Lawrence Wong
Lawrence Wong has been Prime Minister of Singapore since May 2024, only the fourth person to hold the office and the first born after independence. Born in 1972 and raised in a public housing flat in Marine Parade, the son of a sales manager and a teacher, he studied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan, and took a public administration degree at Harvard. He spent fifteen years as a civil servant, including as principal private secretary to Lee Hsien Loong, and headed the Energy Market Authority before entering parliament for the People's Action Party in 2011. He held the education, national development and finance portfolios. He was made co-chair of the multi-ministry task force on COVID-19 in January 2020, and that assignment made his career. Singapore's response — early border measures, contact tracing, and eventually one of the world's highest vaccination rates — was closely watched, though the outbreak in migrant-worker dormitories in 2020 exposed conditions the government was criticised for tolerating. His plain daily briefings raised his public standing well above other candidates. The PAP has never lost power since 1959 and manages succession internally. Wong was chosen as leader of the fourth-generation team in April 2022 after Heng Swee Keat withdrew, and took over from Lee Hsien Loong in 2024, ending nearly two decades under a son of Lee Kuan Yew. He led the party through the 2025 general election, which returned a strengthened result after the PAP's weakest showing in 2020. His stated priorities are cost of living, housing supply and a refreshed social compact, and he has stressed navigating between the United States and China as the two decouple. He plays the guitar and has adopted rescue dogs.
- Lived: 1972 CE – ?
- Nationality: Singaporean
- Roles: Prime Minister of Singapore (2024-present)
