SLA appoints new chief executive, outgoing chief says he's 'not running' in apparent nod to GE2025

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) will appoint Calvin Phua as its new chief executive from May 1, 2025, succeeding Colin Low, who has served since 2021.

With election speculation rife and coming amidst a spate of high-profile civil service resignations, Low has directly and succinctly addressed possible speculation about his next steps.

Out with the old

Low was appointed SLA’s chief executive in April 2021, and the SLA credits him for making “significant strides in optimising and rejuvenating STATE land and properties for diverse economic, social, and community uses”.

The Ministry of Law’s Permanent Secretary Luke Goh lauded Low, saying that under him, SLA had innovated and enabled new and creative adaptive reuses of State land and that he had “brought invaluable experience and unique perspective from the private sector into public service”.

He will be replaced by Calvin Phua, who is currently the Deputy Secretary (Policy) of the Ministry of Law (MinLaw).

Phua was previously the Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Transport and served in various ministries.

His time at MinLaw has been marked by efforts to “strengthen Singapore’s legal system and improve access to justice”, notably by the establishment of the Public Defender’s Office.

No cardio

Low’s resignation comes at a unique time.

With the release of the Election Boundaries Review Committee's report, Singapore is anticipating an imminent General Election.

This has, understandably, led many politics watchers to speculate about each and every senior civil servant or military leader’s resignation and whether they intend to enter politics.

Low, seemingly cognisant of this, appears to have thrown ice-cold water over the speculation.

In a LinkedIn post, he simply says: “Nope, I’m not running”.