Mariam binte Jaafar (born 1977) is a Singaporean politician. A member of the governing

People's Action Party The People's Action Party (abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and ...

(PAP), she has been the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) representing the

Woodlands Woodlands may back refer to: * Woodland, a low-density forest Geography Australia * Woodlands, New South Wales * Woodlands, Ashgrove, Queensland, a heritage-listed house associated with John Henry Pepper * Woodlands, Marburg, Queensland, a her ...

division of

Sembawang GRC The Sembawang Group Representation Constituency is a five-member Group Representation Constituency (GRC) located in the northern area of Singapore. The GRC consists: Sembawang Central, Sembawang West, Woodlands, Admiralty and Canberra divisions. ...

since 2020.

Early life and education

Mariam grew up in a 1-room HDB flat with her parents and siblings. Her father was a

Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Rejang script, Rencong: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spo ...

teacher while her mother was a nurse. She attended

Raffles Girls' Primary School This is a list of primary schools in Singapore. Children typically start their primary education in the year they turn seven. Primary education lasts six years, and is compulsory for all Singapore citizens. Primary schools in Singapore are clas ...

for three years before transferring to Bukit View Primary School. When she was 13 years old, Mariam received the MENDAKI Scholarship from then-Deputy Prime Minister

Goh Chok Tong Goh Chok Tong (; born 20 May 1941) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1990 and 2004, and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party between 1992 and 2004. He was the Parliament of Singapore, ...

. Mariam attended

Raffles Girls' School Raffles Girls' School (RGS) is an independent girls' secondary school located in Braddell, Singapore. Established in 1879, it is one of the oldest schools in Singapore. RGS, together with its affiliated school Raffles Institution, offers a six- ...

and

Raffles Junior College The Raffles Junior College (RJC) was a junior college in Singapore offering pre-university education. The college was founded in 1982, following a separation from the pre-university section of Raffles Institution (RI). Raffles Junior College ...

before graduating from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 2000 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree and a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

degree in

electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and

electronics engineering Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current f ...

. She subsequently went on to complete a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

degree at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in 2006.

Career

Following her graduation from Harvard Business School, she worked at

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...

. She is currently a Managing Director and Partner at the BCG office in Singapore and is a core member of the firm's Technology, Media & Telecommunications and Financial Institutions practices. In 2016, Mariam was chosen to be a member of the Committee on the Future Economy, chaired by Finance Minister

Heng Swee Keat Heng Swee Keat (; born 15 April 1961) is a Singaporean politician, former police officer and civil servant who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore since 2019 and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies since 2020 and als ...

. Mariam serves on the board of directors at the

Government Technology Agency The Government Technology Agency (GovTech) is a statutory board of the Government of Singapore, under the Prime Minister's Office. It was restructured from Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) in 2016, and officially legislated i ...

and at the

Sentosa Development Corporation Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Government of Singapore. Purpose Islands The Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) was formed on 1 September 1972. Its main task is to ...

. She is also on the board of governors at her alma mater,

Political career

In the 2020 election, Mariam was nominated as a candidate of the ruling

(PAP) for

. On 10 July, she was elected to the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, defeating the opposition candidates from the National Solidarity Party (NSP).

Personal life

Mariam is married to Heng Teck Thai.

References

External links

Mariam Jaafar
on

Parliament of Singapore The Parliament of Singapore is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Singapore, which governs the country alongside the president of Singapore. Largely based upon the Westminster system, the Parliament is made up of Members of Parliam ...

Mariam Jaafar
on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

Mariam Jaafar
on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

{{14th Parliament of Singapore 1977 births Living people Singaporean people of Malay descent Stanford University alumni Harvard Business School alumni People's Action Party politicians Singaporean women in politics Raffles Girls' Secondary School alumni Raffles Junior College alumni Members of the Parliament of Singapore