Board of Directors

The Tax Academy Board of Directors is drawn from across the industry to provide strategic direction and guidance.

Chairman

Mr Tham Sai Choy
Chartered Accountant

Mr Tham is a chartered accountant by profession. He is a board member of DBS Group Holdings, Keppel Corporation, Mount Alvernia Hospital and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority. He was for many years in public practice at KPMG, where he was its managing partner and then its Asia Pacific regional chairman when he retired.

He is the Chairman at EM Services Pte Ltd and serves on the governing board of Nanyang Polytechnic, and the advisory boards of SKB Institute of Financial Economics and SMU Academy, both units of the Singapore Management University.

Mr Tham is a Fellow of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and the Singapore Institute of Directors.

Members

Ms Chiam Yah Fang
Chief Executive Officer, Tax Academy of Singapore
Deputy Commissioner (Business Group)/ Chief Compliance Officer, Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore

Yah Fang is the Deputy Commissioner (Business Group)/Chief Compliance Officer of IRAS, providing strategic leadership to IRAS divisions in domestic income tax policies and driving compliance activities aligned with IRAS-wide corporate plans.

Prior to her appointment as Deputy Commissioner, Yah Fang had held key appointments in IRAS, including as Assistant Commissioner of the Corporate Tax Division and Assistant Commissioner of the Taxpayer Services Division. She has also served in the Singapore Ministry of Finance as the Chief Tax Policy Officer.

Mr Low Hwee Chua
Regional Managing Partner
Tax & Legal
Deloitte Singapore & Southeast Asia

Mr Low Hwee Chua, Deloitte Singapore, is a tax partner with more than 25 years of experience including two years with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore. He is the regional managing partner for the tax practice in Deloitte Singapore and Deloitte Southeast Asia. Hwee Chua specialises in corporate income tax and international tax; assisting local and multinational companies to manage their tax affairs efficiently and cost effectively. Hwee Chua has assisted on a variety of projects including restructuring; mergers and acquisitions; tax due diligence; structuring of inbound and outbound investments; and applications for tax incentives and grants. Hwee Chua is an accredited tax adviser (income tax) with the Singapore Institute of Accredited Tax Professionals (SIATP) and is a board member of the SIATP.

Ms Soh Pui Ming
Partner
Head of Tax
Ernst & Young Solutions LLP

Pui Ming is the Head of Tax with Ernst & Young Singapore. She has more than 20 years of experience in Singapore and regional tax compliance and advisory.

Pui Ming was previously the EY Asean Leader for Global Compliance and Reporting, where she headed the record-to-report services in the region, which span traditional tax compliance, tax accounting, as well as book-keeping, payroll, and corporate secretarial services. She is also experienced in tax advisory matters including acquisitions, group reorganization, tax controversies and health checks etc. Pui Ming holds a Bachelor of Accountancy (Second Upper Honours) from the National University of Singapore. She is a member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants. She is also an Accredited Tax Advisor (Income Tax) of the Singapore Institute of Accredited Tax Professionals.

Mr Ajay Sanganeria
Head of Tax
KPMG Singapore

Ajay leads the tax practice for KPMG Singapore and has more than 20 years of post-qualification experience in the areas of tax consulting and compliance. He specialises in corporate and international tax and has advised numerous clients on inbound/outbound investments, pre and post IPO structuring, supply chain hub model restructuring, cross border service fee/royalty payments, procurement model and intellectual property structuring. Ajay has contributed many articles in academic journals, leading business publications and newspapers. He is also a regular speaker on tax issues including in collaboration with industry associations and Government agencies.

Mr Lennon Lee
Partner
Financial Services Tax Leader
PwC Singapore

Lennon is the financial services tax leader with PwC Singapore. He has over 20 years of experience in practising Singapore and international tax. He is active in advising financial institutions, multinational corporations and government-linked entities on cross-border tax implications and disputes, regional corporate restructuring and tax related financial regulatory projects as well as advisory relating to mergers and acquisitions, Singapore outbound and inbound investments, asset securitisation, cash and treasury products, REITs, asset wealth and fund management. In addition, he also manages the China tax practice in Singapore and advises various institutions and corporates on both China inbound and outbound investments.

Lennon is a member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants and a member of the Singapore Institute of Accredited Tax Professionals (Accredited Tax Advisor). He is also a member of the CPA Australia.

Associate Professor Poh Eng Hin
Assistant Dean, Division of Business Law
Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University

Associate Professor Poh has been with the Nanyang Business School, NTU since 1998. He currently serves as Assistant Dean for the Bachelor in Accountancy programme, and teaches taxation courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His research has been published in a number of peer-reviewed international journals. Outside of NTU, he has served at various times as Examiner for several professional accountancy bodies. He is an Accredited Tax Adviser and had previously served as a member of the Tax Academy’s curriculum and examination development committee and a member of the Income Tax Board of Review.

Mr Eugene Lim
Co-Founder, Principal
Taxise Asia LLC

Eugene Lim is an international tax and trade lawyer who works extensively in the Asia Pacific region. He is a Founding Principal of Taxise Asia LLC (member firm of WTS Global) (“WTS Taxise”). WTS Taxise is a boutique specialist international tax, transfer pricing and international trade Singapore law practice and is the exclusive member for Singapore of WTS Global.

Previously, Eugene was based in Hong Kong and China for 11 years before moving to Singapore in 2014 to head the Singapore Tax, Trade and Wealth Management practice in one of the largest international law firms in Singapore. He has extensive experience relating to the structuring of supply chain and distribution strategies in the Asia Pacific region as well as in international tax and trade matters.

Eugene is recognised by leading legal directories such as The Legal 500 Asia Pacific and International Tax Review, with Chambers Asia Pacific noting that “clients prize the practical nature of Eugene Lim’s advice, and particularly appreciate his ability ‘to analyse, find solutions and add value - not just as a legal counsel but as a business consultant too’.” Who’s Who Legal commented that Eugene is the “first port of call” for clients in the trade and customs field.

Mr Darren Tan Siew Peng
Chief Financial Officer
OCBC Bank

Mr Darren Tan was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of OCBC Bank (OCBC) in December 2011. As CFO of OCBC, he oversees financial, regulatory and management accounting, tax, treasury financial control, corporate treasury, funding and capital management, corporate planning and development and investor relations. He joined OCBC Bank in March 2007 as Head of Asset Liability Management in Global Treasury and assumed the role of Deputy CFO in May 2011. Prior to joining OCBC, Mr Tan worked for 13 years in the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) with his last position in GIC as Head of Money Markets.

Mr Tan graduated with First Class Honours in Accountancy from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Fellow Chartered Accountant of Singapore. Mr Tan is currently an Adjunct Professor with the Nanyang Business School at NTU and is a Council member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA). Mr Tan was awarded the Singapore Corporate Awards Best CFO in 2017 and FinanceAsia Singapore Best CFO in 2016.

Professor Sum Yee Loong
Professor of Accounting (Practice)
Singapore Management University

Professor Sum has specialised in taxation for over 30 years and he was tax partner in Deloitte Singapore from 1987 to 2011. He has substantial experience providing advisory tax services to multi-national companies, local corporate clients and financial institutions. His specialties include corporate structuring, restructuring for IPO, acquisitions and mergers, cross-border transactions, structured finance and international tax planning.

Professor Sum had been nominated on several occasions as one of the top 10 leading Tax Advisers in Singapore by International Tax Review and was also featured as one of the World’s Leading Tax Advisers in the Legal Media Group 2011 Guide to the World’s Leading Tax Advisers. He served on the Board of the Tax Academy of Singapore from August 2006 to August 2011 and was also previously a Senior Consultant with IRAS. He is currently a Board Member of IRAS and a Council Member of the National Arts Council.