Chan Heng Chee Keynote Speaker

Chan Heng Chee is a veteran diplomat that served as Singapore’s first female and longest serving Ambassador to the United States. She is currently the Ambassador-at-Large with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and chairs the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities in the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Professor Chan was Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States for 16 years. There she implemented many outreach programmes and utilised cultural diplomacy to greatly improve Singapore’s relations with the United States. During her tenure, the Free Trade Agreement between United States and Singapore was signed in 2003.

Prior to her role as Ambassador, Chan Heng Chee was Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations with concurrent accreditation as High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Mexico.

Since 2012, Prof Chan has been an appointed member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights. She is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the National University of Singapore and a Member of the Yale-NUS Governing Board. She is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (ISEAS), a multidisciplinary research institute, and the Deputy Chairman of the Social Science Research Council in Singapore. She is a Member of the Science of Cities Committee (National Research Foundation), and a Member of the Advisory Council on the Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence and Data at the Ministry of Communications and Information.

Prof Chan is Global Co-Chair of the Asia Society and the distinguished author of World in Transition: Singapore’s Future (2021) and co-author of Singapore’s Multiculturalism: Evolving Diversity (2019). She has published numerous articles in journals and newspapers, some of which were seminal works on Singapore politics.

A highly decorated diplomat, Prof Chan has received many awards and accolades in recognition of her academic achievements and contributions to Singapore. Some of these include the inaugural Asia Society Outstanding Diplomatic Achievement Award, the inaugural Foreign Policy Outstanding Diplomatic Achievement Award, the United States Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, and an induction into Singapore’s Women’s Hall of Fame in 2014.

Chan Heng Chee was the first female in Singapore to graduate with first-class honours in Political Science and has received honorary degrees of Doctors of Letters from three prestigious universities. A leading political scientist, Prof Chan speaks with authority on topics such as geopolitics, governance, sustainability, gender and racial equality, and women in leadership.