NTU names 3 deputies for senior leadership team
(From left) Prof Ling San, Ms Tan Aik Na and Prof Lam Khin Yong will oversee academic, administration and research matters respectively. Photo: NTU
SINGAPORE — Incoming Nanyang Technological University (NTU) president Subra Suresh has set out his senior leadership team, announcing three deputies who will oversee academic, research, and administration matters from January.
Professor Ling San, currently the dean at NTU’s College of Science, will take over from Professor Freddy Boey as the university’s next provost and concurrently serve as vice-president for academics. Ms Tan Aik Na, currently chief administrative officer and chief financial officer (CFO), will remain as CFO and take on a new role as vice-president for administration.
Chief of staff, Professor Lam Khin Yong, will continue as vice-president for research.
The vice-president posts for academics and administration are newly created under Professor Suresh.
Prof Ling’s research focuses on applications of algebra, number theory, coding theory and cryptography, among other topics.
The 53-year-old — whom Prof Suresh described as “an educator at heart” — is also active in professional bodies here and abroad, including as the President of the South East Asian Mathematical Society.
Ms Tan, 47, joined NTU last August and became CFO in January. In April, she was concurrently appointed chief administrative officer, overseeing the university’s finance, human resources, information and technology, housing, and legal departments.
Ms Tan leads an effort to strengthen and modernise NTU’s administrative capabilities. Her focus will be on streamlining practices to reduce the administrative burden on the university’s staff and students, as well as upgrading its technological, workforce, and leadership capabilities, said Prof Suresh, 61, yesterday.
Continuing his role as vice-president for research, Prof Lam, 61, will guide a “university-wide research agenda and its implementation”. His responsibilities will include research planning and policy development, research funding strategies and research infrastructure development.
Prof Boey, who has held the post of provost since 2011, will be stepping down in October. The 61-year-old has been on sabbatical since February this year, during which Prof Lam had served as acting provost.
In a separate message to NTU alumni yesterday, outgoing president, Professor Bertil Andersson, said he had been working with Prof Suresh, who previously headed Carnegie Mellon University in Philadelphia, to ensure a “smooth leadership transition”.
Prof Suresh had been meeting key appointment holders as part of a “listening tour”, he added.
Prof Andersson, 69, will continue to lead key projects — including the university’s budget for the next financial year, the launch of the Clinical Sciences Building at its Novena campus, and a review of the university’s graduate programme — before he hands over his duties to Prof Suresh in January.
