SINGAPORE - President Halimah Yacob has appointed Mr Tan Kai Hoe as chairman of the Singapore Red Cross (SRC) council from Dec 1, the charity said.

He will be taking over from Mr Tee Tua Ba, who served on the council for 13 years and as chairman for 12 years.

"The Singapore Red Cross fulfils a critical role in meeting the social needs in our community. It has been serving the elderly and disabled, uplifting families in need, building community resilience through blood donor recruitment and encouraging first-aid learning... With his private and public sector experience, I am confident that Mr Tan will bring an additional dimension to motivate more people to embrace the humanitarian mission," said Madam Halimah, who is patron of the SRC.

Mr Tan, 54, who was a Red Cross youth cadet in secondary school in 1979, served on the SRC council from 2011 to 2014, as well as from 2016 to the present. He was chairman of oversight committees and vice-chairman from 2017.

Since 2015, Mr Tan has been president and chief executive of Accuron Technologies. Earlier, he was CEO of former government agency Spring Singapore and an officer in the Republic of Singapore Navy.

Mr Tan said: "I am very honoured to take over the leadership role from Mr Tee, someone whom I respect deeply and learnt a lot from over the years."

Mr Tee, 78, has spearheaded several institutional changes. In 2012, he led a review of the SRC to streamline its organisational structure.

Mr Tee also directed the re-prioritisation of SRC's local humanitarian services for the most vulnerable in the community.