Mdm Halimah Yacob Chancellor of the Singapore University of Social Sciences
Former President of the Republic of Singapore
Mdm Halimah Yacob, Chancellor of the Singapore University of Social Sciences, served as the eighth, and first female, President of Singapore from 2017 to 2023. Prior to that she was, from 2013, the first female Speaker of Parliament. After getting a law degree from the University of Singapore in 1978, she joined the National Trades Union Congress and headed the women’s development secretariat and the legal services department before becoming NTUC’s deputy secretary-general. She stood for election as a People’s Action Party candidate in 2001 and was the first Malay woman to be elected an MP. Before becoming Speaker, Halimah served as Minister of State in the Ministry of Social and Family Development. Mdm Halimah was also the first Singaporean to serve on the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation, a United Nations agency, between 1999 to 2011.
