Trade agency International Enterprise (IE) Singapore will be headed by a new CEO from next Monday.

Mr Lee Ark Boon, currently the deputy secretary of trade at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), has been appointed to the post after IE's former chief executive, Mr Teo Eng Cheong, stepped down last month to join infrastructure consultancy Surbana Jurong.

Mr Lee, 44, has been in his current post at MTI since April 2013. He saw through the successful conclusion of the European Union-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the Turkey-Singapore FTA, the MTI said in a statement yesterday.

Mr Lee was also involved in the review and upgrading of existing FTAs, including the China-Singapore deal, and increasing Singapore companies' awareness of new and emerging markets. He was also Singapore's senior official for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and World Trade Organisation.

A recipient of the Public Service Commission Overseas Merit Scholarship, Mr Lee majored in economics at the University of California at Berkeley and Yale University.

He has previously served in the Ministry of Manpower, National Security Coordination Secretariat, Ministry of Transport, Public Service Division and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

MTI permanent secretary Ow Foong Pheng said: "Ark Boon's experience in expanding Singapore's trade and investment relations and international negotiations will equip him well to lead IE Singapore to promote the overseas growth of Singapore-based enterprises."