Ong Ye Kung

Career

From 1993 to 1999, Ong served in the Ministry of Communications. While he was there, he helped to develop the Land Transport White Paper and was part of the team which established Singapore's Land Transport Authority.

Ong then served in the Ministry of Trade and Industry from 2000 to 2003 as Director of Trade and Deputy Chief Negotiator for the Singapore-US Free Trade Agreement (which was signed in May 2003).

From 2002 to 2004, Ong was the Principal Private Secretary to Singapore's then Deputy Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong.

Ong was the Chief Executive of the Singapore Workforce Development Agency from 2005 to 2008. There, he spearheaded many initiatives to build up the Continuing Education and Training infrastructure for Singapore, and made training accessible to the individual worker, including contract workers and the unemployed.

Following that, Ong joined the NTUC as Assistant Secretary-General. He is also the Chairman of the Employment and Employability Institute, and Executive Secretary for the National Transport Workers' Union and the Singapore Manual and Mercantile Workers' Union.

In 2011, Ong contested as a PAP candidate in the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC). He was part of the 5-member PAP team led by Minister for Foreign Affairs, George Yeo to face the Workers' Party (WP) team led by the party's Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang. The WP's team defeated the PAP team, marking the first occasion in Singapore's history in which the PAP lost an election in a GRC. Ong admitted that the result was a blow and that he was honoured to learn George Yeo.

Following the general election, Ong continued to work at the NTUC. He became the NTUC's Deputy Secretary-General in June 2011. Later that year, he was elected into the NTUC's Central Committee (its apex decision-making body) at the National Delegates' Conference, which is held once every four years.

As independent director on the SMRT Board, Ong was appointed to head an internal investigation into the major train disruptions between 15 and 17 December 2011. The report was completed and submitted to the national Committee of Inquiry set up by the government to investigate into the incidents.

Ong left the NTUC in November 2012 and joined Keppel Corporation in January 2013 as Director of Group Strategy.

In August 2015, the PAP announced that Ong would be a candidate for the party in the Sembawang Group Representation Constituency at the 2015 general election. His team won, and subsequently, he was elected to Parliament.

On 29 August 2016, MAS announced that Ong will be appointed to its Board of Directors with immediate effect. Ong's term will be from 29 Aug 2016 to 31 May 2019

Current appointments

Previous appointments

Others: Former Board member of the SMRT Corporation from 2006 to 2014, Chairman of the Employment and Employability Institute, Advisers to the National Transport Workers' Union (NTWU), Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union (SISEU), and Attractions, Resorts & Entertainment Union (AREU)

Education

Ong was educated at Maris Stella High School and Raffles Junior College, before going on to the London School of Economics where he completed a BSc (Econ) degree in 1991. In 1999, he completed a Master of Business Administration degree at the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland.

Family

A Hokkien Singaporean, Ong is married to Diana Kuik Sin Leng, daughter of real estate magnate Kuik Ah Han. The couple has two daughters.

Ong's father, Ong Lian Teng, was a Barisan Sosialis politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1963 to 1966, when he resigned to protest the "undemocratic acts" of the PAP government. In an interview with The Straits Times in 2011, Ong noted that his father (who died in 2009) had been fully supportive of his son's decision to become involved in politics as a member of the PAP despite his own past involvement in opposition politics in Singapore.