Temasek CEO to become Vertex Holdings chairman

Dilhan Pillay, executive director and CEO of Temasek Holdings / Photo credit: The Business Times

Dilhan Pillay, executive director and CEO of Temasek, will succeed Teo Ming Kian as the chairman of Vertex Venture Holdings starting April 15, the venture capital firm said in a press release on April 10.

Lee Kheng Nam, Vertex’s deputy chairman, will also retire after being with the company since its inception in 1988.

Pillay, who previously served on the Vertex board from 2015 to 2018, is taking over as Temasek “prepares to derive greater synergy with its other funding platforms.”

“Pillay has had a longstanding association with Vertex, including during his tenure as senior managing director of Temasek and head of the enterprise development group, where Vertex was under his purview,” the release read.

The leadership change follows the 2025 financial year in which Vertex reported a profit of over US$100 million.

This was driven by several high-value exits for the firm’s portfolio companies, including Merck’s acquisition of biotech startup EyeBio for up to US$3 billion, and Salesforce’s US$2.1 billion acquisition of software firm Own Company.

Vertex also saw gains in public markets – including with Horizon Robotics – which listed in 2024 at a US$6.7 billion valuation and almost doubled that to US$13 billion by April 2026.

The firm noted that its assets under management have expanded significantly during the outgoing chairman’s tenure, rising from nearly US$200 million in 2012 to about US$7 billion in 2026.

During this period, “Vertex strategically restructured from a Temasek-anchored fund, with its investment professionals as employees, to a global platform of general partner-owned network funds with third-party investors, with returns recycled after dividend payments to the shareholder,” the firm said.

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