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KENNETH LOO
President
Kenneth Loo is the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Straits Construction. Kenneth began his career with the company as a site engineer in 1991 and quickly rose to become Senior Project Manager in 1993. In 2004, he became the firm’s General Manager and was named Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer in 2008 and 2014 respectively. As Chief Operating Officer, Kenneth is responsible for the growth and development of the company’s business operations, contract administration, cost management and procurement. He is also a director of several subsidiaries under the Straits Construction Group. With over 20 years of service in the company, Kenneth has played an instrumental role in the company’s success.
Kenneth is deeply committed to the building and construction industry and devotes his time to supporting several organisations. He is currently the President of The Singapore Contractors Association Ltd (SCAL), Chairman of the SCAL-Housing & Development Board Focus Group (HDB), and is the SCAL Representative for both the Construction Industry Joint Committee (CIJC), and the Inter-Agency Dengue Task Force for the National Environment Agency (NEA). Kenneth is also the Secretary-General of the Asean Constructors Federation (ACF) and is the Industry Ambassador for Construction Productivity for the Building & Construction Authority of Singapore (BCA). In addition, he also serves as a member of BCA’s Construction Productivity Centre Advisory Panel, Building & Construction Industry Rebranding Committee and Precast Advisory Committee.
Kenneth has also played an active role beyond the building and construction industry, having served as Chairman to Migrant Workers’ Assistance Fund (MWAF), Co-Chairman to the Migrant Workers’ Forum and Economic Strategies Committee, Sub-Committee 6, Working Group 3 on Sustainable and Optimised Foreign Workforce, all under the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). He was also a committee member of the Employability Skills and Training Council for Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), Partner Connection Fund (PCF) Panel and Policy Study Workgroup on Manpower Issues (REACH Panel), both under the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).
Kenneth graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) from the University of New South Wales in 1990 and obtained his MBA (Technology Management) from Deakin University Australia/APESMA.
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MR. SANGVORN LIPATAPANLOP
First Vice President
SALIYA KALUARACHCHI
Second Vice President
NG YEK MENG
PRO Secretary General
Mr Ng Yek Meng graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and holds a Degree of Master of Science in International Construction Management. He has worked in the construction industry for 30 years and is also a practicing Professional Engineer in Singapore and Malaysia.
Mr Ng started his career as an engineer in Housing and Development Board of Singapore. He later joined the private sector and set up his own construction company. He is currently the Managing Director of Progressive Builders Pte Ltd, a company that specializes in precast construction in public housing projects. Besides public housing projects, Progressive Builders also have projects in other sectors, including private housing projects, industrial projects, commercial and institutional projects.
He is holding the post of President of Singapore Construction Association Limited (SCAL), and is the Immediate Past President of the Construction Industry Joint Committee (CIJC), Board Member of International Federation of Asian and Western Pacific Contractors' Associations (IFAPWCA) and Council Member of ASEAN Constructors Federation (ACF).
He represents SCAL and serves in several inter-government task force and workgroup on improving construction productivity and safety.
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LIZA NGAMTRAKULPANIT
PRO Secretary General
CV-Exec Dir
LEVY V. ESPIRITU
Executive Director
Levy V. Espiritu is one of the founders and the current Chairman and CEO of DATEM Incorporated. He served as President of the Philippine Constructors Association (PCA) in 2010 to 2011, and is the incumbent Executive Director of the International Federation of Asian and Western Pacific Contractors’ Associations (IFAWPCA).
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His company, DATEM Inc., a quadruple A construction company, was founded in 1984 by a group of professionals, highly trained in construction. The group envisioned a construction company that could give its clients total value-engineered service in terms of quality, time and cost through productive and efficient construction methodologies. Levy and his team pioneered one of the major breakthroughs in the Philippine construction industry when they introduced the precast system in the 90s.
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Three decades later, the founders are now leading an organization of trailblazers with over 11,000 personnel, having evolved to become a diversified construction firm building Metro Manila’s remarkable structures and architectural marvels today.
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On the strength of over 31 years of construction experience and a reliable track record, The Company has recently diversified its businesses well beyond construction. In 2013, the company has expanded into affordable housing and bulk water and wastewater treatment.
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​Levy is unwavering in his belief that the employees are the greatest assets of DATEM. He lives by the mantra of “Passion for our work, compassion for our People.” From his experience as a young engineer, he has seen firsthand the difficulties that the workers face, and he desires to help others overcome these obstacles by way of training, values formation, and by instilling a culture of “malasakit” (compassion). “Malasakit” has always been his favorite among the company’s core values that include Excellence, Integrity, Innovation, and he enjoins all DATEM employees, partners and stakeholders, to instill this in their day-to-day operations.
DESMOND L. HILL
Rapporteur
Mr Desmond Hill is the Deputy Head of the International Building Construction Divisions Group and Head of Contract Management Division of the International Civil Engineering Divisions & International Building Construction Divisions Group and is concurrently the Executive General Manager of Penta-Ocean Construction Co Ltd.
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He has over 35 years of experience in large scale civil engineering and building projects.
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Mr Hill holds a Degree in Civil Engineering from the National University of Singapore. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Singapore and a Fellow of the Society of Project Managers, Singapore. He is also an Accredited Adjudicator under the Security of Payment Act in Singapore and an Evaluator of the Singapore Mediation Centre.
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He sits as Council Member of Singapore Contractors Association Ltd, Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC), Chairman, Council Committee for Management Systems & Product, SAC and Building & Construction Standard Committee, SPRING.
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In the international arena his appointments including Treasurer of the ASEAN Constructors Federation (ACF) and Rapporteur of the International Federation of Asian & Western Pacific Contractors’ Associations (IFAWPCA).
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​His past appointments include as the President of the Singapore Contractors Association Ltd (SCAL), President of the Singapore Squash Rackets Association (SSRA), Secretary General of the International Federation of Western and Asia Pacific Contractors’ Associations (IFAWPCA), Council Member of the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), Council Member of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), Singapore Business Federation, SME Committee on Finance and Cost of Doing Business, Council Member of the Advisory Council on Community Relations in Defence (ACCORD), Water Network Panel of the Public Utilities Board and Chairman, Technical Committee on Construction Management, SPRING.
CV-Rapporteur
MR. JOHN TONG
Legal Adviser
In the initial years of his career, Mr. Tong was involved in commercial conveyancing (including housing development and commercial properties) and general litigation. His preference being corporate matters, Mr. Tong left practice in 1994 and continued his legal career with the Sunway Group of Companies, a diversified Malaysian conglomerate operating in the Asia Pacific region.
In the more than seven years stint with the Sunway Group, Mr. Tong has handled complex corporate and commercial matters in a diverse cluster of industries relating to privatization of toll roads, construction, property development, property investment, quarrying, building materials, shopping malls, hotels, theme parks, leisure-related industries, education and IT. Mr. Tong has drafted/reviewed documents related to corporate restructuring exercises, listing exercises, rights and bonus issues, ESOS schemes, concession agreements, construction contracts, acquisition and divestment agreements and issuance of private debt securities in the form of Islamic bonds.
Having a thirst to further establish his legal career, Mr. Tong left his position as the Head of the Legal Department of the Sunway Group of Companies in early 2001. Mr. Tong’s primary area of practice then included corporate finance, concession agreement for privatization of the Kajang Traffic Dispersal Ring Road, acquisitions and providing external legal support for Unified Communications Group of Companies, a telecommunications company listed in the SGX.
In 2002, Mr. Tong joined Messrs Shui-Tai, where he established and headed the Corporate and Commercial Practice Group.
In 2007, Mr. Tong left Messrs Shui-Tai and set up Messrs John Tong, Fahmi & KH Yeoh. Mr. Tong now specializes in corporate matters (restructuring exercises, listing and pre-listing exercises, employees’ share option schemes, acquisitions and divestments of equities and businesses), joint ventures, development/construction/infrastructure projects, privatisation of toll roads, privatization agreements, project management, Information, Communication and Technology (“ICT”) support, data centres set-up and operations, construction agreements, technical assistance agreements and manufacturing/mining agreements.
Mr. Tong is also one of the few legal practitioners in Malaysia conversant with the quarry industries.
Mr. Tong has the honour of being appointed as the Honorary Legal Advisor to Master Builders Association of Malaysia and the Malaysia Quarries Association. Mr Tong has also been appointed the Honoray Advisor to the International Federation of Asian and Western Pacific Contractors’ Association, a Federation comprising 19 member countries in the Asia Pacific region, with its headquarters in Manila, Philippines, since 2018.
Mr. Tong has in recent years been involved in deals involving the disposal data centre located in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, proposed privatization of a leading pharmacy group in Malaysia, tender for industrial hub in Pulau Indah, negotiations for a RM2.7 Billion re-development project with a Selangor GLC. Armed with his diverse experience and network, Mr. Tong is also very much sought after by business leaders to provide insights on the genuineness of transactions.
MR TONG
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