim is one of the most outstanding public servants in any country, and after finishing this book, you will know why."
Senator Bill Bradley
Former U.S. Senator and a Managing Director at Allen & Co.
United States of America

"The Leader, the Teacher and You is a riveting and thoughtful study on leadership based on theory, principles, and experience by a former Head of the Civil Service and one of Singapore's most successful and admired public servants, Siong Guan Lim. It should be read by every student of politics and public policy, and anyone who aspires to play a leadership role. The book, which as the author says is "part biography, part commentary, and part exposition", is loaded with insights into how to work with people, deal with reality, motivate an organisation, achieve results, anticipate change, and ensure relevance of the organisation. For those who have long puzzled over how Singapore has been able to achieve so much with so little and in short time, it is public servants such as Siong Guan Lim who have made the partnership between the civil service and the elected politicians so fruitful. Through his fascinating account of how he started in his first job as an engineer in the Sewerage Department, went on to be the Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, worked with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Dr Goh Keng Swee, and became successively Permanent Secretary of Defence, Education, and Finance, he recounts the crucial mentorship and inspiration provided by Singapore's leaders. He thoroughly examines what true leadership is all about. Lim moved on to become Chairman of Singapore's Economic Development Board and then Group President of GIC Private Limited, the wealth fund of Singapore. I have not read such a clear analysis of the function of leadership written so succinctly and in such practical terms. It should be on the required reading list of university courses not only in Singapore, but major universities everywhere."
Professor Chan Heng Chee
Chairman, Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities
Singapore University of Technology and Design
Singapore

"A remarkable book…after I started reading it I simply couldn't put it down. It has great insights, is fun to read, and deserves to be widely read. It is full of practical wisdom for a wide range of people - from full time mums to business leaders. It sets out a framework for leaders based on values and culture, but also on lessons learned by having to take tough decisions. Siong Guan Lim had an outstanding career in the development of Singapore. The ability, motivation, and vision of the author and his colleagues are clearly one reason why Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew were so successful. Because of this the book is a great insight to understanding the phenomenon of Singapore."
Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach>BR>Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs International
United Kingdom

"Siong Guan Lim has led and managed at the most senior levels of the Singaporean government. Any leader would love to have him at his/her side, advising, counselling, provoking, and reminding. We cannot have him with us in person, but we do have this book that extracts the lessons that he has garnered from his many years of experience. We are fortunate that he has chosen to share his wisdom in writing. I have used some of his wisdom in my Harvard Kennedy School course on Effective Implementation for more than ten years. It has stood the test of time. Now, with the advent of the book, I will borrow even more from him. My students and I are grateful."

Mr Francis Hartmann
Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy and Originator of the Kennedy School course on Effective Implementation, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
United States of America

Siong Guan LIM has been the Group President of GIC Private Limited since September 2007. GIC is the Singapore Government's investment company managing the country's foreign reserves amounting to well above USD100 billion.

Prior, Siong Guan was Chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board from 2006 to 2009, and Head of the Singapore Civil Service from 1999 to 2005. Apart from serving as the first Principal Private Secretary to Singapore's founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Siong Guan was the top civil servant in the Prime Minister's Office, as well as the Ministries of Defence, Education, and Finance.

Siong Guan has been instructing on leadership and change management as an Adjunct Professor in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore since 2005, as well as governance and policy development as a Senior Fellow of the Civil Service College since 2006.

Siong Guan has chaired the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, and the Central Provident Fund Board. He has been a board member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Institute of Policy Studies, and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. He has also been a Director of various companies such as Temasek Holdings and DBS Bank.

Joanne H. LIM is the Founder and Creative Director of The Right PerspectiveSG, a consultancy specialising in writing, presentations, branding, strategic communications, and collateral design.

Joanne was awarded a full scholarship to pursue an undergraduate degree at Princeton University, where she was awarded the President's Prize and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society for outstanding academic excellence.

After graduating from Princeton, Joanne worked at PSA International Pte Ltd (PSA), one of the world's leading port operators, where she worked closely with Senior Management on strategic projects, and honed her skills in external and internal communications and branding.

Following PSA, Joanne was awarded a merit scholarship to pursue a Masters in Wealth Management and was awarded the Portcullis Wealth Management Prize. Joanne then worked at Goldman Sachs and UBS AG, before joining the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

At EDB, Joanne worked with leading companies in the areas of luxury fashion and watches, furniture, and toys. She solely helmed the logo design and collateral development for a national visual arts project, Gillman Barracks.