Mr Kenneth Lim assumed the position of Assistant Chief Executive for the Marketing Group in June 2023. He oversees the building of Singapore destination brand globally and helms the marketing efforts of STB to international visitors. He runs the marketing efforts across the B2C (leisure) and B2B (MICE) businesses, and oversees global strategic marketing partnerships, strategic communications and marketing capability development.
Prior to this role, Kenneth was the Executive Director, Marketing Planning, Partnerships and Capability Development, from August 2022 to May 2023. In this capacity, he oversaw the Board’s marketing partnerships as well as alignment and integration of strategies, work plans and resources across the Marketing Group, and led the development of the marketing competencies of STB officers and industry stakeholders to help drive tourism growth.
In his previous appointment, Kenneth was Executive Director, Travel Agents & Tourist Guides. He was responsible for the strategic development of the travel agents industry and tourist guides profession and led the review of legislation and licensing of travel agents and tourist guides. Under his leadership, STB was able to provide much-needed support to Singapore’s travel agents and tourist guides during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kenneth led initiatives to encourage travel agents to develop new tours and tour formats for the domestic market through the development of the Tour Experience Innovation Lab to test bed new innovative tour experience, which included the Performing Arts Tours Pilot Grant. Resultingly, new tours were developed, attracting strong local participation despite the pandemic.
He was also concurrently heading the Tourism Human Capital Office to focus on restructuring Singapore’s tourism workforce by building future-ready jobs and developing longer-term strategies to build a resilient tourism workforce post COVID-19. Kenneth pioneered a partnership with the Union, the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and key travel association players to develop a Tourism Careers Hub pilot, aimed at providing recruitment and career development services for tourism sector workers and those interested in joining the tourism industry.
Kenneth joined STB in 2003 as Manager in the International Group and went on to head one of STB’s India offices as Area Director, Northern-Eastern India in 2005. He then headed the Integrated Resorts team in 2009 before returning to the International Group as Regional Director for Southeast Asia and Oceania in 2012. There, he oversaw the operations of the regional offices and led the team to work with in-market industry partners to drive tourism growth. In 2015, Kenneth became Director for Cultural Precincts Development, where he led the team in developing Singapore’s cultural precincts into attractive and sustainable enclaves that deliver authentic visitor experiences.
Prior to joining STB, Kenneth worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Singapore Airlines Ltd.
Kenneth graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Science in Building & Estate Management (2nd class Upper) in 1998. He also holds a Master of Business Updated May 2023 Administration, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan Fellows programme.