CHEW Kheng Chuan, or 'KC' Chew, is an independent consultant in philanthropy in Singapore. He was appointed Chief University Advancement Officer at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore on May 2009, a post he held until February 2012. At NTU, he oversaw the communications, development, alumni affairs functions.
Career
During his appointment at NTU in June 2009, the University received its single largest gift ever – S$150 million from the Lee Foundation, towards the to be jointly established with . With the enhanced matching from the Singapore Government, the sum was boosted to S$400 million, making it the largest private gift ever recorded in Singapore. Prior to joining NTU, he was the Vice-President of Endowment and Institutional Development at the National University of Singapore . He was also the Founding Director of NUS's Development Office. During his time at NUS, Chew provided leadership to the Development Office which saw NUS raising S$1.5 billion, more than four times what it had raised in the previous 12 years. Acknowledged as one of the most successful fundraisers in Asia, KC Chew is Chairman of The Substation Ltd and a Board Member of the Intercultural Theatre Institute. In 2002, Chew co-authored and edited Chew Boon Lay: A Family Traces its History, a multifaceted work that combines a biography of the noted immigrant pioneer Chew Boon Lay, with an exploration of the contributions made by his family to the region. In 1985, he founded Wordmaker Design Pte Ltd] a communications and branding firm, and served as its Managing Director until 2000. KC Chew is also a former Prisoner of Conscience. He was one of a group of 22 persons arrested under Singapore's Internal Security Act, on the grounds that they were members of a clandestine communist-front network. The head of the group was said to be Vincent Cheng, a Catholic lay worker. Operation Spectrum, popularly referred to as the , was accused by Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs of planning to “subvert the existing social and political system in Singapore through communist united front tactics to establish a communist state.” By the end of 1987, all but one of the detainees had been released, subject to restrictions on their freedom of movement. In April 1988, eight were re-arrested, following their publication of a signed public statement denying the accusations against them and alleging mistreatment in detention. Chew, who was not among the signatories but had allegedly helped edit, print and distribute the statement, was also re-arrested separately. Most of the detainees were subsequently released in stages in late 1988 and throughout 1989, after signing statutory declarations recanting earlier allegations. Chew has steadfastly denied being a Marxist, and refuted all allegations that he was involved in a conspiracy against the government. In his testimony before the United States House Committee on Foreign AffairsSubcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations on 7 July 1998, Eric P. Schwartz, Program Director of Asia Watch at Human Rights Watch, observed: “In the absence of any credible evidence of a conspiracy to promote subversion, what emerges from accusations such as these is an exceptional government hostility towards vigorous non-governmental organization involvement in public affairs.” Chew, in a statement before the Internal Security Act Advisory Board after 12 weeks of detention, declared: “I am a democrat, a believer in an open and democratic polity and in the virtues of an open and accountable government... A citizen of a democracy, to be worthy of that society, has not just the right, but indeed the duty to participate in the political life of his or her society.” Chew was the first Singaporean to be admitted to Harvard College, where he graduated with an AB cum laude in Social Studies in 1982. He has served as Chairman of the Harvard Alumni Interviewing Committee in Singapore since 1983. In recognition of his longstanding service as an alumni interviewer, he received the Hiram Hunn Memorial Schools & Scholarships Award from Harvard College in 2005.
