This is because Ms Ho has managed to assemble a very strong team, says Mr Dhanabalan.

'Frankly if you ask me, the best decision I ever took in Temasek was to appoint her as CEO, because in any institution the leader is the most important. A good leader attracts good people. A good leader will attract people even brighter than himself or herself.'

Leaders afraid to recruit those better than themselves constrain an organisation's ability to improve, since 'the organisation can never get better than the CEO'.

On Ms Ho, he says: 'But she has a different approach. She knows in every area other people are much better and she just wants to go and get the best. And because she's good, has a strong entrepreneurial streak and because she's very analytical, good people want to work with her.

'She doesn't feel threatened and good people feel they can get her to listen to them,' says Mr Dhanabalan, who appointed Ms Ho to head Temasek in 2002.

The appointment was controversial as she is married to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is also Minister for Finance.

Mr Dhanabalan says he first got to know Ms Ho when he started chairing Temasek in 1996, when Ms Ho was managing director of Singapore Technologies Holdings.

'As I began to get to know Ho Ching better, I discovered she had a very strong entrepreneurial streak. She is prepared to stick her neck out and take decisions and get things done.

'So I decided it would be a good idea to get her into the Temasek team.'

Problems arose because of her family relationship.

To ease matters, Mr Dhanabalan, who had initially wanted to be a non-executive chairman, decided to chair the executive committee himself.

This way, he explains, 'I would be the one dealing with the Finance Ministry and not she. And so the Finance Ministry people would deal with me rather than with her.'

This arrangement was accepted by Mr Lee, who had initially been reluctant to have his wife head Temasek. Mr Dhanabalan is very clear in his mind that it was the right decision to appoint Ms Ho to head the Singapore investment firm.

Her management team makes investment decisions, with the executive committee kept informed.

Theirs is an easy working relationship, he says.

'Strategic issues, she always discusses with me. Most of the things we discuss and decide in formal meetings ? either I walk into her room, or she walks into my room. It's not a formal relationship. It's turned out to be, in my view, a very productive relationship.'