Fridae

Robert Yeoh, one of the co-founders of Fridae.com, passed away on Tuesday evening from complications of pneumonia. He had been in the intensive care unit in a Singapore hospital for over a month when he passed on.

Having trained and practiced as a Barrister in Britain in the late 1970s, Robert had an accomplished career in investment banking spanning nearly two decades before co-founding Fridae.com in 2000. He served as Fridae's Chief Executive Officer and was mainly involved in fundraising since the company's inception and saw it through the dot-com bubble burst before relegating the role to fellow co-founder, Dr Stuart Koe in 2002.

After having worked in the major financial centers in the world including London, New York, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong, Robert took on the high-profile development and management of Bintan Resort, a 23,000 hectare development on the north coast of Indonesia's Bintan island in 1992.

In 1994, he became the first Asian Country Head of Chase Manhattan Bank Malaysia, where he was born.

Following that, Robert joined the Hong Leong Group Malaysia as the Group Managing Director and later Chief Executive Officer of PB Securities before taking up the invitation to join the Institute of Strategic International Studies Malaysia during the Asian financial crisis until 2003.

From 2000-2002, he also served as Advisor to AIA Capital, the financial advisory/direct investment arm of AIA Group. In 2003, he was appointed Strategic Communications Advisor (Marcom) to Singapore's Economic Development Board and to the Board of Commissioners of PT Chandra Asri, Indonesia's only petrochemical company and one of Asia's largest.

Aside from his corporate achievements, Robert was engaged in charitable work including being a Trustee and Hon. Secretary of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation and Acting Chairman in 2005 as well as being part of church-related mission trips in recent years.

"Robert was instrumental in founding Fridae.com which has since grown to become Asia's largest gay and lesbian online community. He will be missed by the staff at Fridae and everyone who knew him," said Dr Koe.

The wake will be held at The Garden of Remembrance (Christian Columbarium Chapel), Parousie Hall, 920 Old Choa Chu Kang Road, Singapore 699815, starting on Thursday, July 12, noon. The cortege will leave for Mandai Crematorium at Saturday, July 14, 3:30 pm, and the cremation ceremony will begin at 4.30pm. No wreaths by request; if desired, enquiries about donations to offset medical costs can be directed to robert_yeoh_memorial@yahoo.com .

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