Seah Kian Peng (; born 1961) is a Singaporean politician who served as Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore between 2011 and 2016. 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), he 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 o ...

(MP) representing the Braddell Heights division of

Marine Parade GRC The Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency is a five-member Group Representation Constituency (GRC) located in the central, eastern and north-eastern areas of Singapore. The constituency consists of a section of Bedok, Chai Chee, Geyla ...

since 2006. He has also been serving as the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

NTUC Fairprice NTUC FairPrice is the largest supermarket chain in Singapore. The company is a co-operative of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). The group has 100 supermarkets across the island, with over 160 outlets of Cheers convenience stores isl ...

since 2010 to 2022 .

Early life

Seah was born into a family of six, consisting of his father, a line worker in a printing firm and his mother, a housewife who took on sewing gigs to supplement the family income, and himself, the third out of the four children. Seah studied at

Raffles Institution Raffles Institution (RI) is an independent educational institution in Singapore. Founded in 1823, it is the oldest school in the country. It provides secondary education for boys only from Year 1 to Year 4, and pre-university education for both ...

before he received a

Colombo Plan The Colombo Plan is a regional intergovernmental organization that began operations on 1 July 1951. The organization was conceived at an international conference, The Commonwealth Conference on Foreign Affairs held in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri L ...

scholarship to study at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...

Career

Early career

Upon graduation with a first class honours degree in building, Seah returned to Singapore to complete his

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

, then worked in a government-linked company, Indeco Engineers, before joining the Singapore Civil Service. Seah was seconded to the

National Trades Union Congress The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), also known as the Singapore National Trades Union Congress (SNTUC) internationally, is the sole national trade union centre in Singapore. NTUC is at the heart of the Labour Movement which comprises 5 ...

(NTUC) to do corporate planning and start NTUC Healthcare's chain of pharmacies. Seah then left NTUC for the corporate world between 1994 and 1996 to do corporate planning, as a "bucket list item". He returned to the public sector in 1996 to head NTUC Healthcare and NTUC Media successively, before being appointed as the chief operating officer of

NTUC FairPrice NTUC FairPrice is the largest supermarket chain in Singapore. The company is a co-operative of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). The group has 100 supermarkets across the island, with over 160 outlets of Cheers convenience stores isl ...

in 2001, then as the chief executive officer of NTUC FairPrice in 2010. Seah is active on the community front. He served as a director on Centre for Fathering Limited, a non-profit organisation that aims to get fathers more involved in the lives of their children, from 2004 to 2018. Seah has been an advisor to the Amalgamated Union of Public Daily Rated Workers as early as 2005.

Political career

Seah was fielded as a

(PAP) candidate for

in the 2006 general election, and was elected as Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC (Braddell Heights ward) in a walkover for the 11th Parliament. Seah was re-elected in Marine Parade Group GRC in the 2011 and 2015 general elections when the PAP team was challenged by the National Solidarity Party and Workers' Party respectively. In Parliament, Seah served as Deputy Speaker from October 2011 to January 2016. On 10 March 2010,

Vivian Balakrishnan Vivian Balakrishnan ( ta, விவியன் பாலகிருஷ்ணன்; born 1961) is a Singaporean politician, diplomat and former ophthalmologist who has been serving in the Cabinet as Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2015. A m ...

Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) was a ministry of the Government of Singapore tasked with building a "cohesive and resilient" society in Singapore. On 1 November 2012, the MCYS was restructured and became the M ...

, suggested that Seah to work out a private member's bill to propose amendments to the Maintenance of Parents Act. After establishing a 10-person workgroup to look at the proposal, the bill was introduced on 18 October 2010 and was passed on 23 November 2010. Seah was appointed as CEO of

from 2010 to 2022 and as chairperson of Social and Family Development Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) in the 14th Parliament.

Personal life

Seah is married to Jean Yap and they have two children.

References

External links

Seah Kian Peng
on Parliament of Singapore
Braddell Heights constituency website
* {{Navboxes, title=Member of multiple Parliaments of Singapore, list= {{14th Parliament of Singapore {{13th Parliament of Singapore {{12th Parliament of Singapore {{11th Parliament of Singapore Members of the Parliament of Singapore People's Action Party politicians Living people 1961 births University of New South Wales alumni Raffles Institution alumni