Media Release

Jason Lim, Assistant Manager, Marketing/Corporate Communications

Tel: (65) 64665775, Ext 247
Email: cjlim@wspc.com.sg


In Celebration of Aviation Legend Lim Chin Beng:
Mr SIA: Fly Past by Ken Hickson

A book which is expected to attract more than passing interest at the Singapore
Writers Festival is one entitled Mr SIA: Fly Past by Singapore-based former New Zealand
aviation writer Ken Hickson.

It is an authorised biography of one of Singapores corporate heroes Lim Chin
Beng, the founding managing director and deputy chairman of Singapore Airlines who
went on to serve the nation as Ambassador to Japan, plus many other public and private
sector roles.

So much so that author Ken Hickson gives Mr Lim Shakepearean qualities:

Lim Chin Beng has shown he can play many parts on the worlds stage and at home
not as a bit player, but as a reluctant star performer. And as the recounting of his life and
work to date clearly demonstrates his acts cover at least seven ages: airline industry
leader, economist, diplomat, businessman of the year, chairman (deputy chairman and
director) of many organisations, dedicated husband and father, and real gentleman.

Before publication by World Scientific Publishing, it has attached attention and
praise, from none other than long-time Singapore Airlines chairman JY Pillay, who
contributed a foreword which included the words:

Lim Chin Beng was a key personality in the making of an outstanding airline. It is
right and just that this comprehensive and very readable book by Ken Hickson is now
coming out to record, commemorate and celebrate his outstanding contribution to
SIA.

A second foreword was contributed by another corporate giant, Chew Choon Seng,
currently Chairman of the Singapore Exchange and Singapore Tourism Board. He was also
a former CEO of SIA. He has this to say about the man he followed in the airline and the
tourism board:

Apart from being a leader, Mr Lim was a gentleman and diplomat. It was no surprise
that as Singapores Ambassador to Japan, he was instrumental in the successful
conclusion of the free trade agreement between the two countries, one of the fi rst
moves by Japan towards trade liberalisation.

As the title would suggest, the book does delve into the life and times of Mr Lim as an
airline man, which occupied him for the best part of 36 years. But it also gives equal
measure to all his other acts.

Besides being parachuted into diplomacy, Mr Lim also served as Chairman of
Singapore Press Holdings, Singapore Tourism Board, ST Aerospace, Asian Aerospace,
Singapore Airshow, Changi Airports International and the Ascott Group. He was a director of
many other companies over time, but he also served as a member of both the Public Service
Commission and the Legal Service Commission.

He was also honoured at home and abroad. He was Singapores Businessman of the
Year in 1986, awarded for his Outstanding Contribution to Tourism in 1990 and awarded
the Public Service Star in 2007. In 2004 he was conferred the Grand Cordon of the Order of
the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan and in 1998 he and Mr Pillay were both inducted
into the International Aviation Laureates Hall of Fame by Aviation Week and Space
Technology.

He was also someone not averse to risk-taking. He launched Singapores first budget
airline Valuair in 2004, which got Singapore into the very competitive, even cut-throat, low
cost carrier business.

The book also shows that Mr Lim was a visionary in the airline and tourist industries,
concluding with a chapter entitled Flying into the Future, which explores space flights,
supersonic jet travel, along with aircraft design and efficiency.

But besides giving a factual account of the man and his work, Ken Hickson has also
deftly weaved into his story episodes, anecdotes and events which show up the character
and commitment of the Mr Lim. An extract from the first chapter entitled Delivery Times:

He was quick to point out, if a journalist chose to draw attention to his achievements
in making SIA so successful, that the airline had a great team of people. It took
collective effort and teamwork. Even when he was honoured with the title
Businessman of the Year in Singapore 1986, and his oil portrait was unveiled in
front of Government and business leaders, he had arranged for a group of SIA
stewardesses, along with airline operation staff, to get in the picture and share the
limelight.
While the airline family and his own family shared the limelight here, he always
made it his practice to include family members in his business life and his travels.
He gives credit to his dear wife Winnie (who sadly passed away in March 2013) for
being his partner while he served at the Singapore Mission in Tokyo. She was
responsible for single-handedly influencing some important events largely through
her golf diplomacy and led Mr Lim to recommend a greater role for spouses as
they can play a very supportive and important role for the diplomats.

In the books epilogue, Ken Hickson says he hopes that the reader will learn that Mr
Lim was in fact much more than Mr SIA and more than a legend in international aviation.
He was a visionary. He was a very articulate thinker. He has urged Singaporeans to have
an appreciation for the arts, music, sports, foreign cultures, current events worldwide and in
the region, networking skills, social graces and even learning to play golf. He wanted
Singapore to be a truly global city, pulsating with cultural, social, political and economic
vigour. He hoped (when he said this in 2001) that Singapore can produce world class
sportsmen/women, musicians, painters, artists, writers, philosophers.

With Singapores 50
th
anniversary coming up, it is a good time to read about and
appreciate the contribution made by many of the countrys seniors, whether in the public or
private sectors. This book is not only a welcome addition to Singapores history, but shows
how one man has been instrumental in creating not only a world class airline but also
contributed, more than most, to making Singapore a truly global city.

For more information on the book, visit
http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/9127.

###

About the Author
The author is described as having an insiders knowledge of the airline industry and
media. As he worked as a consultant for Singapore Airlines and the Singapore Tourist
Board, Ken Hickson has known Lim Chin Beng for more than 30 years. He is the author of
five other non-fiction books, including two published in Singapore last year: Race for
Sustainability (World Scientific) and Forty: Building a Future in Singapore (Lend Lease).
He is also author of a best-selling book of an aviation disaster Flight 901 to Erebus.

About World Scientific Publishing
As the largest privately-held Singapore publisher and a leading independent publisher of
books and journals for the scholarly, research and professional communities, World
Scientific collaborates with prestigious organisations like the Nobel Foundation, US National
Academies Press and its subsidiary, Imperial College Press, to bring high quality academic
and professional content to researchers and academics worldwide. The company publishes
about 500 books annually and more than 120 journals in various fields. To find out more
about World Scientific, please visit www.worldscientific.com.