SGInnovate Founding CEO Steve Leonard to leave in May

Singapore government-owned startup builder and investor SGInnovate has announced that its founding CEO Steve Leonard would be concluding his term in May 2020.

Leonard will continue to serve as the CEO in the remaining months of his term.

As its Founding CEO, Leonard has been instrumental in forming and building SGInnovate as an entity whose mission is to help entrepreneurial scientists build investable deeptech startups.

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“Helping to create and build SGInnovate has been my complete focus for four years. From imagining it in 2015 to its launch in 2016 and operating as a highly-professional group as we enter 2020, I feel tremendous personal pride,” said Leonard.

“The conclusion of my current term in May represents a good time for organisational renewal. Every team moves forward based on fresh ideas and energy, and I’m very confident in the men and women of SGInnovate to continuously bring new capabilities to the deep tech startup ecosystem in Singapore,” he added.

Leonard is a technology-industry leader with a wide range of experience, having played key roles in building several global companies in areas such as software, hardware and services.

Prior to his role as the CEO of SGInnovate, the US-born Leonard served three years as the Executive Deputy Chairman of the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), a government statutory board under the purview of Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information. In that role, he had executive responsibility at the national level for various aspects of the information technology and telecommunications industries in Singapore.

Leonard serves on the advisory boards of a range of universities and organisations in Singapore. Leonard also serves as an independent non-executive Director at SingPost, and AsiaSat, a Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed commercial operator of communication spacecraft.

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Yong Ying-I, Chairman, SGInnovate, said, “The Board and management want to thank Steve for his leadership in building up SGInnovate as a leading entity in Singapore to support entrepreneurs to build deep tech startups. We wish him every success in his future endeavours. SGInnovate will continue its work to build the deep tech ecosystem and entrepreneurial community as we look to the future.”

SGInnovate works with local and international partners, including universities, venture capitalists, and major corporations to help technical founders imagine, start and scale globally-relevant early-stage technology companies from Singapore.

Since its launch in 2016, the SGInnovate team has been part of the building and investing in 90 deeptech startups, as well as creating an engaged deep tech community of more than 33,000 people.

The organisation said in a statement that it would continue to work closely with a wide range of partners and co-investors to back entrepreneurial scientists through equity-based investments, access to talent and business-building advice.

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