Tharman Shanmugaratnam

President of the Republic of Singapore

Tharman Shanmugaratnam was elected as Singapore’s President in September 2023.

He served in politics for 22 years before resigning to contest in the Presidential Election; the President, as Head of State, holds a non-partisan office in Singapore’s system of governance.

Tharman was Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister for several years, and Education Minister earlier. He last served in government as Senior Minister.  

He has been committed through his years to building economic resilience and a more inclusive social compact. On the latter, he has been especially engaged in sustaining social mobility, improving jobs for lower-income workers, and making life-long learning a reality for all. He has also sought to deepen and advance Singapore’s model of multiculturalism.

He introduced major educational reforms while serving as Education Minister, aimed at achieving a broader and more flexible system of meritocracy. He later led the ‘SkillsFuture’ programme, which was launched in 2014. He also chaired the tripartite councils from 2011 to 2016 which drove national efforts to transform productivity through innovation and skills, and the implementation of industry-specific transformation programmes. More recently, he chaired the National Jobs Council (2020-2022), which oversaw efforts to rebuild jobs for Singaporeans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tharman has spent his entire working life in public service. He was Senior Minister (2019-2023), Deputy Prime Minister (2011-2019), Minister for Finance (2007-2015), Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies (2011-2015) and Minister for Education (2003-2008).

He also served as Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator, from 2011 to 2023. He had begun his professional career as an economist at the MAS, eventually becoming its Managing Director, before he entered politics in 2001.

Tharman also served as Deputy Chairman of the GIC for four years (2019-2023) and as Chairman of its Investment Strategies Committee for 12 years (2011-2023). He was on the GIC Board for over 19 years.

He chaired the Economic Development Board (EDB)’s International Advisory Council (IAC) from 2014, and the International Academic Advisory Panel (IAAP), which advises the Government on strategies for university sector, from 2011. He stepped off both councils when he resigned from all his government appointments in July 2023.

International Roles

Tharman has led several international councils focused especially on global financial reforms, preparedness for future pandemics, education, and global water sustainability.

He chairs the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Group of Thirty (G30), a grouping of eminent thought leaders in economic policymaking, academia and the financial industry.

He also co-chairs the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW), whose initial recommendations helped shape the outcomes of the UN Water Conference in March 2023. The GCEW issued its final report in October 2024.

In addition, he co-chairs the High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs, established by the World Bank Group in July 2024.

He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum (WEF), an advisory board that helps shape the strategic directions of the WEF.

Tharman recently co-chaired the Advisory Board for the UN Human Development Report (HDR), from 2019 – 2024.  He led the Board for the 2023 HDR with Joseph E. Stiglitz, and co-chaired the previous three editions of the HDR with Thomas Piketty, Michael Spence and Michèle Lamont, respectively. He also co-chaired the G20 High-Level Panel on financing pandemic preparedness and responses, with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Lawrence Summers, in 2021.

He had earlier chaired the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance, which in Oct 2018 proposed reforms for a more effective system of finance for development, sustainability, and financial stability. He was also selected by his international peers to chair the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) for an extended period of four years, from 2011-2014; he was its first Asian chair.

In 2019, Tharman received the Institute of International Finance’s inaugural Distinguished Leadership and Service Award (together with Mark Carney), citing his role as a leading proponent of global reforms and his ability to see around the corner and consider the economic possibilities in an evolving world.

Other Roles/Contributions

Locally, outside of his roles in government, Tharman chaired the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institution for over two decades. In 2017, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) conferred on him the Medal of Honour, its highest award, citing his varied contributions to the labour movement including “driving national initiatives to better the lives of workers".

He also chaired the Board of Trustees of the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) from 2008 to 2023.

Tharman was first elected Member of Parliament in Nov 2001 in the Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC), and was re-elected four times subsequently. He resigned from politics at the same time that he stepped off from all government appointments in July 2023.

Education and Family

Following his schooling in Singapore, he did a B.Sc. in Economics at the London School of Economics and an M.Phil. in Economics at the University of Cambridge. He later obtained a Master’s in Public Administration at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he was conferred the Lucius N Littauer Fellow award for outstanding performance and leadership potential.

Tharman is married to Jane Ittogi, a lawyer by background and actively engaged in social development and sustainability initiatives. They have a daughter and three sons.

Jane Ittogi’s Biography 

Jane Ittogi has been deeply engaged in initiatives for social development and sustainability.

She co-founded Tasek Academy and Social Services in 2014, as a social service agency enabling disadvantaged youth to build confidence and their abilities, and ex-inmates to rebuild their lives.

She co- chairs Conservation International’s Asia Pacific Advisory Council, and co-founded GreenSG COLLAB with a group of like-minded citizens, to help catalyse awareness and informed community responses to the climate crisis.

Ms Ittogi has also been long involved in art leadership and as an advocate of the transformative power of art, including for prison inmates. She was Chair of the Board of Singapore Art Museum, (SAM), the nation’s contemporary art museum, for a decade till 2018. She also co-chaired four editions of the Singapore Biennale, and had been on the Selection Advisory Committee for the Venice Biennale.

Ms Ittogi worked to initiate training in art with Singapore Prisons in the late 2000s, conducted by artists, faculty of La Salle College and museum curators. Inmates obtained certification upon completion of their courses, and their works were displayed at an annual exhibition in Prison and also at SAM, a practice that continues today.

She also served on the Board of the National Gallery Singapore, the nation’s historical and modern art museum from 2010 to 2018, and on the Board of La Salle College of the Arts from 2009 to 2023. In addition, she sat on the Board of the National Heritage Board, and chaired the Istana Art Collection Advisory Committee. 

For several years she chaired the Singapore LSE Trust, which awards scholarships to Singapore students who demonstrate commitment to do good. She was conferred an Honorary Fellowship by the LSE in June 2023.

Ms Ittogi had her schooling in Singapore, and obtained an LLB and LLM from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She lectured in law at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the UK, and worked as a lawyer in London and Singapore.

She is married to Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and they have four children.