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Ooi Kee Beng (Chinese: 黄基明; pinyin huáng jī míng; born 31 May 1955) is a political historian and Executive Director of Penang Institute. Prior to this, he was the Deputy Director of  ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. He is the founder-editor of the Penang Monthly, ISSUES (Penang Institute), Monographs (Penang Institute) and  ISEAS Perspective (ISEAS). He is also editor of Trends in Southeast Asia, and a columnist for The Edge.

Early life
Ooi was born and raised in Penang. Educated at La Salle School (Air Itam) and St Xavier’s Institution, he did his A-levels at Methodist High School. After three years as sub-editor for The Star and The Straits Echo, he left to study, work and live in Sweden. His PhD from Stockholm University is in Sinology, on political philosophy.

Career
Before returning to the region, he worked at Ericsson Electronics in Sweden for 22 years during the heyday of the company’s mobile phone era, while studying in Stockholm University. Courses that he taught at Stockholm included Chinese History, Chinese Philosophy and General Knowledge of China. His major academic interests were in Language Philosophy and Ancient Chinese Political and Strategic Thinking.

He was Visiting Associate Professor at the City University of Hong Kong (2009-2012); and Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Southeast Asian Studies (2009-2011)

He joined Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (now ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute) in 2004, becoming its Deputy Director from 2011 to 2017.

In 2017 he was appointed as Executive Director of Penang Institute. Through the institute, he is advisory of long-term state initiatives Penang2030 and Digital Penang.

Writings
Ooi writes regular opinion pieces for regional and global mass media on Malaysian matters and regional matters. These have been compiled in seven separate volumes. Many of these works can be accessed at https://wikibeng.com/. He is the Founder-Editor of Penang Monthly, ISSUES (Penang Institute) and Monographs (Penang Institute); and ISEAS Perspective (ISEAS). He is also Series Editor for Trends in Southeast Asia (ISEAS), and a columnist for The Edge

He has written several biographies on important political personalities of Malaysia and Singapore, such as Tun Dr Ismail, Yusof Ishak and Goh Keng Swee.

His books have won the following awards:


 * 1) Award of Excellence for Best writing published in book form or any aspect of Asia (non-fiction) at the Asian Publishing Convention Awards 2008, for The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time (ISEAS 2007)
 * 2) Top Academic Work awarded in 2008 by ASEAN Book Publishers Association (ABPA) to Continent, Coast, Ocean: Dynamics of Regionalism in Eastern Asia (ATMA & ISEAS, 2007), co-edited with Ding Choo Ming

Honours
Ooi was conferred with a Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN), which carried the title Dato', by the Governor of Penang, Abdul Rahman Abbas in 2017.