43 Facts About Tharman Shanmugaratnam

Tharman Shanmugaratnam is a Singaporean politician and economist who has served as Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister between 2011 and 2019, and as Senior Minister in the Cabinet since 2019.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam has been the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies since 2015 and Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore since 2011.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam previously held the roles of Minister for Education from 2003 and 2008, Minister for Finance from 2007 and 2015, and Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies from 2015 to 2019.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam has been serving as Deputy Chairman of GIC.

An economist by professional background, Tharman has spent his entire working life in public service in Singapore, in roles principally related to economic and social policies.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam has at the same time led various high level international councils and panels over the last decade.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam is in addition, a member of the United Nations' High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism, that will make recommendations on Effective Multilateralism for the UN's 2024 Summit of the Future.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam co-chaired the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Global Financing for Pandemic Preparedness and Response alongside fellow experts Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Lawrence Summers in 2021.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam previously led the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam chaired the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the International Monetary Fund's key policy forum, for four years, becoming the first Asian chair.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam made his political debut in the 2001 general election, and has been re-elected to Parliament four times at subsequent general elections in 2006,2011,2015 and 2020.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam subsequently obtained a Master of Philosophy degree in economics from the University of Cambridge, and a Master in Public Administration degree from Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, where he received a Lucius N Littauer Fellow award for his outstanding performance and potential.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam was a student activist while studying in the United Kingdom during the 1970s.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam originally held socialist beliefs, but his views on economics evolved over the course of his working career.

Shortly after the 2001 elections, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was appointed Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Education.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam then served as the Minister for Education from 2003 to 2008.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam served concurrently as the Minister for Manpower between May 2011 to July 2012.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam stepped down as Minister for Finance in September 2015 after 9 years.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam has been elected to the Central Executive Committee of the People's Action Party since Dec 2002, and was appointed 2nd Assistant Secretary-General in May 2011.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam would be Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and advise the Prime Minister on economic policies.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam later joined the Singapore Administrative Service and served in the Ministry of Education as Senior Deputy Secretary for Policy, before returning to the MAS where he eventually became its Managing Director.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam resigned from this position to contest in the 2001 general election as a candidate for the People's Action Party.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam contested and was eventually acquitted of the charge of communicating the GDP growth flash projections.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam contested this lesser charge of negligence, and defended himself on the witness stand for a few days.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam has been the chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore since May 2011.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam was appointed as the Deputy Chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation as of May 2019, and chairs its Investment Strategy Committee.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam led the SkillsFuture programme, launched in 2014 with the aim of developing skills of the future, and opportunities for life-long learning and job upskilling among Singaporeans.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam subsequently chaired the tripartite Council for Skills, Innovation and Productivity until May 2017.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam succeeded Jean-Claude Trichet as Chairman of the Group of Thirty, an independent global council of leading economic and financial policy-makers from January 1,2017.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam was succeeded by Mark Carney, and at the same time appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees from January 1,2023.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam had previously been appointed by his international peers as Chairman of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the key policy forum of the IMF, for an extended period of four years from 2011; he was its first Asian chair.

Since 2019, Tharman Shanmugaratnam has been the co-chair of the Advisory Board for UN's Human Development Report.

In May 2019, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was admitted to the World Economic Forum Board of Trustees.

In March 2022, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was appointed as a member of the United Nations' High Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam co-chaired several bilateral committees to promote economic and trade relations between Singapore and other countries, including the Singapore-Liaoning economic and trade council from 2004 to 2008 and the High-Level Russia-Singapore Inter-Governmental Commission from 2011 to 2020.

In July 2010, Tharman Shanmugaratnam became the fourth recipient of an Honorary Fellowship of the Economic Society of Singapore, following the late Dr Goh Keng Swee, Emeritus Professor Lim Chong Yah and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

In May 2019, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was conferred Honorary Membership of the Singapore Medical Association, its highest award.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam was given the Finance Minister of the Year 2013 award by Euromoney magazine, in recognition of the roles he played in Singapore's economic restructuring and as the region's statesman on the international stage.

In June 2019, Tharman Shanmugaratnam was conferred the Freedom of the City of London, in recognition of his contributions to global financial governance and strengthening ties between Singapore and London.

In October 2019, Tharman Shanmugaratnam received the Institute of International Finance's inaugural Distinguished Leadership and Service Award, together with Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, for his role as a leading proponent of global reforms to de-risk and grow development finance and to achieve more resilient capital flows.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam is married to Jane Yumiko Ittogi, a lawyer of Chinese-Japanese descent.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam is actively engaged in social enterprise and the non-profit arts sector.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam was an active sportsman in his youth, and has highlighted the way sports instils lessons for life.