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Key Note Speaker

Kishore Mahbubani dedicated over five decades of his life to public service, for which he was conferred the Public Administration Medal (Gold) by the Singapore Government in 1998. In his 33 years as a Singapore diplomat, Kishore took on many challenging assignments, serving for example in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 1973-74 during the Cambodian Civil War. He also served two stints as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN (1984-1989 and 1998-2004) and held the position of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1998.

Kishore had an equally illustrious career in academia. He was appointed the Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in August 2004 and led the School until 2017. Despite his duties, as diplomat and Dean, Kishore is a prolific author and has published ten books. His ninth book, The Asian 21st Century, is an open access volume which has been downloaded over 4 million times. His latest book, a memoir titled Living the Asian Century, was published in August 2024.

Kishore has been listed among the world’s top 100 public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines and among the Top 50 individuals who would shape the debate on the future of capitalism by the Financial Times. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 2019. More information can be found on http://www.mahbubani.net.

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