19 June, 2020
1. Mrs Rena Lee (陈惠菁) will be appointed as the Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) from 1 Aug 2020. She will succeed Mr Daren Tang, who will be leaving IPOS to take up appointment as the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Outgoing Chief Executive, Mr Daren Tang
2. Mr Daren Tang (邓鸿森) was appointed as Deputy Chief Executive of IPOS on 1 August 2012 and Chief Executive of IPOS on 16 November 2015. He played an instrumental role in driving the strategic transformation of IPOS from an IP registry and regulator into an innovation agency that helps to build Singapore’s future economy. His term saw major updates to Singapore’s IP Hub Masterplan, legislative and policy reforms to the IP regime and a scaling up of international engagement.
3. Daren has been appointed as the next Director General of WIPO, and will take the helm at WIPO on 1 October 2020.
Incoming Chief Executive, Mrs Rena Lee
4. Mrs Rena Lee began her career in the public service with the Ministry of Defence in 1992, and was called to the Singapore Bar in 1993. She later joined the Attorney-General’s Chambers in 2008, and has specialised in the practice of international law.
5. Rena was most recently Minister-Counsellor at the Hague Diplomatic Office of Singapore. She is currently Singapore’s Ambassador for Oceans and Law of the Sea Issues and the Special Envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and in this capacity, is serving as the President of the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ IGC). Rena is also a member of the Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
In Appreciation
6. Mr Loh Khum Yean, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Law and Public Service Division said, “We deeply appreciate Daren’s dedicated service and contributions to IPOS. Under his leadership we have seen Singapore’s IP ecosystem flourish and Singapore rise through the ranks to become the top in Asia for the best IP protection in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. We are confident that Daren will continue to do Singapore proud, and wish him continued success as he takes on the Director General position at WIPO.”
7. Dr Stanley Lai, Chairman of the Board of Directors of IPOS, said “IPOS begins a new chapter of its journey with a change of CE. The Board thanks Daren for his years of dedicated service to the statutory board, and wishes him every success in his new endeavour which is due to commence shortly in the World Intellectual Property Organization. The Board warmly welcomes Rena as Daren’s successor, and we look forward to working with her to take IPOS into new levels of success in growing our robust IP infrastructure to undergird the proliferation of new innovations and solutions for Singapore over the next few years.”
8. The write-ups of Mr Daren Tang and Mrs Rena Lee are at the Annex.
MINISTRY OF LAW
ANNEX
ABOUT MR DAREN TANG HENG SHIM
1. Mr Daren Tang, 48, holds a degree from the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore, and an LL.M from the Georgetown University Law Centre, where he was also a Fellow of the Institute of International Economic Law. He also attended the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School in 2013.
2. Daren is Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) since 16 November 2015. In his tenure, he drove the strategic transformation of IPOS from an IP registry and regulator into an innovation agency that helps to build Singapore’s future economy. His term saw major updates to Singapore’s IP Hub Masterplan, legislative and policy reforms to the IP regime and a scaling up of international engagement. IPOS today has cooperation agreements with over 70 regional and international partners. Under his leadership, Singapore ranked second globally and top in Asia for the best IP protection in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report and IPOS was recognised as the world’s most innovative IP office by the World Trademark Review in 2020.
3. Daren will be officially appointed as the next Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization from 1 October 2020.
ABOUT MRS RENA LEE
1. Mrs Rena Lee holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) and a Masters of Laws (LL.M) from the Faculty of Law of the National University of Singapore.
2. Mrs Lee was most recently seconded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help establish Singapore’s Diplomatic Office in The Hague, Netherlands, where she served as its first Minister-Counsellor from 2018 to 2020. She is also Singapore’s Ambassador for Oceans and Law of the Sea Issues and the Special Envoy of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In 2018, Mrs Lee was elected President of the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ IGC). She is also a member of the Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority (ISA).
3. Mrs Lee began her career in the public service as a legal officer with the Ministry of Defence in 1992. She then joined the International Affairs Division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers in 2008, and was seconded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in January 2018.
4. Mrs Lee has specialised in the practice of international law, covering multiple practice areas, including international humanitarian and human rights law, disarmament law, law of the sea, environmental and climate change law, and the law of privileges and immunities, and international organisations. She has advised the Government on various issues of international law, and also participated in various bilateral and multilateral negotiations. These include negotiations within ASEAN, as well as on climate change and law of the sea. She has written a number of articles and co-authored a book on “ASEAN’s External Agreements: Law, Practice and the Quest for Collective Action” in 2015.
