Singapore's DBS rectifies mistake in top executive's resume

Asian Economic News, August 20, 2001

SINGAPORE, Aug. 16 Kyodo

The Development Bank of Singapore Ltd., has made a correction on the academic qualifications of its chief executive officer after a newspaper revealed he did not earn a postgraduate degree from Harvard University as claimed by the bank.

The bank, Southeast Asia's largest lender, had stated in its annual reports and on its Web site that Philippe Paillart, who ranks number two in the bank, ''received a postgraduate degree from Harvard Business School.''

But the Asian Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that its queries with the U.S. university revealed Paillart has only been awarded a certificate, not a postgraduate degree, from the university.

The bank has attributed the mistake to ''an administrative error'' and made a correction on its Web site.

In a statement issued Thursday, DBS said the original resume Paillart submitted to the bank stated he had completed Harvard University's Program for Management Development.

But this was ''mistakenly transcribed as a postgraduate degree'' by the bank.

The 49-year-old Frenchman joined the bank in July last year as senior managing director of its consumer banking group and was promoted to chief executive in January.

His resume in the bank's publicity material said he also holds a degree in law from Paris University, an MBA from the Paris Business School, and a Ph.D. in economy from Paris I-Pantheon.

A spokeswoman from the bank said, ''There was no intention to mislead in any way. This is a pure error. (Paillart) already has other degrees.''

The bank suffered a fiasco recently when it had to pay S$1 million (US$571 million) each in compensation to the chairmen of rival United Overseas Bank and Overseas Union Bank -- the target of its hostile takeover.

The payout was to avoid being sued for defamation as a result of disparaging comments in a company document about the other two banks, which was distributed in Europe during a recent ''road show'' by the bank.

Richard Li, the son of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing was in the spot recently when it was revealed that he did not graduate from Stanford University as claimed in the publicity materials of Pacific Century CyberWorks, which he controls.