Rolf Gerber 

Member of Corporate Associates (1996 – 2002, 2004 – Present)

Mr Rolf Gerber joined IPS’ Corporate Associates Programme when he was working with Swiss Bank corporation (now UBS) from 1996 to 2002. He joined again when he moved to LGT Bank in July 2004.

Overall, he found IPS programmes and events to be of high quality. He related IPS’ survey on race relations to his own observations in the workplace (e.g., he observed that Singaporean Chinese tended to keep to themselves and interact less with other ethnic groups). In his view, IPS had tackled difficult issues despite its perceived links to the government — it was able to draw “high calibre people to the table”, which other organisations were unable to do.

As for events, he had found Singapore Economic Roundtables insightful, especially in terms of views from scholars and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He had also attended the IPS-Nathan Lectures whenever possible, and found them insightful and diverse in terms of topics covered, recounting, in particular, points and illustrations made by the 1st and 5th S R Nathan Fellows, Ho Kwon Ping and Dr Cheong Koon Hean.

Another memorable moment for Mr Gerber was an interesting lunch meeting between Prince Philip of Liechtenstein and Professor Tommy Koh, after he had joined LGT Bank (the bank of The Princely House of Liechtenstein). This marked the start of the relationship between LGT and IPS.


This interview was conducted on 12 Nov 2019. Click here to listen to the full interview.