When Suppiah Dhanabalan retired this year after 17 years as chairman of Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, the city state’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, paid tribute to a man who had for half a century served in senior roles in government and business.
He was, said Lee, an exemplary and inspirational leader, committed to serving with the highest standards of integrity and probity, backed up by thoughtfulness, resilience and care.
I first met Dhanabalan, or Dhana as he is popularly known, after I arrived in Singapore from New York to take up my post as dean of NUS Business School. It was October 2008, the global financial crisis had erupted and I was lecturing on the causes.