Ooi Kee Beng

Ooi Kee Beng is Executive Director of Penang Institute, member of the Penang State Governments Penang 2030 Advisory Committee, and board member of Digital Penang and St Xavier’s Institution. He entered think tank work in 2004 and was Deputy Director of Singapore’s ISEAS—Yusof Ishak Institute in 2011-2017, where he remains attached as Senior Visiting Fellow. He is a member of the Advisory Panel for the National Higher Education Research Institute (IPPTN), Universiti Sains Malaysia; Adjunct Professor and member of the Industry Advisory Committee (School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Taylor’s University; Honorary Fellow, Center for Policy Research and International Studies (CenPRIS, USM). He is Board member of St Xavier’s Institution, Prince of Wales Island International School, and Digital Penang.

He received his PhD in Sinology from Stockholm University and lectured at Stockholm University, National University of Singapore and City University of Hong Kong on Chinese History, Chinese Philosophy, General Knowledge of China, History and Politics in Malaysia. He is founder-editor of ISEAS Perspective, the policy brief series published by Singapore’s ISEAS—Yusof Ishak Institute where he was long-term Deputy Director; and of ISSUES Policy Briefs and Penang Monthly, which are the major publications of Penang Institute. He is a long-term monthly columnist for The Edge Malaysia. His most influential books include The Eurasian Core and Its Edges: Dialogues with Wang Gungwu on the History of the World; The Reluctant Politician; Tun Dr Ismail and His Time; As Empires Fell: The Life and Times of Lee Hau-Shik, the First Finance Minister of Malaya; Yusof Ishak: A Man of Many Firsts; In Lieu of Ideology: An Intellectual Biography of Goh Keng Swee; and Lim Kit Siang: Defying the Odds.