Tony Tan

Tony Tan Keng Yam (born 7 February 1940) is a Singaporean banker and politician who served as the seventh president of Singapore between 2011 and 2017 after winning the 2011 presidential election. Prior to entering politics, Tan was a general manager at OCBC Bank. He made his political debut in the 1979 by-elections as a People's Action Party (PAP) candidate contesting in Sembawang Group Representation Constituency and won. He later served as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore from 1995 to 2005. After resigning from the cabinet in 2005, Tan was appointed deputy chairman and executive director of GIC, chairman of the National Research Foundation, and chairman of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). He stepped down from all his positions in 2010 before contesting the 2011 presidential election as an independent candidate. Tan won the 2011 presidential election in a four-way fight and served as the president of Singapore until 2017. He did not seek re-election in the 2017 presidential election, which was reserved for Malay candidates following a constitutional amendment. He officially retired on 1 September 2017 at the end of his presidential term. He was succeeded by Halimah Yacob on 14 September 2017.