Ow Foong Pheng

SENIOR FELLOW

2025 - PRESENT

Ow Foong Pheng is the Chairman of the Urban Redevelopment Authority and Special Advisor to the Minister for National Development. Mrs Ow currently sits on the Board of SP Group and was previously a Director on the Board of DBS. She served more than 38 years in the Singapore Public Service before her retirement on 1 April 2025, in various portfolios in the Ministries of Education, Finance, Defence, Home Affairs, Manpower, Trade and Industry and National Development. She has contributed to policy making, implementation and crisis response in the economic, security and built environment areas.

As Deputy Secretary in Home Affairs, Mrs Ow led the organisational review and change management efforts to transform the Police, Civil Defence, Immigration, Central Narcotics and Prisons Service into a unified Home Team. She also helped coordinate the whole of government’s response to the 2003 SARS crisis as Secretary of the Executive Group.

As Permanent Secretary of Trade and Industry, Mrs Ow led the review and negotiation of various trade agreements such as the EU-Singapore FTA, the Trans Pacific Partnership and China- Singapore FTA. On the domestic front, she was the first Secretary of the National Productivity Council that drove the transformation of various industry sectors towards innovation-led and high productivity growth.

As Permanent Secretary of National Development, Mrs Ow oversaw land planning for Singapore, public housing policies, and safeguarded Singapore’s built and natural heritage. She transformed the vision for Singapore from City in a Garden, to City in Nature. She navigated the Ministry through the disruptions and challenges posed by COVID-19, during and post crisis, to the construction and property sectors.

On the climate change front, Mrs Ow led the Long Term Workgroup which identified and mapped out national economic response measures as Permanent Secretary Trade and Industry, and the Resilience Workgroup which coordinated Singapore’s infrastructural and planning measures as Permanent Secretary, National Development. In the latter capacity, various efforts were launched to cool Singapore and protect against sea level rise.

Mrs Ow is a recipient of the Meritorious Service Medal from the Singapore Government. She holds a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford.