Distinguished Professor of History
Institute for Studies of Religion
Baylor University
Philip Jenkins was educated at Cambridge University. From 1980 through 2011, he taught at Penn State University, where he holds the rank of Emeritus Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities. In 2012, he became a Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University, where he also serves in the Institute for Studies of Religion. He has published 26 books, including The Next Christendom: The Coming Of Global Christianity (2002), The Lost History of Christianity (2008) and The Great and Holy War (2014). His most recent book is The Many Faces of Christ: The Thousand Year Story of the Survival and Influence of the Lost Gospels (Basic Books, 2015). He has also published extensively on issues of terrorism and political violence, and on new and emerging religious movements.
Poet
Editor
Literary Organiser
Joshua Ip is a poet, editor and literary organiser. He won the Singapore Literature Prize for his debut poetry collection, sonnets from the singlish (2012), and has also published making love with scrabble tiles (2013) and sonnets from the singlish UPSIZE EDITION (2015). He has edited six literary anthologies, including the A Luxury We Cannot Afford and SingPoWriMo series. His latest editorial project is Twin Cities: A Twin Cinema Anthology of HK and Singapore Verse with Tammy Ho Lai-Ming. He is also the series editor of Ten Year Series, a poetry imprint of Math Paper Press. He is working on a graphic novel, ‘Ten Stories Below’. He is the founder of Sing Lit Station, a literary non-profit that runs multiple community initiatives, including SingPoWriMo, Manuscript Bootcamp, poetry.sg, and several workshop groups. He also writes an irregular poetry column for The Middle Ground. His website is www.joshuaip.com.
Professor of Philosophy & Law,
New York University
Kwame Anthony Appiah was born in London to a Ghanaian father and an English mother, and grew up in Ghana. He received BA and PhD degrees from Cambridge University in philosophy, and has since taught at Yale, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, and Princeton, before joining New York University as Professor of Philosophy and Law in 2014.
He has lectured widely in Europe, Africa and the Americas, on topics ranging from technical philosophy of language to multiculturalism and the nature of religion. Among his books are The Ethics of Identity, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers and The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen, as well as three novels and a collection of more than 7,000 Akan Proverbs from Ghana, edited with his mother.
He is currently on the boards of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2012, President Obama presented him with the National Humanities Medal. His current projects are two books, entitled Mistaken Identities and The Anatomy of Religion, and he writes a weekly Ethicist column for The New York Times.
Aaron Beng
Director (Policy)
Defence Policy Office
Ministry of Defence (Singapore)
Colonel Aaron Beng is a naval officer by training. He enlisted in the Singapore Armed Forces in January 2000 and was awarded the prestigious President’s scholarship and Singapore Armed Force Overseas Scholarship.
Colonel Beng assumed the appointment of Director (Policy) in July 2017. Prior to this, Colonel Beng was Commanding Officer of the Singapore Navy’s Formidable-class frigate Squadron from June 2016 to June 2017. As commanding officer of the frigate RSS INTREPID, he led the ship and embarked on a Naval Helicopter detachment to participate in a successful deployment to the Rim of the Pacific Exercise in Honolulu, Hawaii. He spent his formative years on board the Singapore Navy’s Missile Corvettes, and also held various staff appointments in the Ministry of Defence and Singapore Navy headquarters.
Colonel Beng is happily married to Sharon Koh and they have two children, Aiden and Sheryl.
MEET THE PARTICIPANTS
Terence Chia
Senior Director
National Security Coordination Centre
National Security Coordination Secretariat
Terence Chia is Senior Director of the National Security Coordination Centre (NSCC) at the National Security Coordination Secretariat, Prime Minister's Office. At NSCC, Terence heads a team that strengthens coordination and collaboration across Government by leading and facilitating programmes that support Singapore's security, resilience and preparedness against threats. Prior to this, Terence served in various roles at the Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Home Affairs and Public Service Commission Secretariat at the Public Service Division.
Terence has Bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Economics from Stanford University and a Master in Business Administration from IESE Business School. Outside of work, Terence has served as a volunteer in various organisations including the National Youth Achievement Award Council and Scape Co. Ltd.
Chan Heng Chee
Chairman Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities
Singapore University of Technology and Design
Chan Heng Chee is Ambassador-at-Large with the Singapore Foreign Ministry. She chairs the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in the Singapore University of Technology and Design. She is Chairman of the National Arts Council, a Member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights, a Member of the Constitutional Commission 2016 and Deputy Chairman of the Social Science Research Council.
Ambassador Chan is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the National University of Singapore, the Yale-NUS Governing Board, the Executive Board of the Chinese Cultural Centre, and the Advisory Council of Temasek Foundation Connects.
She was Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States and Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations with concurrent accreditation as High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Mexico.
Executive Director
Counterpoint
Catherine Fieschi is the Director of Counterpoint, the London-based cultural and social risk advisory group. Through Counterpoint, Catherine advises decision-makers around the world on how to understand the impact of the deep social and cultural dynamics that are reshaping politics, policy-making and markets.
Prior to founding Counterpoint, Catherine was head of research at The British Council and between 2005 and 2008 she was the Director of the leading London-based think tank Demos. She is the author of In the Shadow of Democracy (2008) as well as of numerous essays on extremism, mobilisation and identity politics.
Catherine holds a PhD in Political Science from McGill University. Her expertise is on populist forms of mobilization, and the attitudes and values that underpin them. She has lived in Italy, Senegal, France, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and is fluent in several languages.
Deputy Secretary (Culture)
Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (Singapore)
Rosa Daniel
Rosa Daniel is the Deputy Secretary (Culture) in the Singapore Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) which was formed on 1 November 2012. She is also the Chief Executive Officer of the National Arts Council (NAC).
In her capacity as Deputy Secretary (Culture), Rosa oversees the policies and implementation work of the Ministry and its statutory boards, the National Heritage Board and the National Arts Council on issues related to the arts and heritage. She also works with the companies under the Ministry, namely School of the Arts, National Gallery, Singapore Art Museum and the Esplanade.
As the Chief Executive of the NAC, Rosa oversees the programmes and initiatives of its events and arts, as well as its community outreach efforts to preserve Singapore’s art and cultural scene.
Senior Advisor
Centre for Strategic Futures
Peter Ho
Peter Ho is the Senior Advisor to the Centre for Strategic Futures, a Senior Fellow in the Civil Service College, a Visiting Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, and the current S R Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore at the Institute of Policy Studies.
Peter Ho is Chairman of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore, the Social Science Research Council, the Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, the National Supercomputing Centre Steering Committee, and the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise Governing Council.
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When he retired from the Singapore Administrative Service in 2010 after a career in the Public Service stretching more than 34 years, he was Head, Civil Service, concurrent with his other appointments of Permanent Secretary (Foreign Affairs), Permanent Secretary (National Security & Intelligence Coordination), and Permanent Secretary (Special Duties) in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Senior Fellow
S Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Nanyang Technological University
Han Fook Kwang is a Senior Fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University and Editor-At-Large at The Straits Times.
Mr Han spent 10 years in the Singapore Government Administrative Service (1979 to 1988) serving in the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Labour. He left the government service to join The Straits Times in 1989 as its leader writer. He was Editor of the paper from 2002 to 2012.
He is the co-author of several books on Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew including, Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and His Ideas and Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going. His latest book, Singapore in Transition: Hope, Anxiety and Question Marks was published in 2016.
Mr Han was awarded the Public Service Medal (PBM) in August 2000 for his contributions as a Board Member of the Land Transport Authority.
Lim Shung Yar
Director
Community Relations and Engagement Division
Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (Singapore)
Lim Shung Yar is Director of the Community Relations and Engagement Division in the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY). He oversees policies related to racial and religious matters and the promotion of social cohesion and community resilience in partnership with community organisations. Prior to his posting to MCCY, he served in the Ministries of Education; Information, Communications and the Arts; and Trade and Industry.
Aaron Maniam
Senior Director
Industry Division
Ministry of Trade and Industry (Singapore)
Aaron Maniam is Senior Director at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, overseeing policy on manufacturing, services and tourism. He previously served as a diplomat from 2004-2008; as the inaugural Head of the Centre for Strategic Futures from 2008-2011, and as Director of the Institute of Policy Development at the Civil Service College, which organises leadership training programmes for public sector talent.
In June 2012, he received the Singapore Youth Award, the highest national honour for young people who exemplify excellence in their professional lives and community work. In March 2013, he was named by the World Economic Forum as one of 200 Young Global Leaders. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce.
Executive Director
Borgfest
Richard MacKinnon is the Executive Director of Borgfest, a human augmentation expo and cyborg pride festival. After working on cyborg theory, bodies in virtual reality, and public policy in graduate school, he served on the boards of ACLU of Texas and the Central Texas Civil Liberties Union, and as president of EFF-Austin.
Professor of Islamic Studies
Keough School of Global Affairs
University of Notre Dame
Ebrahim Essa Ismail Moosa is the Professor of Islamic Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. His interpretative and historical research on questions of tradition, ethics and law includes Ghazali And The Poetics of Imagination and What is a Madrasa?, as well as the co-edited books The African Renaissance and the Afro-Arab Spring, Islam in The Modern World, and Muslim Family Law in Sub-Saharan Africa: Colonial Legacies And Post-Colonial Challenges.
Ebrahim has published influential essays on Islamic law, theology as well as contemporary Muslim ethics and political thought. Ebrahim is a prominent public intellectual and was ranked among the 500 Most Influential Muslims, a publication issued jointly by the Prince Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University and Jordan’s The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.
Senior Research Fellow
Institute of Policy Studies (Singapore)
Mathew Mathews is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies. He leads research on Society and Identity issues at the Institute. His research has included studies on race, religion, immigrant integration, family, ageing and poverty.
Mathews is also interested in the impact of social programmes on societal concerns and has been involved in a number of evaluations on the usefulness of various government initiatives. Mathews has taught various courses relating to social policy and has published in a range of academic outlets. He is currently on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Intercultural Studies and serves on a number of government and non-governmental boards.
Founder, Creative Director and CEO
Storyteller Productions
Divian Nair is the founder of a ground-up campaign titled "We Are Majulah”, which seeks to foster the Singapore identity and build a society that is inclusive, tolerant and compassionate. He is currently the CEO and Creative Director of "Storyteller Productions" where he conceptualizes, scripts and directs short films and commercial videos. In the two years of its running, Storyteller has worked with clients like Warner Music, Changi Airport, and The Singapore Tourism Board.
He is also currently the main host of Starhub's Supersports 360. Nair was also most recently appointed as one of the youngest board members of The Advisory Council on Community Relations in Defence (ACCORD) and also the key note speaker for One People’s Harmony Works Conference 2016.
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Yale-NUS College (Singapore)
Rohan Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. He teaches courses in modern social thought, international relations theory, and modern India’s politics and place in the world. His research has been published in journals such as Survival, International Affairs, Global Governance, and International Journal, as well as in edited volumes by Oxford University Press, Stanford University Press, and Brookings Press.
Rohan holds a Master’s in Public Affairs (MPA) from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Oxford.
Rohan is currently working on a book project based on his dissertation, on how the desire for great-power status influences the behaviour of rising powers in international security regimes.
Professor of Philosophy
University of California, Davis
Marina Oshana joined the Department of Philosophy at UC Davis in 2009. She completed her PhD at UC Davis in 1993. Before joining the faculty at UC Davis, she taught in the California State University system for five years, at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and at the University of Florida. Professor Oshana’s research reflects her evolving interest in three broadly connected areas in ethics and moral psychology. These are the nature of personal autonomy and the conditions for autonomous agency, the meaning of moral responsibility and the conditions for responsible agency, and the nature of the self and of self-identity. She has recently extended her research to encompass feminist analyses of responsibility. Her teaching centres in these areas as well as in philosophy of law and political philosophy.
Richard O'Neill
President
The Highlands Group
Richard P. O’Neill is President of The Highlands Group, which conducts research and creates cross-disciplinary gatherings of private sector innovators and global policy makers for improved governance. In 1994, he established The Highlands Forum, an internationally recognized network bringing ideas from the edge and the core together. Participants from industry, academia, government, journalism, the arts and the professions join U.S. government leaders in the Forum for in-depth conversations to extend the emerging concept of security, writ large. Since 1998 Mr. O’Neill has been a senior advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington DC think tank. He previously served in government, in his last position as Deputy for Strategy and Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense. Mr. O’Neill graduated from Holy Cross College, and holds Masters degrees from Georgetown University, the Naval Postgraduate School and the Naval War College. He served in the United States Navy, retiring as a Captain.
Global Leadership Fellow and Project Lead
Fourth Industrial Revolution
World Economic Forum
Thomas D. Philbeck is a Global Leadership Fellow and the Project Lead for the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the World Economic Forum. Before joining the Forum, he served as assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for the New York Institute of Technology. He earned a PhD in interdisciplinary humanities from Florida State University and an MBA from the Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) de Paris. He is a contributing author to, and the co-editor of, The Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television, and has published work on a variety of themes, including posthumanism and ontology, technology and ethics, and technological unemployment. His area of focus is the intersection between technology, society, business and philosophy. Ever the explorer, he has lived in the US, UK, Europe, Middle East and India, working in various sectors. Currently residing in Geneva, Switzerland, he is passionate about art, flying, science fiction, education and the cosmos.
Anju Mary Paul is an international migration scholar with a research focus on migration to, from and within Asia. A native of India, she has lived for several years at a time in Scotland, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Singapore. She has a first-class honours degree in business administration from the National University of Singapore (NUS), a master’s in journalism from New York University, and a PhD in sociology and public policy from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She joined Yale-NUS College in Singapore in 2012 as one of its inaugural faculty and has taught there ever since. Her migration research spans the entire skill spectrum from migrant domestic workers to nurses to bioscientists. She is especially interested in how gender, labour, race and ethnicity, as well as class intersect at the moment of migration and the post-migration experience.
Associate Professor
Social Sciences (Sociology and Public Policy)
Yale-NUS College (Singapore)
Co-founder
The Select Centre
Tan Dan Feng has been involved in various sectors of the knowledge industry for over 25 years as a linguist, technologist, and publisher. He is the founder of The Select Centre, a not-for-profit focused on driving inter-cultural conversations in Southeast Asia, and GistXL Technology, an award-winning language software developer. He is a member of the Singapore University of Social Sciences BATI academic advisory panel. His public service roles have included serving as a member of the National Arts Council Advisory Panel, National Translation Committee, and Television and Radio Advisory Committee Panel of Experts. Books that he has edited or co-edited include Singapore Shifting Boundaries (2011), Indonesia Rising: Islam, Democracy and the Rise of Indonesia as a Major Power (2009), and The Chinese in Indonesia (2008).
Senior Vice President
Strategic Planning Salesforce
Peter Schwartz is an internationally renowned futurist and business strategist, specializing in scenario planning and working with corporations, governments, and institutions to create alternative perspectives of the future and develop robust strategies for a changing and uncertain world. As Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning for Salesforce, he manages the organization’s ongoing strategic conversation. Peter leads the Salesforce Futures LAB – a collaboration between strategic thinkers at Salesforce and its customers around provocative ideas on the future of business.
Prior to joining Salesforce, Peter was co-founder and chairman of Global Business Network. He is the author of several works. His first book, The Art of the Long View, is considered a seminal publication on scenario planning. Peter has also served as a script consultant on the films "The Minority Report," "Deep Impact," "Sneakers," and "War Games." He received a B.S. in aeronautical engineering and astronautics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.
Tan Li San
Deputy Secretary (Industry and Information)
Ministry of Communications and Information (Singapore)
Tan Li San currently holds the position of Deputy Secretary (Industry and Information) at the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI). In this role, she oversees MCI’s industry development and information policy portfolios, as well as its corporate functions including strategic planning and corporate development, among others.
Li San has held various Singapore government positions during her career. These included roles in the Ministry of Manpower, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Ministry of Finance, Public Service Division, and the Civil Service College.
Li San sits on the Board of Directors of the National Arts Council, DesignSingapore Council as well as the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. She also volunteers on the boards of Beyond Social Services and the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS).
Deputy Secretary
Smart Nation and Digital Government Office, and Strategy Group
Prime Minister's Office (Singapore)
Tan Kok Yam is the Deputy Secretary of the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO), in the Prime Minister’s Office. In this role, he is responsible for the plans to realise impactful projects for Smart Nation, raise quality and inter-operability of government IT and smart systems, grow ICT-related capabilities for the government, and engage citizens and businesses to be part of the Smart Nation journey.
Mr Tan is also a Deputy Secretary in Strategy Group and oversees issues related to data, technology and climate change.
Prior to his current post, Mr Tan served in a number of other Ministries within the Singapore Public Service. As the Director of Manpower in the Ministry of Defence, he was in charge of both the human resource and national service policies of the Singapore Armed Forces. He also served previously in the Ministry of National Development and the Ministry of Education, dealing with public housing and higher education policies respectively.
Tan Kok Yam
Co-founder
The Thought Collective
Tong Yee co-founded the School of Thought to promote innovation in education and civic learning in both private and public sectors. This work has since evolved to become The Thought Collective (TTC) — a group of social enterprises reputed for building social and emotional capital that are at the forefront of social innovation in Singapore. Other companies under TTC span across editorial and publishing, experience design, restaurants, training and HR development, and social innovation consultancy.
Tong Yee also spearheaded civic initiatives such as the Stand Up for Singapore Movement, as well as leads several ground-up initiatives with youth across Singapore. Some of his current endeavours include prototyping a sustainable volunteer programme, designing thought-provoking educational experiences through trial innovation, and initiating compelling social movements in the hope of creating a more gracious society.
Tang Zhi Hui
Director
Policy and Planning Directorate
National Population and Talent Division
Ms Tang oversees the formulation and review of overarching policy issues related to population and demography, with a view towards managing a sustainable population for Singapore. The issues span areas including society and identity, economy and workforce growth, and infrastructure long-term planning.
Prior to her current role, Ms Tang was at the NUS Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, overseeing strategic planning. She also held past appointments at the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Education.
Ms Tang graduated summa cum laude in Economics from The University of Chicago, and holds a Masters of Arts in International Comparative Education from Stanford University.
Co-founder and Analytics Lead
Quantic Foundry
Nick Yee is the co-founder and analytics lead of Quantic Foundry, a game analytics consulting practice. For over a decade, he has conducted research on the psychology of gaming and virtual worlds using a wide variety of methods. At Stanford University, he used immersive virtual reality to explore how avatars can change the way people think and behave. At the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), he applied social network analysis and predictive analytics to examine large-scale World of Warcraft data.
He was a senior research scientist in Ubisoft’s Gamer Behavior Research group where he combined data science and social science methods to generate actionable player insights for different game development teams. At Quantic Foundry, he leads the research and development of new tools and approaches for understanding the motivations of game audiences. He is the author of The Proteus Paradox: How Online Games and Virtual Worlds Change Us—And How They Don’t.
Director
Institute of Social Futures
Lancaster University
Linda Woodhead is Professor of Sociology of Religion in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University (UK) and Director of the Institute of Social Futures. She is an expert on religion, culture and values, and carries out social scientific research around the world. Linda’s books include Religions in the Modern World; Christianity: A Very Short Introduction; That Was the Church, That Was: How the Church of England Lost the English People; Prayer in Religion and Spirituality; Everyday Lived Islam in Europe; Religion and Change in Modern Britain; A Sociology of Religious Emotions; The Spiritual Revolution. Linda studied at Cambridge University. She holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Uppsala and Geneva. Linda has been a delegate to the World Economic Forum in Davos, and was a member of its Global Advisory Council on the Role of Faith. In 2013 she was awarded an MBE by the Queen for her contribution to higher education.
Yeong Gah Hou
Senior Director
Integration Directorate, Strategy Group
Prime Minister's Office
Yeong Gah Hou is currently the Senior Director, Integration Directorate of the National Population and Talent Division at the Prime Minister’s Office. Prior to this, he was the Senior Director, National Security Research Centre in the National Security Coordination Secretariat at the Prime Minister’s Office. He received the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2016, and a Commendation Medal (Military) in 2011 for his performance while in National Service.
Gah Hou’s previous postings include the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports where he oversaw strategic planning, social research and organisational development for the Ministry. Before that, he had set up the Joint Counter-Terrorism Centre within the National Security Coordination Secretariat at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Gah Hou graduated with a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Political Science) from the National University of Singapore in 1989, as well as a Masters of Social Science from the London School of Economics in 1996.
Ivan Yeo
Senior Director
Research & Data Division
Ministry of Communications and Information (Singapore)
Ivan Yeo Ken Jin is currently Senior Director of the Research & Data Division at the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI). The Research & Data Division oversees research initiatives to support policy formulation and communications implementation for key areas across Government. He has helmed the research function at the MCI since 2010.
Prior to this, Ivan was with the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, and the Ministry of Home Affairs, where he held portfolios in corporate and strategic planning, organisational development, human resource, international relations, as well as information and media policy.
Ivan read Political Science and Economics at the National University of Singapore; and has an MBA from the Singapore Management University.
Melissa Khoo
Director
Strategic Planning and Futures, Strategy Group
Prime Minister's Office (Singapore)
Melissa Khoo is currently Director, Strategic Planning and Futures in Strategy Group, Prime Minister’s Office. In this role, she oversees the development of futures planning capabilities and whole-of-government strategic planning.
Past stints in the public service include heading the Institute for Public Sector Leadership at the Civil Service College. Melissa was Director of the “Our Singapore Conversation” Programme Office in 2012, which led a national-level year-long citizen engagement exercise. Her early experience in government includes the Ministry of Education from 2006-2009 and the Ministry of Finance. In the private sector, she has worked at the Singapore Exchange, and at Shell Singapore’s Downstream Management Consultancy. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority.
Tan Gee Keow
Deputy Secretary
Strategy Group
Prime Minister's Office (Singapore)
Tan Gee Keow is the Deputy Secretary of Strategy Group in the Prime Minister’s Office. The Strategy Group is responsible for whole-of-government strategic policy planning and co-ordination.
Prior to this, Ms Tan was the Deputy Secretary (Policy) at the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, and had also served as Director, Higher Education at the Ministry of Education and various other government agencies including the Ministry of Defence, the Central Singapore Community Development Council, Public Service Commission Secretariat and the Ministry of Finance.
Ms Tan graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. She obtained her Masters of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and a Master of Science in Management at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Keith Tan
Deputy Secretary (Policy)
Ministry of Defence (Singapore)
Keith Tan is currently Deputy Secretary (Policy) in the Ministry of Defence.
Prior to this, he was the Senior Director of Public Service Division's PS 21 Office, and concurrently Institute Director in the Institute of Governance and Policy of Singapore's Civil Service College. In these complementary roles, he thought about how to engage Public Sector leaders and officers on public sector transformation efforts, and led a number of outreach efforts. He also served as the Editorial Advisor for Challenge magazine and Ethos.
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Keith spent five years in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, where he served as Director of Economics and Strategy Division. He then became Director of the Foreign Economic Policy Division and served as Singapore's Chief Negotiator for the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement negotiations. He also led negotiations on various "21st Century" trade issues in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
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In 2001, he married his best friend, and today, they have four children who keep him busy and young-at-heart.