Teo Ho Pin

Dr Teo Ho Pin is a Mayor of North-West District and Member of Parliament for Bukit Panjang Constituency in Singapore. He is also the President of the Building & Estate Management Alumni Association of National University of Singapore over the past decade. Dr Ho will be presented with the NUS Distinguished Alumni Service Award on 5 July 2007.

Dr Teo was an NPCC cadet of New Town Secondary School (1973-76) and cadet inspector (1977-78). He was also very active in Singapore Lifeguard Corps and NUS Lifeguard Corps. He was the top 1st year student and subsequently graduated in 1985, with Honours in Building from the National University of Singapore (NUS). After graduation, he joined NUS as a teaching staff in the Department of Building. With the NUS Overseas Graduate Scholarship, he attained his masters in Project Management (Top M.Sc Student) and doctorate in Building (PhD), from the Heriot-Watt University, UK.

Dr. Teo's first experience as a volunteer was during his secondary school days, where he was in the National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC). He was very involved in his CCA, which provided opportunities for him to be involved in community work. During his days in NPCC, he was a shooting instructor at the Police Academy. When he became a MP, he was invited back to his secondary school to officiate the school's commemoration day.

He became the Chief Executive Officer of Jurong Town Council in 1991. As the Chief Executive, he was responsible for the management of over 40 000 units of HDB flats. In 1997, he was elected as MP for Sembawang GRC, which sparked off his career life as a MP.

Dr. Teo has been in the Grassroots for over 25 years, dating back to 1981, where he first joined the Grassroots volunteer as a Young Executive Committee (YEC) member during his university days. When he was running the town, one of the MPs nominated him to be a potential candidate to be a MP. Dr. Teo then joined the Sembawang GRC, which was a 6 member GRC. After which, he was appointed by the Prime Minister to become a Mayor, in year 2001.

Over the last 10 years, Dr. Teo has been playing his part well as a MP and a Mayor, by serving and bonding the community. When he was appointed to become a Mayor, the first thing that he did was to help the retrenched and unemployed. The passion that Dr. Teo has towards his job was evident. “I’ll work with grassroots leaders and MPs to see how we can match jobs for those who need them. We'll also look into how we can help those making adjustments in their family lives as a result of the recession,” he said, when interviewed by The Straits Times on 17th November 2001.

When faced with a challenge, Dr. Teo would always work it out with his partners. By making things transparent, he would get more heads to come in together and think of a way to overcome the challenge. Dr. Teo works together with the respective Grassroots Organizations, the People’s Association, and other voluntary welfare organizations, and under his good leadership and guidance, they were able to get things done. One of his ex-employee commented that Dr. Teo was “very good at garnering grassroots support” and “very prompt in deciding how to deal with the issues of the day”.

Apart from being a MP and a Mayor, Dr. Teo also has a family with 3 children. Having such a busy job with long working hours, Dr. Teo has to be able to strike a balance between his career and family. However, it isn’t easy to do so. Even with proper time management, he still has to sacrifice some family time. Despite so, Dr. Teo is able to maintain his family well, because of the strong support and understanding from his family members.

[click here to see Dr. Teo Ho Pin in cadet inspector course 1977]

[A weblog of - Dr. Teo Ho Pin]