DesignSingapore Council appoints Jeffrey Ho Kiat as director

Ho was founding director of the School of Design at Singapore Polytechnic. He also co-founded the IDEA (Innovation Design and Enterprise in Action) Centre at the polytechnic.

Prior to his directorship, Ho practiced as an architect at the Housing Development Board (HDB) and in private practice.

Ho replaces Dr. Milton Tan who will resume his associate professorship in the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore.

Dr. Milton Tan was the founding executive director of the national agency for the promotion and development of Singapore design since August 2003.

In his tenure, Dr. Tan spearheaded several initiatives to promote and develop the local design sector, including the President’s Design Award Singapore, 10TouchPoints, ManyWaysOfSeeing and the Singapore Design Festival.

Dr. Tan also commissioned Singapore’s first presentation at the Venice Biennale International Architectural Exhibition in 2004, 2006 and 2008. More recently, he commissioned the DesignSingapore Design2050 Studios on design propositions for aspects of life in 2050 that made their debut at the Icsid World Design Congress in November 2009.

He was also instrumental in developing international design relationships with the Korea Institute for Design Promotion, the Victoria State of Australia, the Vitra Design Museum and the government of Denmark.

In October 2009, Ken Mandel of Yahoo Southeast Asia and Theseus Chan of local creative hotshop Work were among five industry leaders to join the DesignSingapore Council’s board.