Lionel Yeo
CEO and board director from the public and private sectors
Lionel is a seasoned CEO and board director from the public and private sectors.
He was the CEO of the Singapore Tourism Board from 2012 to 2018, where he executed a successful strategy to attract major sports, entertainment and business events to Singapore. He also launched a new country brand for Singapore, and led the push to be the world’s first national tourism body to provide a shared digital platform for tourism content, services, and data. During his tenure, Singapore’s tourism arrivals and expenditure hit record highs.
Lionel began his career in the public sector and worked in ministries such as Finance, Trade & Industry, Information & The Arts, and the Prime Minister’s Office before his Tourism stint.
In 2018, he transitioned to the private sector to pursue new challenges. From 2018-2019, he was CEO Advisor at Grab, working directly with the co-founders on strategic issues and helping to pave the way for Grab’s NASDAQ listing in 2021.
In Feb 2020, he was appointed CEO of the Singapore Sports Hub – the iconic USD1 billion facility which hosts the largest sports and entertainment events in Asia. He negotiated a successful project exit for the private sector foreign consortium and stepped down as CEO in Dec 2022.
Lionel has been serving on the boards of public and private sector entities for two decades. He is currently an independent director on SGX-listed telco StarHub Ltd and car-sharing platform GetGo Technologies Pte Ltd. Previous board experiences include: Mandai Park Holdings Pte Ltd, Sentosa Development Corporation, National Healthcare Group; Urban Redevelopment Authority; Intellectual Property Office of Singapore; and Jurong Port Pte Ltd.
Lionel has degrees from LSE (BSc Econ) and MIT (MBA, Sloan Fellow).