Tharman Shanmugaratnam was elected as Singapore’s Ninth President in September 2023.
He served in politics for 22 years before resigning to contest in the Presidential Election. He had been Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister for several years, and Education Minister earlier. He last served in government as Senior Minister. He also served as Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator, from 2011 to 2023.
Tharman has been committed through his years to building a more inclusive society, as the basis for Singapore’s continuing economic resilience. He was especially engaged in efforts to sustain social mobility, improve jobs and retirement security for lower-income workers, and make life-long learning a reality for all. He has also sought to deepen and advance Singapore’s model of multiculturalism.
He set in motion major educational reforms while serving as Education Minister over 2003–2008, aimed at achieving a broader and more flexible system of meritocracy. He also chaired the Economic Strategies Committee in 2009–2010 and subsequent tripartite councils which drove the national transition to productivity-driven growths, including through the implementation of industry-specific transformation programmes. He later led the national ‘SkillsFuture’ movement, launched in 2014. He also chaired the National Jobs Council aimed at rebuilding jobs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, Tharman chaired the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute for over two decades, and the International Academic Advisory Panel which advises the government on strategies for university education from 2011 to 2023.
Internationally, Tharman has led several high-level councils focused on global financial reforms, job creation, preparedness for future pandemics, and global water sustainability. He currently chairs the board of the Group of Thirty, an independent global council of economic and financial leaders from the public and private sectors and academia. He also 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 led the IMF’s key policy forum, the International Monetary and Financial Committee, from 2011 to 2014, and was its first Asian chair. He also chaired the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance in 2017–2018, and co-chaired the G20 High-Level Panel on financing pandemic preparedness and response in 2021. He recently co-chaired the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, which released its report in October 2024. He also co-chaired the Advisory Board for four successive editions of the UN’s Human Development Report, over 2018–2022.
In 2025, Tharman was awarded the Miriam Pozen Prize by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Golub Center for Finance and Policy, in recognition of his leadership in international financial policy.
Earlier, the Institute of International Finance awarded him its inaugural Distinguished Leadership and Service Award in 2019. He was also conferred an Honorary Fellowship by the London School of Economics in 2011.
Following his schooling in Singapore, Tharman 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 Ms Jane Ittogi, a lawyer by background and actively engaged in social development and sustainability initiatives. They have a daughter and three sons. |
