SINGAPORE (April 15): Ho Ching, the chief executive officer of Temasek Holdings, will be on sabbatical leave for three months, the Singapore state-owned investment firm said in a statement on its website.

Ho will continue with her board and “specific stewardship” duties, according to the statement. Lee Theng Kiat, a president at Temasek, will cover her on all normal course of business.

Ho, 62, is married to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. He had surgery on Feb 16 after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and is expected to make a full recovery.

Lee’s father, Lee Kuan Yew, who was the country’s first prime minister, died on March 23 at 91.

Ho joined Temasek in 2002 as executive director and was appointed chief executive officer in 2004.

She has overseen the firm’s transformation from a passive holder of stakes in government-controlled firms to an investor with more than two-thirds of underlying assets abroad.

The investment firm sought a successor to Ho and hired former BHP Billiton head Charles “Chip” Goodyear as CEO designate in early 2009. Within months, Temasek and Goodyear parted ways because of differences over strategy.

Temasek, which is owned by the Ministry of Finance, reported a total shareholder return of 1.5 percent for the 12 months ended March 31, 2014, down from 8.9 percent in the previous year and an average 16 percent a year since its inception in 1974.

Its assets rose to a record $223 billion, helped by a $5 billion capital injection from the government.