OCBC Bank today (December 23) announced that Andrew Lee will succeed Ooi Sang Kuang as chairman of its board of directors from February 1 2023.
Lee, a member of the board since February 18 2022, has more than 30 years of consumer banking and insurance experience in Singapore and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. He joined OCBC Group in 1999 and, during an 18-year tenure, held key executive and leadership roles at the bank and its insurance subsidiary, Great Eastern Life Assurance Group.
At OCBC Bank, Lee rose to senior executive vice president and head of global consumer financial services, before being appointed executive chairman of the BCS information system. He joined Great Eastern Group in 2012 as group chief marketing officer and distribution officer, and retired from OCBC Group in 2017.
In addition to his distinguished career at OCBC Group, Lee also held senior executive positions at Standard Chartered Bank. With his extensive knowledge of financial services and deep understanding of OCBC Group’s culture and core values, Lee is well-equipped and ideally positioned to provide strong stewardship and oversight at the board level, the bank says in a statement.
Ooi, who will be retiring on January 31 2023, took over as board chairman in 2014. During his nine-year tenure, OCBC completed a landmark CEO transition with the appointment, in 2021, of the first female head of a Singapore bank, group chief executive officer Helen Wong.
Ooi led the board in crafting the group’s strategic vision of creating a strong Greater China platform and sharpening its corporate structure and operating model to support the growth of its core markets.
In 2019, he ushered in a refreshed set of corporate values – lasting value, integrity, forward-looking, respect and responsibility – whose encapsulation in the acronym LIFRR has become deeply entrenched as both common language and cultural touchstone among OCBC Bank employees, the statement says, adding that Ooi steered the bank during the Covid-19 crisis to emerge stronger.
