While a civil servant he was one of Philip Yeo's stars and was involved in a series of early national projects including MOE system engineers and Changi Airport, besides Mindef. Philip Yeo who mentored Ho Ching also passed on his stars to her and they now work for her.
When he went to Capitaland, he completely changed their asset base from Global to China centric. He sold nearly everything includes Raffles Hotel.
He reminded me of our Nanyang forefathers whose felt the need to return to China near the end of their careers, build a house in their village to show their success and be buried there. He exercises daily at the China Club, his kids work in China, and he spends his time courting influential chinese including looking after their family and kids who are in the west for college and medical treatment.
A known achiever but I am not sure if he is a Singaporean at heart.
By the way, his notion of corruption only involves cash and money. So he avoids it. But if SIngapore legislates the British and American equivalent of ant- bribery act where the focus is on giving bribes (cash and in kind) especially to foreign civil servantsin foreign countries, this guy will be the star catch.