Mr Wong Kan Seng graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in 1970 from the then University of Singapore and a Master of Science degree from the London Business School in 1979 on a Singapore Government scholarship.

Mr Wong taught for three years before pursuing further studies at the University of Singapore. He joined the Administrative Service in 1970. He had worked in the then Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF). He held appointments as a Department Head of the Republic of Singapore Navy, Director of Manpower Division and Deputy Secretary till 1981 when he left to join Hewlett Packard, Singapore where he remained till January 1985.

Mr Wong first contested and won in the 1984 Parliamentary election as the People's Action Party candidate for the Kuo Chuan Constituency in Toa Payoh. Since then, he has been re-elected as Member of Parliament in five successive general elections.
 
In February 1985, Mr Wong was appointed Minister of State (Home Affairs, briefly) and (Community Development), and (Communications and Information). In the following year, he was appointed the Acting Minister for Community Development and Minister of State (Communications and Information).
 
In 1987, Mr Wong became the Minister for Community Development, a position he held till 1991. In that same year, he was appointed as the Leader of the House (Parliament) and held the position till March 2007. He was also concurrently the Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, and became the Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1988. He is the Home Affairs Minister since 1994.
 
Mr Wong was the Deputy Chairman of People's Association for 15 years from 1992 to 2006.

Mr Wong was appointed the Deputy Prime Minister on 1 September 2005. He chairs a number of ministerial-level committees which coordinate work across several ministries, for example, on crisis management, on community engagement and on population. Mr Wong is also the co-Chairman of the Singapore-China Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation, the Suzhou Industrial Park Joint Steering Committee and the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Joint Steering Council, as well as the Qatar-Singapore High Level Joint Committee.

Apart from appointments in the Government, Mr Wong is the Adviser of the National Transport Workers' Union since 1985. He was the Chairman of the Chinese Development Assistance Council from 1992 till 2004. He is a member of the London Business School's Global Advisory Council.
 
Mr Wong has been a member of the People's Action Party's Central Executive Committee since 1987 and was its Second Assistant Secretary-General from 1992 to 2004 when he became its First Assistant Secretary-General.
 
For his contributions to the Civil Service and Labour Movement, Mr Wong was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 1976 and the National Trade Union Congress May Day Medal of Honour in 1998. He received the London Business School Alumni Achievement Award in 2004.

For exercise, Mr Wong works out in the gym. He also enjoys a round of golf.


July 2009


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