Cover Chairman of The Kallang Group, Keith Magnus
Chairman of The Kallang Group, Keith Magnus
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As chairman of The Kallang Group, Keith Magnus is leading one of Singapore’s most ambitious civic transformations—bringing world-class sport and entertainment into everyday life, with room for every Singaporean
Come August 9, the National Day Parade (NDP) will return to the National Stadium at The Kallang for the first time in a decade. Forty-two thousand spectators are set to fill its seats, their voices rising in Majulah Singapura as flags billow in the air and fireworks light up the sky.
For Keith Magnus, his fondest memories of the stadium were formed beyond the stands. As a young boy in the 1970s, he and his family were among the throngs who flocked to the old National Stadium on Malaysia Cup nights, when Singapore’s football team faced rivals from across Malaysia in what was then the country’s greatest sporting spectacle. “The whole island seemed to converge on Kallang,” he recalls. “The rivalry was ferocious; we grew up on stories of the commotion after matches against [Singapore's arch-rivals] Pahang.” The Grand Old Dame of Kallang, as the old stadium was affectionately known, was also where two of Singapore football’s most iconic traditions were born: the Kallang Roar, the deafening wall of cheers unleashed whenever the Singapore team scored, and the Kallang Wave, which rippled through the stadium as fans rose section by section and later became a fixture of National Day Parades.
Read more: The next chapter: former Singapore Sports Hub officially renamed The Kallang
For generations of Singaporeans, the National Stadium is where some of their earliest memories of collective pride were forged. Yet, the memory that has stayed most vividly with Magnus comes from the nights when his family could not get tickets to the matches. His father would drive them down all the same. They would park in the carpark off Nicoll Highway, wind down the windows and listen to the commentary on the radio. “Every time Singapore scored, a second or two before the radio could tell us, the Kallang Roar would come rolling over the carpark like a wave. Sitting in that car, a schoolboy in the dark, I could feel something being built in me: pride in Singapore and in this place. I’ve never forgotten what it felt like to be outside those gates; close enough to hear the roar, but not yet able to join it. Everything I now hope The Kallang becomes is an answer to that boy in the carpark,” he says.
More than four decades later, Magnus is no longer stuck outside those gates. As chairman of The Kallang Group, he is now shaping not just what takes place within the walls, but also what lies far beyond them in the entire surrounding landscape—by being involved in steering the Kallang Alive Masterplan, a massive reimagining of the precinct formerly known as the Singapore Sports Hub on a scale the country has rarely attempted. The Singapore Sports School will relocate from its current Woodlands campus to The Kallang, sitting alongside Team Singapore’s national training centres and sports science facilities to form a unified high-performance campus. A new 18,000-seat indoor arena will rise beside the National Stadium and the Singapore Indoor Stadium, while a pedestrian-friendly Community Boulevard and revitalised waterfront stitch the precinct together.
Above Keith Magnus on the cover of the August 2026 issue of Tatler Singapore
Keith Magnus on the cover of the August 2026 issue of Tatler Singapore
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Magnus is quick, however, to reject the notion that the master plan is merely an infrastructure project. “It began with a question: what role should a national precinct play in the life of a nation? The answer we kept returning to was belonging,” he says. The Kallang’s relevance, he adds, cannot rest on event nights alone. Elite sport, community sport, entertainment and everyday life should coexist, each reinforcing the others. “A national asset should never be something Singaporeans admire from afar. It should be used, experienced and owned.”
He recalls meeting a grandmother at a recent open house who told him that she attended tai chi classes along the Great Eastern Promenade—the sheltered community track encircling the National Stadium that runs directly beneath its sweeping roof. Looking around, she could hardly believe she was standing on the same grounds where Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Blackpink had performed. “’I am so proud to be Singaporean,’ she told me, ‘and that I am here, at the centre of it all’. She held no ticket that day, but she belonged to the precinct in every way that matters.”
This response, like the others, arrived by email: measured, thoughtful and, every so often, unexpectedly lyrical. In person, at the cover shoot for this story, another side of Magnus emerges. He is warm, quick with dry humour and unfailingly polite, patiently taking direction from the team. He meets Tatler Singapore high in the stands of the National Stadium as preparations for this year’s NDP are in full swing. Rings of red and white seats sweep upwards beneath the soaring dome of the 55,000-capacity stadium, evoking the nation’s colours and the decades of triumph the stadium has witnessed. The cavernous space feels almost impossibly vast. Yet, Magnus’s presence seems to temper its grandeur.
Above Today, Magnus chairs Evercore Asia, the regional division of the independent global investment banking advisory firm, having previously served as chairman and head of UBS Investment Bank in Singapore and Malaysia
Today, Magnus chairs Evercore Asia, the regional division of the independent global investment banking advisory firm, having previously served as chairman and head of UBS Investment Bank in Singapore and Malaysia
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That same restraint is evident in the way he describes his career. Today, Magnus chairs Evercore Asia, the regional division of the independent global investment banking advisory firm, having previously served as chairman and head of UBS Investment Bank in Singapore and Malaysia. “My years in finance taught me discipline, stewardship and the pursuit of returns. I remain, at heart, a dealmaker,” he says. Over three decades, he has advised on close to half a trillion dollars’ worth of transactions. “Dealmaking is my craft and I've loved it. What has changed is the client. The deals I became proudest of were no longer the largest ones.”
In 2022, Magnus served as chief negotiator in the Government's acquisition of the Singapore Sports Hub, bringing the precinct back into public ownership after nearly a decade under a private consortium. That complex negotiation paved the way for the Kallang Alive Masterplan he is now involved in steering. “On paper, [it was] one transaction among hundreds,” he says. “Yet, it meant more to me than almost all the others combined … These days, I deal for Singapore's success.”
This national focus carries over to his role as deputy chairman of Sport Singapore, the country’s governing sports authority. For Magnus, who discovered sports early through rugby and tennis, bringing world-class events to The Kallang is about generating a different kind of return. The calendar is already anchored by marquee showcases, from the 2025 World Aquatics Championships to the 2026 HSBC SVNS Singapore rugby tournament, the 2026 FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup half-court basketball championship, and the upcoming Singapore Tennis Open this September.
Above In 2022, Magnus served as chief negotiator in the Government’s acquisition of the Singapore Sports Hub, bringing the precinct back into public ownership after nearly a decade under a private consortium
In 2022, Magnus served as chief negotiator in the Government’s acquisition of the Singapore Sports Hub, bringing the precinct back into public ownership after nearly a decade under a private consortium
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Yet, Magnus is quick to look past the scoreboard. The true value of these tournaments, he believes, lies in the human ecosystem they build—the local coaches, officials and event professionals gaining invaluable, world-class experience alongside the international player. “The best events leave behind more than memories. They leave behind skills, aspirations and open doors,” he shares. Above all, he wants young Singaporeans to see a place for themselves within that ecosystem, whether as athletes or behind the scenes. “The tournament lasts a week,” he says. “The permission it gives a 12-year-old to dream can last a lifetime.”
But dreams begin with access. The next step is launching The Kallang Foundation. Building on partnerships with 196 charities that have already touched more than 5,000 beneficiaries, the foundation is set to bring underserved communities to major sporting events, concerts and national celebrations. It will also invest in scholarships and career pathways across sports management, live entertainment, event production and hospitality. “A child’s circumstances should never determine whether they experience the opportunity, inspiration and joy that a place like The Kallang can provide,” Magnus reflects. “I know something of what it means to be outside those gates.”
Being a father of three has only strengthened that perspective. “Fatherhood collapses the distance between ‘children’ as a policy category and a child as a face,” Magnus posits. “Every access decision we make at The Kallang, I run through one simple test: if that were my child outside the gate, would I accept the reason we are giving? It is a demanding test.”
Between generations
Above Magnus, who is also chairman of the Families for Life Council, believes that meaningful connection must also be given room to take root
Magnus, who is also chairman of the Families for Life Council, believes that meaningful connection must also be given room to take root
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Opening the gates is only half the work. Magnus, who is also chairman of the Families for Life Council, believes that meaningful connection must also be given room to take root. “Families are strengthened less by programmes than by shared experiences,” he says. “Time spent together, memories made, joy found in ordinary days.” He hopes The Kallang can become one of the places where those memories accumulate. "It can be … a room a family returns to, where the memories layer up: a grandfather who stood in the Kallang Roar of the seventies, bringing his granddaughter to her first [National Day] Parade. When a public space holds three generations of one family's memories, it stops being infrastructure,” he asserts. “It becomes an heirloom.”
Magnus knows something about what passes between generations. His late father, Richard, served as the senior district judge of the Subordinate Courts (now the State Courts of Singapore) and was, for many years, its longest-serving head—part of a career spanning nearly five decades of public service. When asked which of his father’s character traits has stayed with him, Magnus offers a simple answer: “That we should see the people that others do not see. My father had an extraordinary ability to treat every person with dignity, regardless of status or position. It was simply how he lived.”
After his father’s passing, his mother shared something that has remained with him ever since. The elder Magnus had never been especially impressed by achievements or transactions. Instead, what made him proud was hearing that those who had dealt with his son spoke of his integrity, kindness and grace. “He had been keeping a different scorecard all along,” Magnus reflects.
It is a benchmark against which Magnus continues to measure himself, whether in global finance or public service. The settings may have changed, but the question, he says, remains the same: :Will you do the right thing when no one is keeping score?” He believes this core principle applies to Singapore's next chapter. If earlier generations established the country's institutions, the challenge now, he posits, is to build what former leaders called “heartware”—a deeper sense of belonging that cannot simply be procured.
Years earlier, before the precinct returned to national hands, Magnus stood outside the National Stadium for nearly 20 minutes, watching traffic stream along Nicoll Highway—the same road beside which his father had once parked the family car on Malaysia Cup nights. Back then, he remembers, hardly anyone glanced towards the stadium. “Today,” he says, “They do. A father points it out to his daughter from the car: ‘That is where we watched Taylor Swift.’ A mother reminds her son: ‘That is where you played your final.’ When a place begins to live inside a family's stories, engagement has deepened into belonging. That is when a national precinct has truly succeeded—when Singaporeans across every line feel, instinctively: this place is ours.”
Credits
Photography: Darren Gabriel Leow
Art Direction: Jeremy Ang
Fashion Direction: Adriel Chiun
Production: Dana Koh
Grooming: Angel Gwee
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Nafeesa Saini is the Features Editor at Tatler Singapore, where she shapes long-form stories on culture, business, philanthropy, wellness, and the people driving change in Asia. With a deep interest in storytelling that intersects meaningfully with identity and impact, she has profiled a diverse range of visionaries, from scientific pioneers in AI and health to creative trailblazers and literary minds.
Nafeesa’s writing includes cover stories and profiles that spotlight influential voices, alongside commentary on the trends reshaping our world.
Off the clock, Nafeesa unwinds with fiction, a good thrift hunt, and ‘brainrot’ TikTok scroll—while always keeping one eye on her next cultural getaway, usually to Indonesia.
