Kenneth Jeyaretnam

Kenneth Jeyaretnam is the current Secretary-General of the Reform Party in Singapore. Prior to his appointment as the leader of the Reform Party, he was a fund manager of a fund that he set up from 2004 to 2008, following a successful career of more than 20 years in financial industry. His career in the finance industry was seen in various appointments in some of the most illustrious companies including HSBC, Continental Banks, Banque Indosue, Lehman Brothers and Nomura.

Kenneth attended St Andrew’s School and United World College of South East Asia in Singapore. He completed his National Service in 1980 and then attended Cambridge University where he studied economics, graduating with Double First Class Honours in 1983.

Kenneth is the eldest son of the late opposition politician Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam. In 2009, he joined the Reform party and began to play an active role in Singapore politics. He started contributing articles on economic themes to the popular Singaporean online blog, The Online Citizen. He gave his first public “political” speech alongside other prominent opposition politicians at a memorial event held in memory of his father in Hong Lim Park on New Year’s Eve 2008. It was here that Kenneth first spoke of his belief that it was possible for Singapore to have both prosperity and liberty. During this period he also started working with prominent non-partisan groups in their campaign to have a chair elected in his father’s name and in establishing a foundation for study which will sponsor Singaporean students in Human Rights Law and Politics. He speaks regularly at seminars and conferences on the economic issues of Singapore.