A 22-year veteran of the Singapore public service, Shell Companies Singapore chairman Aw Kah Peng is helping to steer the conglomerate in its energy transition path, in keeping with its parent company Shell’s aim of eliminating net carbon emissions by 2050. The energy giant plans to achieve this goal by growing its renewables and low-carbon businesses, including hydrogen and biofuels.

Closer to home, Shell and sustainable-development agency JTC Corporation are planning to establish a solar farm the size of 112 football fields on Semakau Island, south of Singapore. If realised, the facility will produce enough energy to power up to 17,500 households.

Aw joined Shell in 2012 as its general manager for Global Commercial Strategy. She moved to the company’s chemicals division two years after that, and was appointed Chairman of Shell Companies in Singapore in January 2019. Aw is also the Asia Pacific focal for chemical sustainability at the company. Her past roles include CEO of the Singapore Tourism Board; prior to that she worked for 18 years with the Economic Development Board across various industries in the US and Europe.

Aw is a Fellow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, and a steering committee member of the Philip Yeo Initiative (or young entrepreneurs at the National University of Singapore.