SINGAPORE - Well-known business leader Freddy Soon has died at the age of 73.

Mr Soon was adviser to the group chief executive officer at Singapore-listed water management firm Hyflux,until he retired nearly three years ago.

His daughter Debra Soon, a senior executive at MediaCorp, confirmed that he died this morning (Nov 19) - days shy of his 74th birthday on Nov 24 - and that it "was sudden".

Mr Soon joined Hyflux in 2003 as senior vice-president tasked to oversee its business development and spearhead its corporate communications.

Prior to joining Hyflux, Mr Soon was the deputy chief executive for corporate affairs at Spring Singapore where he served from 1982 to 2003.

He helped to promote Singapore's productivity movement among the public in the 1980s, for which he won the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in the 1990 National Day Honours.

Mr Soon had over 30 years of experience in productivity and competitiveness policy and strategy formulation, industrial design, quality assurance and standardisation, business excellence management as well as international relations.

His daughter is the head of family (English and premier segments) at MediaCorp, overseeing TV operations, Channel 5, the publication 8Days and radio stations Class 95, Gold 905 and Symphony 92.4FM.