Poh Li San ( zh, s=傅丽珊, p=Fù Lìshān; born 1975) is a Singaporean politician and businesswoman. 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 Sembawang West 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. She is currently serving as Deputy President of the Singapore Table Tennis Association. A recipient of the Singapore Armed Forces Merit Scholarship (Women), Poh was a helicopter pilot in the

Republic of Singapore Air Force The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is the aerial service branch of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) responsible for controlling and defending the airspace of the country, and providing air support to the Army and Navy. It was establish ...

(RSAF) and the first female aide-de-camp to

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

S. R. Nathan. After leaving the RSAF in 2010, she joined the

Changi Airport Group Singapore Changi Airport, commonly known as Changi Airport , is a major civilian international airport that serves Singapore, and is one of the largest transportation hubs in Asia. As one of the world's busiest airports by international passe ...

and rose to the position of Vice President.

Education

Poh attended

Dunman High School Dunman High School (DHS) is a co-educational government autonomous secondary school located in Kallang, Singapore, offering the Integrated Programme and the Special Assistance Plan (SAP). It was originally located in West Kallang. Since adopting ...

and

Temasek Junior College Temasek Junior College (TJC) is a government-run junior college located in Bedok South, Singapore. It offers a six-year Integrated Programme alongside a two-year Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level curriculum. History Temasek Junior Colleg ...

before graduating from the

University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

in 1998 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 ...

with highest honours degree in engineering and a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

with

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

and highest distinction degree in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

. She was awarded the Bronze Tablet for graduating top 3% in her cohort.

Career

Military career

Poh was awarded the Singapore in 1994 and began her military career with the

(RSAF) as a helicopter pilot after completing her education. She flew the

Super Puma The Airbus Helicopters H215 (formerly Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma) is a four-bladed, twin-engine, medium-size utility helicopter developed and initially produced by the French aerospace company Aérospatiale. It has been subsequently manufactur ...

helicopter in 125 Squadron, Sembawang Airbase. Poh was a

Search and Rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

pilot and was part of the

SAF SAF, S.A.F or saf might refer to: Companies * SAF Tehnika, a producer of digital microwave data transmission equipment * Strip Art Features, a comic book publishing house * Svenska Automobilfabriken, a Swedish auto manufacturer Computing * Ser ...

Humanitarian and Relief mission to

Aceh Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a s ...

following the

Boxing Day Tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

. In 2003, Poh assumed the role of Assistant Director of the Future Systems Technology Directorate under the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

(MINDEF) and led the development of the latest technologies and formulated long term force development strategies and new war-fighting concepts for the

. In 2005, Poh was made Flight Commander of 125 Squadron, Sembawang Airbase. In July 2006, Poh was appointed to be the first female aide-de-camp to then

S. R. Nathan. She was responsible for planning and organising state-level visits, meetings, ceremonies, and events. In May 2010, Poh left the RSAF and attained the rank

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

and joined

Post-military career

Poh started her career in

as Head, Budget Terminal in May 2010. She was in charge of the operations of the Changi Airport Budget Terminal. From 2012 to 2017, Poh led the planning and development of the new Terminal 4 where many new innovations and technologies were implemented to improve passenger experience and productivity. She is currently the Vice-President of the Terminal 5 planning and is responsible for the planning of specialised airport engineering systems for the new terminal.

Political career

Poh joined the governing

(PAP) as an activist in 2018. She is an active

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

leader in

, where she helped

(MP) and Minister for Education

Ong Ye Kung Ong Ye Kung ( zh, s=王乙康, p=Wáng Yǐkāng; born 1969) is a Singaporean politician and former civil servant who has been serving as Minister for Health since 2021. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Mem ...

in his

Meet-the-People Sessions The Meet-the-People Sessions (MPS) is a series of one-to-one meetings between elected Members of the Singapore Parliament, Members of Parliament (MPs) and their constituents in Singapore. The sessions are usually held once a week at a local cons ...

every Monday in his Gambas Ward. She is currently the Deputy Chairman of the PAP Sembawang Branch of

and sits on the Citizen's Consultative Committee of the ward as Vice-Chairman, under MP and

Co-ordinating Minister for Infrastructure The Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure was an appointment in the Cabinet of Singapore. The only person to hold the post, between 2015 and 2020, was Khaw Boon Wan Khaw Boon Wan (; born 8 December 1952) is a Singaporean former politician w ...

and

Minister for Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ag ...

Khaw Boon Wan Khaw Boon Wan (; born 8 December 1952) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Minister for Transport between 2015 and 2020, Minister for National Development between 2011 and 2015, and Minister for Health between 2003 and 2011. A memb ...

. She was then appointed Deputy Chairperson of Sustainability and Environment Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) in the

14th Parliament of Singapore The 14th Parliament of Singapore is the current Parliament of Singapore. It opened on 24 August 2020. The membership was set by the 2020 Singapore General Election on 10 July 2020. The 14th Parliament is controlled by the People's Action Party ...

Personal life

Poh's father was a school teacher and her mother was an accounts clerk. She was born as a

Singaporean Singaporeans, or the Singaporean people, refers to citizens or people who identify with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. Singaporeans of Chinese, Malay, India ...

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

descent and a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

by faith.

References

External links

Poh Li San
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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poh, Li San Grainger College of Engineering alumni Dunman High School alumni Temasek Junior College alumni Singaporean military personnel Singaporean people of Hokkien descent Singaporean women in politics Living people 1975 births Members of the Parliament of Singapore