Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Group of Thirty

President, Singapore; Former Chairman, Monetary Authority of Singapore

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

He served in politics and government for 22 years before resigning to contest in the Presidential Election. He was Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister for several years, and Education Minister earlier. He also served as Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator, over the 12 years to 2023.

Internationally, Tharman has led several international councils focused on global financial reforms, preparedness for future pandemics, global water sustainability, and strengthened access to education and good jobs.

Tharman was committed through his years in government to building economic resilience and a more inclusive society. 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’ movement aimed at making life-long learning a reality for all. He also chaired the tripartite councils which drove national efforts to raise productivity and wages, and the National Jobs Council which oversaw efforts to rebuild jobs for Singaporeans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tharman currently chairs the board of trustees of the Group of Thirty, an independent global council of economic and financial leaders from the public and private sectors. He also co-chairs the High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs established by the World Bank Group in July 2024. He is in addition on the World Economic Forum’s Board of Trustees.

Tharman earlier led the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the IMF’s top policy forum, for an extended term of four years. He also 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 also co-chaired the G20 High-Level Panel on financing pandemic preparedness and responses, with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Lawrence Summers, in 2021. In 2019, the Institute of International Finance awarded him its inaugural Distinguished Leadership and Service Award.

More recently, Tharman co-chaired the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, which released its final report in October 2024. In addition, he co-chaired the Advisory Board for the UN’s Human Development Report (HDR) - with Joseph E. Stiglitz in 2023/24, and with Thomas Piketty, Michael Spence and Michèle Lamont, respectively, for the previous three editions of the HDR.

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