Pen Pictures of the JSC Members

Justice See Kee Oon was appointed Judge of the Appellate Division in October 2023.

He received his Bachelor of Laws from the National University of Singapore in 1991. He also holds a Master of Laws from the University of Cambridge, and a Master of Public Management from the National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

He joined the Singapore Legal Service in 1991 and was appointed a Deputy Registrar and Magistrate in the Subordinate Courts (renamed as State Courts in 2014) before joining the Supreme Court in 1995 as a Justices’ Law Clerk. In 1997, he returned to the Subordinate Courts as District Judge. In 2007, he joined the Ministry of Law and headed the Insolvency and Public Trustee’s Office until 2009. He then returned to the Subordinate Courts in 2009 and was appointed Senior District Judge of the Criminal Justice Division in 2010. He became Chief District Judge of the Subordinate Courts in 2013 and continued to hold the appointment, now known as Presiding Judge of the State Courts, until March 2020. He was also appointed Judicial Commissioner in 2014 and a High Court Judge in January 2017.

Justice See is currently the President of the Industrial Arbitration Court and chairs the Personal Injury Damages Committee. He is also the Judge-In-Charge of the Judiciary’s Knowledge Management Office. In addition, he is the Deputy Chairman of the Singapore Judicial College Board of Governors and a Member of the Military Court of Appeal.

Justice Lim was appointed a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court on 1 August 2016 and a Judge of the Supreme Court on 1 August 2019.

Justice Audrey Lim graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1993 and was admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore in 1998.

Justice Lim joined the Singapore Legal Service in 1994 and had been appointed to various positions including as a Justices’ Law Clerk, District Judge of the then Subordinate Courts, Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court, Deputy Chief Legislative Counsel of the Legislation Division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Singapore Legal Service.

Justice Philip Jeyaretnam is the President of the Singapore International Commercial Court. He was appointed Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court on 4 January 2021 and High Court Judge on 1 November 2021. His focus on the Bench has been in complex commercial cases, arbitration law, building and construction, company and trust law. He is also a member of the Judicial Service Commission, and the Presidential Council for Minority Rights. In June 2022, he was appointed by the Chief Justice as the co-chair of the Commercial Practice Panel of the Supreme Court, to develop best practices for the management of commercial cases.

Justice Jeyaretnam read Law at Cambridge and graduated with First Class Honours in 1986. He was called to the English Bar in 1987 and to the Singapore Bar in 1988 and was conferred the title of Senior Counsel in 2003 at the age of 38, one of the youngest lawyers to be appointed Senior Counsel. In 1988, he received the Airey Neave Award for research on the rule of law. In 1990, he was given a Fulbright Fellowship, which took him to the University of Iowa International Writers’ Program and to Harvard Law School.

While in practice, he was recognised as an expert in commercial litigation, arbitration and construction law in all major legal publications. In 2020, the Law Society conferred on him the CC Tan Award. He was managing partner of Rodyk & Davidson LLP from 2011, and, following its combination with Dentons, ASEAN CEO.

He was the founding chairperson of the Society of Construction Law (Singapore), from 2002 to 2004, and served as the President of the Law Society during the years 2004 to 2007. From 2009 to 2020, he was a member of the Public Service Commission. A novelist and short story writer, he received the Young Artist of the Year Award for his literary work in 1993 and a SEA Write Award in 2003.

Mr Kwa Chong Seng is currently Chairman of UBS Singapore of S.E.A. and UltraGreen.ai Limited. He is also Director of 5-Hour International Corporation Private Limited and Smart Energy Systems, Inc – a Delaware USA corporation and a Strategic Advisor to Renew Group Private Limited.

Mr Kwa has an illustrious career in the Public Sector. He was appointed a Member of the Public Service Commission in 1997 and stepped down as Deputy Chairman of the Public Service Commission in April 2023. He was a Board member of the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA). He was Chairman of Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) from 2016 to 2022 and Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd from 2013 to 2023. Mr Kwa was also previously Director/Deputy Chairman of Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd, Director of DBS Group Holdings Ltd and DBS Bank Ltd and Board Member of Seatown Holdings Pte Ltd.

Mr Kwa has more than 40 years’ experience in the petroleum industry. He started his career with Esso Singapore Pte Ltd in 1969, holding various roles in Logistics, Marketing and other parts of the downstream business before becoming Chairman and Managing Director in 1992. He held this post until 1999 when he became Chairman and Managing Director of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. He retired from this position in 2011.

In 1994, Mr Kwa was awarded the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award by the National University of Singapore. In 1999, he was conferred the Honorary Ningbo Citizenship. Mr Kwa was also awarded The Public Service Star in 2005, The Public Service Star (Bar) in 2016 and The Distinguished Service Order in 2023, by the Singapore Government.

Mr Kwa graduated from the University of Singapore with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Engineering Singapore.

Mrs Deborah Ong is currently the Chairperson of the Institute for Human Resource Professionals Ltd and a Board member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Consortium of Clinical Research and Innovation Singapore Pte. Ltd. In addition, she is an independent director of CapitaLand India Trust Management Pte Ltd, Wah Hin and Company Pte Ltd, SATS Ltd and Starhub Ltd. She is also a trustee for the Wealth Management Institute Ltd.

Mrs Ong has over 30 years of public accounting experience, providing audit and advisory services to clients in various industries. She had also held leadership positions in PricewaterhouseCoopers ("PwC") Singapore and in the Global Network, having retired as a Partner of PwC LLP Singapore.

Mrs Ong has vast international exposure with her role as International Team Leader in the Global Assurance Quality – Inspections Group of PwC. In this role, she interacted with the PwC Leadership of a portfolio of countries regarding how quality and risk were managed in each of the firms. The countries included the United Kingdom, Korea and Japan. She was, prior to this appointment, a Member of the Leadership Team for PwC Singapore. She was also the firm’s Risk and Quality Leader.

Mrs Ong helmed the Human Capital function for PwC Singapore from 2002 to 2012. During her tenure as the Human Capital Leader, the firm saw significant shifts in managing the people agenda. An advocate of coaching culture, she worked closely with her fellow Partners to create a conducive environment encouraging staff development.

Mrs Ong was previously a Board Member and the Chairperson of the Audit and Risk Committees of the Singapore Tourism Board, the SkillsFuture Singapore, the Workforce Singapore, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at the Nanyang Technological University and the Council for Estate Agency and Deputy Chairperson of the National Parks Board. She was also the Deputy Chairperson of the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Council and Chairperson of the Audit Committee.

Mrs Ong was awarded The Public Service Star in 2020 by the Singapore Government.

Mr Dilhan Pillay joined Temasek in September 2010. He was appointed Executive Director and CEO of Temasek Holdings on 1 October 2021 and is concurrently the CEO of Temasek International, a position he has held since Apri 2019.

Mr Dilhan Pillay has held various leadership roles in Temasek, including Head of the Investment, the Portfolio Management and the Enterprise Development Groups. He has also led the Temasek market teams in Singapore and the Americas.

Mr Dilhan Pillay serves on the boards of the National Research Foundation in Singapore, Enterprise Singapore and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is also a member of the Future Economy Council, the Financial Centre Advisory Panel of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the National Jobs Council.

Prior to Temasek, Mr Dilhan Pillay was the Managing Partner of WongPartnership LLP. He has over 20 years of legal experience, mainly focusing on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and corporate law.

Mr Dilhan Pillay graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Laws and obtained a Master of Law from the University of Cambridge.