Tan Chin Hwee

Tan Chin Hwee (born 1971) is a Singaporean businessman and is an adjunct professor at Nanyang Technological University (his alma mater),[27] Shanghai Jiao Tong University,[28] Singapore Management University[29] and the University of Yale. He is Chairman of SGTraDex Services and Chairman of Energy Resilience Advisory Panel, Energy Market Authority (EMA). He is also currently Executive Chairman of K Enter Holdings, an umbrella entity of seven South Korea-based entertainment companies^[1] and Chairman of Singapore-headquartered GlobalTix, provider of e-ticket distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry.^[2]

A Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Public Accountant in Singapore and Australia, he previously worked in Keppel Corporation, DBS Bank, Amaranth Advisors, Apollo Global Management and most recently, in Trafigura, a global market leader in the commodities industry.

Tan has a Bachelor of Accountancy degree, graduating with Second Class Upper Honours in 1995 from NTU. He has an Master of Business Administration from Yale University and completed a postgraduate course at Harvard Kennedy School. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and is both an Australian- and a Singapore-registered Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He was also a Non-executive Director of CFA Society Singapore.

Tan started his career in 1995 at Keppel Corporation's treasury division, where he traded proprietary Asian equities and fixed income. Between 1999 and 2001, he ran the proprietary credit portfolio for DBS Bank before becoming a managing director at Amaranth Advisors. After leaving Amaranth Advisors, he joined Apollo Global Management and founded its Asian operations. In 2015, Tan announced his retirement from the finance industry.^[3] Between 2016^[4] and 2023, Tan served as the Asia-Pacific CEO of Trafigura, a Global Fortune 500 company,^[5] and the first Asian to hold this position.^[6] In 2019, Trafigura was the largest amongst the only three Singapore companies to appear in the Fortune Global 500 list and it ranked top 22 globally.^[7] In May 2020, he was appointed to join the Emerging Stronger Taskforce (EST) set up under the Future Economy Council (FEC)/Prime Minister’s Office. The government-led taskforce consisted of key industry representatives to review how Singapore can build new sources of dynamism and stay economically resilient in a post-COVID-19 world.^[8] Tan co-led the Emerging Stronger Taskforce's Alliance for Action on Supply Chain Digitalisation and EduTech, and is also a member of the Sustainability working group. In 2023, Tan was appointed as Chairman of the Energy Supply Resilience Advisory Panel within the Energy Market Authority (EMA).^[9] The Energy Supply Resilience Advisory Panel will advise the EMA on strengthening the resilience of Singapore's energy system. He was nominated as a member of the Trade & Connectivity Standards Committee under the Singapore Standards Council (SSC)/MTI, which facilitates the development, promotion and review of standards in Singapore.

Tan has sat and sits on the boards of various organisations in the public and private sectors. The positions he held include: member of the Resource Panel for Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Trade and Industry; member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Finance Centre Advisory Panel;^[10] and member of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore's International Maritime Centre (IMC) 2030 Advisory Committee.^[11] He is board member of JTC where he is Chairman of Finance and Investment Committee;Singapore Press Holdings; board member of Azendian Solutions, an AI, Data Science and Operations Technology company evolving sustainability solutions in the built environment. non-executive and independent director of Keppel REIT (until June 2017);^[12]; member of Grab Inc advisory board.

He is a member of the Advisory Panel for Youth Corps Singapore; member of the Advisory Panel for the Ministry of Education; member of the Advisory Panel for the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth;^[13][14] sits on the Hwa Chong Institution EXCO of Board of Governors as well as EXCO of Board of Directors. member of Nanyang Technological University's board of trustees board member of Lien Aid Limited (Singapore), the endowment fund for KK Women's and Children's Hospital;^[15] advisory board member of Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance.

Tan has been an Academy Member of the Global Teacher Prize since inception 2013 and is involved as a judge to give out the US$1 million “Nobel” teaching prize.

Tan is an active investor in technology and makes personal investments through his family office vehicle.^[16]  Tan is an early investor in South Korea's largest e-commerce company, Coupang. In 2018, Coupang raised $2 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund valuing the company at $9 billion.^[17] Tan is actively involved with K Enter Holdings Inc., a Delaware, US-based company that announced a $610 million merger deal with a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company in 2023.^[18]

Tan and Thomas R. Robinson, the president and CEO of AACSB International, co-wrote Asian Financial Statement Analysis: Detecting Financial Irregularities, which was published in April 2014 by Wiley.^[19] The Chinese version of the book was launched in Shanghai in 2015, and copies were sold out upon release.^[20] In December 2020, Tan published his second book, Values at the Core, co-authored with Thomas Grandjean, which explores the role of human values in making societies prosperous and went on to be listed as one of the Financial Times readers' Best 2021 Summer Books.^[21][22] In May 2024, Tan co-authored his third book with Thomas Grandjean titled Economic Success: Fate or Destiny, whereby they have studied the political uncertainty that has been brewing across the world and its link to the political and financial policies of the past and present governments. The book provides a peek into how the world could morph into a new multi-polar order where Asia plays a more formal and critical role.^[23]

Tan is an adjunct professor at Nanyang Technological University (his alma mater),^[24] Shanghai Jiao Tong University,^[25] Singapore Management University^[26] and the University of Yale.^[27] He took up the International Olympic Committee Financial Advisor role from March 2016 to December 2019.

Tan was honoured as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2010.^[28]He received the Distinguished Financial Industry Certified Professional Award from the Singapore government in 2013. In 2014, he was honoured as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and World Cities Summit Young Leader,^[29] and received the Nanyang Alumni Award from Nanyang Technological University, his alma mater.^[30] In 2015, he received the World Outstanding Young Chinese Entrepreneurs Award from business newspaper Yazhou Zhoukan and the World Federation of Chinese Entrepreneurs Organization.^[31] He was also voted by The Hedge Fund Journal as the emerging top 40 absolute return investors globally and recognised by The Asset for managing the Best Asia Credit Hedge Fund.^[32]

Tan received a gold medal award from the Community Chest on behalf of Trafigura Foundation at the Istana on 9 October 2019. He had always supported Trafigura Foundation's continuous support towards the community in Singapore.

Tan was awarded the Donaldson Fellowship by the Yale School of Management in 2024. The Donaldson Fellows Program honors alumni from all sectors and across the globe who share a dedication to solving complex problems and pursuing positive change in the world.^[33]

Tan has been actively supporting social work since university days.^[34] Some of the social initiatives that Tan has been involved with include: Setting up the Premmies Fund with the KK Women's and Children's Hospital to help parents with premature babies cope with the financial burden;^[35] Working with ComChest and NCSS to pilot a quarterly donor engagement series for high net worth individuals looking to make a social impact.^[36] He believes strongly in paying it forward, and is one of the donors to the NTU Priorities Fund, which supports 400 of NTU's neediest students. Recipients of the fund will pledge to "pay it forward" within two years of graduation and return the interest-free cash assistance to the university, making it an "evergreen fund".^[37] He has supported the ComChest "You'll Never Walk Alone" fundraising campaign. Campaign funds raised will go towards over 80 social service agencies supported by ComChest to empower lives of the vulnerable, adults with disabilities, children with special needs and youth-at-risk, families in need, vulnerable seniors and persons with mental health conditions during these difficult times.^[38]

Tan came from a humble background, started life with his parents and two siblings in a one-room apartment in Toa Payoh.^[39][40] His family is made up of his wife and three children.^[6] Tan is an avid fan of Premier League football club Liverpool F.C.^[41]