Singapore Chapter Board Members

An active advocate for green building and sustainability for over two decades, Esther has been instrumental in establishing CDL’s leadership in sustainability. It is ranked top real estate company on the 2020 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World and is also the only CDP A-List company for climate strategy and water security in SE Asia. Key ESG initiatives she has spearheaded include publishing the first sustainability report in Singapore in 2008; issuing the first green bond by a Singaporean company in 2017 and pioneering an SDG Innovation Loan in Singapore in 2019. A forerunner in embracing the UN SDGs, Esther was conferred 2018 SDG Pioneer for Green Infrastructure and A Low Carbon Economy by the UN Global Compact. She sits on the boards or advisory platforms of several organisations, including World Green Building Council, Global Reporting Initiative, GRESB Asian Real Estate Benchmark Committee and UNEP FI Real Estate Work Group. She chairs the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association’s Sustainability and ESG Committee and Co-Chairs the Urban Land Institute Singapore’s Sustainability Product Council.

Han Hwee Chin is Managing Director (Global Investments and Portfolio Strategy) in the real estate arm of GIC. GIC manages a well-diversified portfolio with high quality assets across various property sectors.

At GIC, Hwee Chin manages the design, composition and risk management framework of the real estate portfolio from a top-down, bottom-up approach to help formulate investment strategies across global markets and property sectors and provide directional recommendations on portfolio composition. Hwee Chin also provides independent reviews of deal assessments to the Investment Committee. Hwee Chin is on the GIC Sustainability Steering Committee and manages the real estate ESG framework that includes ESG integration into investment management strategy, investment opportunities evaluation and building portfolio resilience.

Hwee Chin graduated from the National University of Singapore with a first-class honours degree in Real Estate and has an MBA (Dean’s List) from the University of Western Australia. She started her career with JTC Corporation and joined the Ministry of Trade and Industry (Singapore), before moving to GIC. 

Norman is a Senior Partner in Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP and has been in active legal practice for the last 36 years. He joined the firm’s Corporate Real Estate Practice in 2017, with his team of 7 lawyers from Dentons Rodyk & Davidson (formerly Rodyk & Davidson) . The team has grown to 15 lawyers in addition to the existing lawyers of the Corporate Real Estate Department. He started his career at Rodyk & Davidson as a Practice Trainee from 1981 and was called to the Singapore Bar in 1982.

Norman graduated with LLB (Hons) from the National University of Singapore in 1979 and took his postgraduate for LLM with the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1984 and was under Secondment to Clifford Turner (now Clifford Chance) for a year after his postgraduate studies. He was under Scholarship from the Firm during the period he was away.

Martin Siah is managing director, head of Asia Pacific Real Estate, Gaming and Leisure, head of South East Asia Global Corporate and Investment Banking, as well as the Singapore Country Head at Bank of America. He has more than 20 years of leadership experience in investment and commercial banking in Asia Pacific with a focus on real estate, business trusts, transport and logistics, stock exchanges and capital markets. He has structured and lead-executed numerous first in kind S-REITS including cross border REITS and business trusts.

Prior to joining the firm, Martin was head of Greater China and South East Asia Commercial Real Estate and led the Commercial Real Estate Equity and Advisory franchise at Standard Chartered Bank. Previously, he spent 10 years at UBS Investment Bank where he was head of South East Asia Real Estate Investment Banking and Corporate Finance. He has served as key liaison with regulatory authorities in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, especially with regard to real estate investment trusts code and business trusts.

Martin is a board member of the Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services (CMFAS) Examinations Board in Singapore and the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association Singapore Chapter. He holds a Master of Philosophy in Finance from Cambridge University. He is a fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and a Malaysian Commonwealth Scholar. 

Chee Keong leads PwC Singapore's Real Estate and Hospitality practice. During his 29 years with the firm, he has worked in PwC offices in Melbourne, New York and Shanghai on key global audit engagements. Chee Keong and his team provide solutions to real estate businesses including tax structuring, deals, risk and technology consulting, as well as assurance engagements.

Chee Keong has been involved in advisory projects in China, Indonesia and Singapore as a financial services partner, and he was the liquidator for Lehman Minibonds during the financial crisis.

He is a practising member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand.

Tien Foo is the Provost’s Chair Professor at the Department of Real Estate, Business School. He was formerly the Director of the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies (IREUS) (2015-2022) and the Head of the Department of Real Estate (2020-2022) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He was the past President of the Asian Real Estate Society (AsRES) (2019-2021) and has been a board member of AsRES (since 2000) and the Global Chinese Real Estate Congress (GCREC) (since 2008).

He is the Post-doctoral Honoree (2012) and the Fellow (2017) of the US-based Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics, the Homer Hoyt Institute.

Tien Foo co-authors the books: “Kiasunomics” and “Kiasunomics 2”, which are written on daily life stories of typical Singaporean families based on research works done using Singapore’s data, and the book: “Singapore’s Real Estate: 50 Years of Transformation.”

Tien Foo serves as a member of the Panel of Assessors of the Appeal Board (Land Acquisition), Ministry of Law, Singapore (since 2010), and a member of the Valuation Review Board (VRB), Ministry of Finance, Singapore (since 2019). He was a member of the Professional Development Committee of the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), Ministry of National Development (2014-2018). He is the co‐founder and the principal investigator of the NUS‐REDAS Real Estate Sentiment Index (launched in 2010). He serves as the Honorary Advisor of the PropTech Association of Singapore (SPTA) (2018) and the Singapore Estate Agencies Association (SEEA) (2019-2021).

Tien Foo obtains his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge, U.K., with the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust scholarship and the Overseas Research Students award. He also holds a Master of Philosophy (Dist.) degree in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge, U.K., and a Bachelor of Science degree with 1 st  Class Honors in Estate Management from the National University of Singapore.

An Chen co-heads the AEW Asia Pacific Real Estate Securities Team and serves as Portfolio Manager with responsibility for the construction of the Asia Pacific component of AEW’s global property securities portfolios. She also serves as a member of the Global Securities Allocation Committee (GSAC) which assesses global allocation adjustments of the global property securities portfolios. She joined AEW in 2010 and is based in AEW’s Singapore office. An’s industry experience dates back to 2006 and includes roles at Prudential Asset Management in both Singapore and Hong Kong, where she served as a portfolio manager and equity analyst for Asia Pacific ex Japan Real Estate and an equity analyst for the utilities sector. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from King’s College in London and is a CFA® charter holder. Ms. Chen is fluent in Mandarin.

Joachim Kehr is a Partner and Portfolio & Regional Head Asia-Pacific at CenterSquare Investment Management. Joachim joined CenterSquare in 2011 and is based in Singapore. He is Regional Portfolio Manager for CenterSquare’s listed real estate securities funds, having previously held primary coverage of real estate equities in China, Japan and Australia. Joachim brings close to two decades of investment management experience to his role. He holds a master’s degree in Economics from Tilburg University, The Netherlands. Prior to joining the firm, Joachim was a member of BNP Paribas Asset Management’s listed real estate team, based in Amsterdam and Singapore.