Tony Tan

Tony Tan Keng Yam (simplified Chinese: 陈庆炎; traditional Chinese: 陳慶炎; pinyin: Chén Qìngyán; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Khèng-iām; born 7 February 1940) is the seventh President of Singapore, in office since 2011. He served as a Member of the Singapore Parliament from 1979 to 2006 and held various ministerial portfolios, including defence, finance, Arts, trade and industry. In the late 1980s, Lee Kuan Yew mentioned Tan as his first choice to succeed himself as Prime Minister of Singapore, but he declined. He left the Cabinet from 1991 to 1995 to lead the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation before returning as Deputy Prime Minister, a position he held until 2005.

After stepping down as a Member of Parliament in 2006, Tan was appointed Executive Director and Deputy Chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and Chairman of Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH). He also served as Chairman of Singapore's National Research Foundation, and Deputy Chairman of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council. In July 2011, he resigned from these positions to contest in the 2011 presidential election. He received 35.20% of the votes, winning by a narrow 0.34% margin over the second-placed candidate. Tan was sworn in as President on 1 September 2011.