Adjunct Professor Teo Ho Pin

In 2001, Dr Teo was appointed by the Prime Minister of Singapore to be the Mayor of the North West District. His responsibilities extended to the 880,000 residents in the district. He served as the Mayor for over 19 years and implemented many community development programs to build a cohesive community in North West district. Having been involved in community development work for over 40 years, Dr Teo had developed many sustainable community programs for the North West Community Development Council (CDC). These included programs for Assisting the needy (A), Bonding the people (B), and Connecting stakeholders of the community (C). The North West CDC had also built the largest network of 320 healthy lifestyle clubs comprising 80,000 members in Singapore.

Through his positions, Dr Teo had nurtured many partners and volunteers over the years. Some of the initiatives pursued under his leadership, in addition to those listed above included Wecare Service Weeks @ North West, which provided festive goodies to 8000 low income families yearly, Skillsfuture Advice Workshops, which provided skills upgrading advice to 16,000 residents, and many ground up initiatives such as Project-I-Care, Know your Medicine, Get it Right, Tri-Gen Home Care, Swimsafer Day, and North West 911 Emergency Preparedness App.

His success is evident in the North West CDC being conferred 13 Sustainable Development Awards up to the regional scale.  

Member of Parliament
In 1996, Dr Teo was elected to be a Member of Parliament for the Sembawang Group Representation Constituency. He was subsequently elected as a Member of Parliament for the Holland-Bukit Panjang Group Representation Constituency in 2001. Since 2006 he had won three elections as the Member of Parliament for the Bukit Panjang Single Member Constituency. To-date, Dr Teo had won 5 General Elections, and had served as a legislator for over 23 years.

Dr Teo garnered the highest percentage of votes in Singapore in the 2006 General Elections. He received 77.28% of the votes of which was the highest vote share out of 84 Parliamentarians.

As a Member of Parliament, Dr Teo had held various key Parliamentary appointments. Between 1999 and 2009, he was the Chairman for the Government Parliamentary Committees (GPCs) for National Development, Environment and Water Resources, Law, and Home Affairs. As the chairman of these GPCs, Dr Teo had played an important role in the system of checks and balances in the Singapore legislative process to ensure that current laws were updated and new legislations were passed to better serve Singaporeans.

Dr Teo was the Government Deputy Whip from 2011 to 2015. He assisted the Whip to maintain discipline in the party ranks and provided guidance to younger Members of Parliament. He was also a member of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament for 7 years. The Committee is responsible for scrutinizing the accounts of ministries and statutory boards. His contributions included providing suggestions to address lapses in the accounts, especially in the areas of procurement, project and facility management. In addition, Dr Teo had served as a member in various Select Committees in Parliament.

Township Management
In 1992, Dr Teo was seconded to be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Jurong Town Council. His responsibilities included the management of 40,000 public housing flats and commercial units. As the CEO of the Town Council, he managed a team of property managers in providing town council / municipal services to residents and related stakeholders. His scope of work included policy formulation, financial management, procurement management, maintenance management, project management, public relations management and media communications management.

Since 2001, Dr Teo had also acted as the Chairman of the Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council which managed about 50,000 public housing flats and commercial units. His responsibilities included formulating township management policies, bylaws, facilities management programs, and improvement projects for the town. Holding a Masters and Doctorate in Building, Dr Teo had used his expertise to manage a successful town in Singapore, benefitting 200,000 residents.

In 2006, Dr Teo was appointed as the co-ordinating Chairman for the 15 People’s Action Party Town Councils. As the co-ordinating Chairman, Dr Teo had provided guidance to the 15 Town Councils and had implemented many joint projects among the town councils such as the computerization of accounts, setting up of an integrated estate management system, lift dashboard management system and emergency maintenance services system. Dr Teo also chaired a Lift Taskforce committee which managed the upgrading and replacement of 24,000 lifts in the 15 towns with an estimated budget of S$500 million. The 15 Town Councils managed approximately one million public housing flats and commercial units.

Private Sector
Dr Teo was the Executive Director for Icost Private Limited from 1999 to 2001, a firm dealing in the use of information technologies in construction. 

In the same period, he was a Director of GKE Holdings Pte Ltd, a logistics firm.

He was the Independent Director and Chairman of Audit Committee for Thai Village Holdings Limited from 2000 to 2001, a food and beverage company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Academia
Dr Teo joined the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a Senior Tutor in 1985. In 1990, he was promoted to lecturer, and thereafter, senior lecturer in 1994. He continued teaching with the NUS in this capacity until 1999.

Most recently, Dr Teo was appointed as an Adjunct Professor at NUS in 2017 and a Visiting Professor at STUD in 2020.

Dr Teo’s areas of expertise include politics, city and township management, community development, sustainable development, and smart facilities management. His most recent appointment had afforded him the opportunity to share his experiences in township management and community development with students and staff of the School of Design and Environment. Dr Teo was also appointed as a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Design and Environment at NUS.

Philanthropy
Dr Teo believes strongly in philanthropy. As the fulfilment of his vision, a philanthropy club called Club 100@North West which encourages individuals and companies to make a monthly donation of at least S$100 monthly for at least 12 months, was established in 2008 under the North West CDC. Every year, the 800 members of Club 100 contribute about S$1m towards the North West Food Aid Fund. This fund helps 13,000 needy families annually by providing cooked meals, rations and vouchers.

Dr Teo started serving the community in 1982 as a Youth Executive Committee member at the Taman Jurong Community Centre. Since then, he has continued his community work in many grassroots organizations, professional bodies and non-government organizations in various capacities.

As the Grassroots Advisor for the Bukit Panjang constituency, Dr Teo had been instrumental in spearheading many community projects to strengthen the bonds of his residents over the years. Every year, the constituency organized about 60 signature events for its residents. These events included festive celebrations, arts & culture events, healthy lifestyle activities, green events, etc. One of the signature events was the celebration of Pongal at Bukit Panjang yearly. Bukit Panjang has successfully organized Pongal celebrations for 13 years. It had allowed for much bonding among the residents of different races.

Dr Teo had also helped to raise funds for many community organizations such as the building fund for the Nanyang Community Club, Zhenghua Community Club, Bukit Panjang Community Club, Zhu Lin Temple and the Chung Hwa Medical Institution. As the Mayor and a Member of Parliament, he had also supported and officiated the fund-raising projects of many charitable organizations.

In 1983, he started the University Lifeguard Corps to promote lifesaving among undergraduates in the NUS. As a qualified lifesaving instructor, Dr Teo had trained many students to be qualified lifesavers. He served in the management committee of the Singapore lifesaving society and Singapore lifeguard corps. He also served as the Chairman of the National Water Safety Council for 7 years to promote water safety and swimming in Singapore. Through his experience, Dr Teo and his water safety committee developed the Swimsafer program to prevent drowning in Singapore. Today, 90% of primary schools have adopted the Swimsafer program in their school activities to promote water safety and swimming.

Dr Teo has also been active in promoting professionalism in the building industry. In 1996, he was elected as the President of the Singapore Institute of Building. Dr Teo and his fellow practitioners in various professional bodies and trade associations set up the Construction Industry Joint Committee (CIJC) in 1999 to promote co-operation among the professional bodies and trade associations in the building and real estate industry. Till today, CIJC plays an important role in co-ordinating the efforts of the industry and the Government to upgrade the industry. Currently, Dr Teo is the adviser to the CIJC and has been supporting the upgrading of SMEs in the industry and promoting professionalism among building practitioners. Recently, Dr Teo was conferred an Honorary Fellow award by the Society of Project Managers for his contributions to the project management industry. He was also conferred an Honorary Fellow award by the Singapore Institute of Building in 2020.

Since 1999, Dr Teo has been the President of the Building and Estate Management Alumni (BEMA) at the National University of Singapore. Over the years, BEMA has been active in organising continuing professional development courses, fund raising golf, NUS freshmen orientation, talks and social gatherings for its 7000 members. BEMA has also raised funds to support the university by providing bursaries, book prizes, awards and social assistance to needy students. In addition, Dr Teo has helped to raise funds for the building of university amenities such as U town, Alumni complex, and School of Design and Environment building.

Besides his political and professional work, Dr Teo is also the Patron to many clan associations, voluntary welfare organizations and Chinese temples. His support to these organizations has helped to build a harmonious and peaceful multi-racial and multi-religious society in Singapore.