{"id":84193,"date":"2026-09-11T23:51:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=84193"},"modified":"2026-09-11T23:51:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:51:50","slug":"dbs-chief-tan-su-shan-on-talent-diversity-and-policy-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=84193","title":{"rendered":"DBS chief Tan Su Shan on talent diversity and policy debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"text-primary article-summary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 <!-- -->DBS chief executive Tan Su Shan has ruled out entering politics, but noted the need for Singapore to attract candidates from both the public and private sectors to elevate the quality of policy debates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cI\u2019m too old,\u201d said the 57-year-old in response to queries on whether she would consider entering politics, during a fireside chat organised by the Singapore Press Club as part of its Eminent Speaker Series, presented by SPH Foundation, on Sept 11.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">She was <!-- -->previously<!-- --> part of the <!-- -->ruling<!-- --> People\u2019s Action Party before she resigned to serve as a Nominated Member of Parliament from 2012 to 2014.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Her comments came after a parliamentary debate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/politics\/governments-approach-is-to-raise-political-salaries-progressively-and-with-restraint-pm-wong?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">to raise salaries of ministers<\/span><\/a>, in which Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said he wanted to attract private sector candidates to join the Government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He cited leaders of major Singapore-listed companies in sectors such as banking, telecommunications, aviation and engineering as examples of the talent pool that the Government is competing for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">While the Government is not trying to match the salaries of such private-sector professionals, PM Wong said Singapore \u201ccannot pretend that the opportunity cost does not exist\u201d, given that their remuneration is already \u201cwell above\u201d that of starting-grade ministers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Tan, who took on the role of CEO at DBS in 2025, received <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/business\/dbs-chief-tan-su-shans-2025-pay-was-9-6-million-in-first-year-at-the-helm?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">a total compensation package of $9.64 million<\/span><\/a> for the year, covering both her first nine months at the helm and the period she served as deputy CEO earlier in the year. Meanwhile, the reference annual salary for an entry-level minister at the MR4 grade will be raised to $1.8 million from $1.1 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Against this backdrop, she noted the need to continue to elevate the quality of debate<!-- --> in Singapore<!-- -->, which can only be done <!-- -->via<!-- --> the right people with the right type of industry experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cI would like to see healthy debate that\u2019s not personal but more around policy, around judgment, around lending, and if that means attracting the best talent in Singapore to get in, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In that aspect, private sector professionals matter as they may make decisions for business and growth differently from those in the public sector, which is crucial for Singapore\u2019s need to stay relevant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cI do think that being able to attract great talent, whatever their background, and the diversity of talent is necessary to keep Singapore ahead,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Staying ahead also means being willing to take risks, and accepting that some may fail, she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cGod forbid Singapore fail at anything, right? We\u2019re always the best student,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cBut heck, in this world, we need to fail to learn and move on.\u201d <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesstimes.com.sg\/singapore\/im-too-old-dbs-chief-tan-su-shan-rules-out-entering-politics-calls-diverse-talent-boost-policy?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">THE BUSINESS TIMES<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/business\/im-too-old-dbs-chief-tan-su-shan-rules-out-entering-politics-calls-for-diverse-talent-to-boost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 DBS chief executive Tan Su Shan has ruled out entering politics, but noted the need for Singapore to attract candidates from both the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}