Tan See Leng

Tan See Leng (born 24 December 1964) is a Singaporean politician, business executive, medical practitioner and entrepreneur. A member of the governing party People's Action Party, he was appointed as the Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

He is serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Marine Parade GRC for Marine Parade since 10 July 2020.

Tan was born in Singapore. An only child, he grew up with an SBS bus timekeeper father and a homemaker mother who took up as many odd jobs as possible to alleviate the family's financial constraints. He had been fostered out to a Cantonese-speaking nanny to be cared for, staying at Sam Leong Road, next to Desker Road with her on weekdays. Only on weekends did he stay with his parents at a rented flat in Toa Payoh. This arrangement continued until he was five or six years old.

Tan funded his university education by himself, with an annual school fee of $3000, by tutoring junior-college students for various subjects (Mathematics, Biology, Physics and Chemistry). With up to eight students at a time, he earned around $800 to $1,000-plus a month.

Tan attended Monk’s Hill Primary School and Monk's Hill Secondary School. He went on to National Junior College, and joined the choir as his Co-curricular activity. He then studied medicine at the National University of Singapore. In 1988, Tan obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from the National University of Singapore Faculty of Medicine. In 1998, he obtained a Master of Medicine Family Medicine from the National University of Singapore. In 2003, he was awarded the Fellow of College of Family Physicians by the College of Family Physicians Singapore. In 2004, he obtained a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2014, he was awarded the Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Singapore.

Entrepreneur

In 1992, at the age of 27, Tan started Healthway Medical Group with a group of friends, through a bank loan of $90,000 and an initial capital investment of $5,000 from each of the initial stakeholders. As co-founder and chairman of the company, he grew the group to become the second largest private primary care group in Singapore. In 2004, he successfully divested the group to British United Provident Association Healthcare.

Businessman

In 2004, he joined Parkway Holdings as Chief Operating Officer of Mount Elizabeth Hospital. Tan was eventually promoted to become the Executive Director of Pantai Holdings (Subsidiary of Parkway) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pantai Hospitals Division and Head of Malaysia Operating Division of Parkway until 2008.

From 2010 to 2019, Tan was the group CEO and Managing Director (MD) of Parkway Holdings and Parkway Pantai Limited. From 2014 to 2019, Tan was also the CEO and MD of IHH Healthcare BHD. During his tenures, some of his contributions include delisting Parkway Holdings in 2010 and relisting IHH Healthcare in 2012 into one of the largest IPOS in the world in 2012, expanding and growing the group from 15 hospitals in 2009 to 84 hospitals as of the end of 2019, leading the M&A of Acibadem Healthcare (Turkey), Fortis Healthcare (India), and multiple hospitals across Asia. Under his leadership, IHH Healthcare Berhad has won multiple awards, including the Best Managed and Best Overall Corporate Governance Poll Awards by Asiamoney in 2016.

In 2019, he retired from the position of group CEO and Managing Director (MD) of Parkway Holdings and Parkway Pantai Limited.

External appointments

Over the years, Tan has held numerous ministerial advisory and medical committee appointments. For instance, since 2009, Dr Tan has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the College of Family Physicians Singapore (CFPS). He also served in various capacities with CFPS Holdings Pte Ltd, including as its Chairman from 2008 to 2010 and Vice President from 2011 to 2013. In November 2013, he was appointed by the Ministry of Health as a member of the MediShield Life Review Committee.

Moreover, Tan has maintained active involvement in academia through board memberships and appointments. From 2011 to 2019, Tan was Adjunct Assistant Professor of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, Office of Education. Tan has also sat on the Advisory Board of Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore Management University.

Apart from the medical field, Tan has also contributed to the business scene. In 2012, Dr Tan was appointed a council member of the Singapore-Guangdong Collaboration Council. The council aims to deepen Singapore's engagement with Guangdong and benefit Singapore businesses through joint exploration of new opportunities in the province.

A passionate supporter of improving healthcare provision through innovations and private-public collaboration, Dr Tan has guest lectured at many international symposiums, including the Harvard Business School’s series on healthcare entrepreneurship. He has also previously provided advisory inputs as an expert panel member for the Department of Health, National Health Services (UK).

Since Tan retired in 2019, he has been active in the community. He acts as patron of WeCare Community Enabling Network in Marine Parade and attends weekly Meet-the-People sessions at the Marine Parade constituency. He also actively reaches out to the Marine Parade community to connect with and understand them better. For example, Tan has set up and is helming a Caregivers Support Network in Marine Parade. This network aims to serve as “a conduit” that can facilitate help for caregivers of the sick and elderly, against the backdrop of an older demographic in Marine Parade.

2004: Tan was awarded the Long Service Award from the People’s Association Singapore.

2007: Tan was awarded the prestigious College of Family Physicians Singapore Albert and Mary Lim Award, the highest accolade awarded for contribution and services rendered to the college and to the discipline of Family Medicine. This was in appreciation of his contribution to CFPS, where he successfully organised the 18th Wonca World Conference in Singapore, which netted CFPS a net profit of more than US$1.3 million.

2015: Named Asia Innovator of the Year at the 14th CNBC Asia Business Leaders Awards (ABLA) 2015

2016: Asiamoney Best Executive in Malaysia, Asiamoney best CEO in Investor Relations

2017: Won the ABLA Corporate Social Responsibility Award

2019: Singapore Medical Association Merit Award 2019