SINGAPORE – Entrepreneur Stanley Quek has become the first Singaporean to be named a recipient of an Irish presidential award for his contributions to Ireland.
Dr Quek, who declined to give his age, is among 13 people who will be conferred the 2023 Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.
A former honorary consul-general of Ireland to Singapore, Dr Quek is chairman of the Ireland Funds Singapore. It is a global fund-raising network that supports programmes of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development around the world.
He is also the executive chairman of Region Development, a Singapore property development company that he founded in 1987, which has interests in Singapore, Ireland, Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and New Zealand.
Speaking to The Straits Times, Dr Quek described his work as “bridging the green dot and the red dot”, referring to Ireland and Singapore, both small countries with a population of around five million each and which are seen as gateways to the European Union and South-east Asia respectively.
Dr Quek has a long association with Ireland, dating back to 1967 when he enrolled in Trinity College Dublin to study medicine after secondary school in London. He graduated in 1972.
“I came back for national service because that was what I thought I should be doing… I was a captain during national service. I think quite clearly it was for my love for Ireland and Singapore that I decided at that time to continue to build bridges between the two countries that I am most associated with,” said Dr Quek.
“Ireland gave me a chance to study to become a doctor, which was very important. With my coming back to Singapore, I was hired to be a family doctor by another Trinity graduate, an Irishman. So it’s all quite interesting to see when coincidences come up.”
Dr Quek was a board member of the Trinity Foundation – the philanthropic office of Trinity College Dublin – from 2008 to 2015, and is now a member of the Provost’s Council. In 2018, he was elected as the 61st pro-chancellor of Trinity College Dublin, the first Asian to hold the title.
He was involved in Irish activities in Singapore, and eventually was appointed as the Irish consul to the country, before assuming the role of honorary consul-general in 1994. He described his work as consul-general as building ties between Ireland and Singapore, which he continued through philanthropic work after stepping down in 2000.
Dr Quek, who is married and has a son and two grandchildren, said education has been one of his focus areas in the past 40 years. He has helped Singaporeans, as well as other Asians, to study medicine and health-related courses in Irish universities.
“Most of them come back – some of them are professors now, senior consultants in the medical and education fields – so that link is very important in maintaining the ties between the two countries,” he added.
Dr Quek is also deeply connected with the Irish community in Singapore, and said part of his work is to help find ways for them to give back to the country that gave them a livelihood. This led him to form the Singapore chapter of the Ireland Funds. Unlike other chapters – such as the one in America that seeks to promote programmes in Ireland – the Singapore chapter does work exclusively with charities in the city-state.
“But we try to link it with an Irish element, if we can,” he said.
Dr Quek is a recipient of the 2007 Trinity College Dublin Inaugural Alumni Award, and an honorary doctorate in Laws from the University of Dublin in 2013. In addition, he was named an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2018.
He will receive the presidential award at a ceremony in the coming months.
When asked about the accolade from Ireland, Dr Quek said: “I hope that my legacy will be to get this foundation right to get people to continue to support this country. I hope it will encourage others to follow suit, furthering the ties between both Ireland and Singapore.”
