Perry Lim


Perry Lim Cheng Yeow is a former Singaporean army general and Chief of Defence Force of the Singapore Armed Forces. He held the rank of Lieutenant-General. Lim decided to retire from the SAF on 23 March 2018 to pursue his personal endeavors, and was succeeded by Melvyn Ong as the new Chief of Defence Force.

Education

Lim was educated in Raffles Institution and was awarded the President's Scholarship and Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship in 1991. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in mechanical engineering from Christ's College, Cambridge. In 2008, he received the Lee Kuan Yew Postgraduate Scholarship and went on to study for a Master of Business Administration at INSEAD's Singapore campus.

Military career

Lim enlisted in the SAF in December 1990 and was commissioned as a Guards officer in August 1991. He served as the Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Singapore Guards from 2003–2005, the Commander of the 7th Singapore Infantry Brigade in 2009, the Commander of the 3rd Division from 2011–2013, and the Chief of Staff from 2013–2014. Before he became the Chief of Staff, he held the following appointments in the Ministry of Defence : Head, Joint Plans and Transformation; Branch Head, Defence Policy Office, Joint Operations Department; Deputy Assistant Chief of the General Staff. He was also the chairman of the executive committee of Singapore's National Day Parade in 2013.
Lim completed the Combined Arms Tactics Course conducted by the British Army in Warminster in 1998. He also attended the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth between 2001 and 2002. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General on 1 July 2011.
Lim succeeded Ravinder Singh as the Chief of Army on 21 March 2014. He replaced Ng Chee Meng as the Chief of Defence Force on 18 August 2015 and was succeeded by Melvyn Ong as the Chief of Army on 14 August 2015.
Lim was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General on 1 July 2016.

Non-military career

In addition to his military appointments, Lim was also a member of the Singapore Administrative Service. From 2006–2008, he briefly retired from active military service and served as the Director of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education, where he was in charge of policies, planning and funding for tertiary and technical education, and regulating private education.
Lim joined resource manufacturer Royal Golden Eagle as a managing director in January 2019.

Personal life

Lim is married with three children.

Awards and decorations