Noel Philip Yeo Liat Kok[1] (Chinese: 杨烈国; born 1946), DUNU (First Class), is the Chairman of Economic Development Innovations Singapore, Advanced MedTech Holdings and Accuron Technologies.

From April 2007 to March 2018, Yeo was Chairman of Standards Productivity and Innovation for Growth (SPRING Singapore), a government development agency with the mission to grow small and medium enterprises and startups.

Yeo was Special Adviser for Economic Development in the Prime Minister's Office (April 2007 – August 2011), Senior Adviser for Science and Technology, Ministry of Trade and Industry (April 2007 – July 2008), Executive Chairman of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (February 2001 – March 2007), Executive Chairman of the Economic Development Board (January 1986 -January 2001), Executive Co-chairman of the Economic Development Board (Feb 2001 to March 2006), Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence for Defence Research, Logistics and Industry (September 1979 to December 1985).

[5] These included: Internationally exportable services; developing high-tech industries like biomedical science,[6][7] semiconductors, aerospace and speciality chemicals;[8] nurturing local small and medium-sized enterprises and encouraging Singapore companies to make direct investments abroad.

[9] During this time, Philip Yeo also served as the first Chairman of the National Computer Board (now Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore) from 1980 to 1987.

Mr. Yeo was a member of the United Nations Committee of Experts in Public Administration (CEPA), established by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) from 2010 to 2013 for the promotion and development of public administration and governance among Member States, in connection with the United Nations Development Agenda.

In the private sector Yeo has chaired numerous company boards, including: Singapore Technologies Holdings, Sembawang Corporation,[14] and CapitaLand.

In 1994, the Indonesian Government conferred on Yeo its highest civilian honour, the Bintang Jasa Utama (the First Class Order of Service Award) in recognition of his role in fostering good bilateral ties between Indonesia and Singapore.

In June 1997, Yeo was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering by his alma mater, the University of Toronto in recognition of an illustrious alumnus.

In November 1998, the international Society of Design and Process Science honoured Yeo with the K T Li Award for contributing significantly to economic and societal development.

The award was given for Yeo's efforts in building medical research and education in Singapore, in collaboration with leading universities throughout the world, including Karolinska Institutet.

Harvard credits him with moving Singapore's economy into manufacturing sectors like televisions, disk drives, petrochemicals, and most recently the biomedical sciences.

In December 2007, the Japanese government conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold And Silver Star, which represents the second highest of eight classes associated with the award.

The award was presented to Yeo for his pioneering and significant contributions to Singapore's economic development, especially in the promotion and growth of the semiconductor industry.

During his tenure as Chairman of the EDB, Yeo was instrumental in leading Singapore's strategic growth and investment into the semiconductor industry, which today boasts an annual output of over $49 billion, hires over 42,000 employees and has 14 wafer fabrication plants.

Shortly after that meeting, Glaxo sent S$50 million in two cash cheques to the EDB resulting in the creation of the Glaxo-EDB scholarship program.

[37] In May 2005, the controversy of A*STAR bond-breakers was revived when The New Paper published an article about him writing in his book that men in Singapore were wimps, whiny, and immature even though they have served the National Service (NS).

The anger was further fuelled when a female A*STAR scholar, Chng Zhenzhi, backed his statements and openly declared that Singapore men were fine until "(once) they enter NS, they complain a lot.

[40] Chen went on to accuse A*Star of "giving out gobs of honey to universities who will sign back-door agreements for taking in scholars without going through the formal application procedure."

A*Star demanded a public apology from Chen and that the offending and defamatory postings in AcidFlask's 3 March 2005 blog be deleted.

All posts were removed voluntarily, and replaced with an unreserved apology to "A*STAR, its chairman Mr. Philip Yeo, and its executive officers for the distress and embarrassment" caused.

In that short period, the Biomedical industry grew to account for over 5% of Singapore's GDP and 10,600 high value added jobs.

[49] His son, Gene Yeo, received the Lee Kuan Yew Graduate Fellowship that funded his PhD in computational neuroscience at MIT and is now a tenured professor at University of California San Diego.