Lim Hwee Hua


Lim Hwee Hua is a Singaporean private equity investor and former politician. Lim is currently the executive director of private equity firm Tembusu Partners and senior advisor to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. She was the first woman to serve in Singapore's Cabinet when she was made a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office in 2009. She also served as the Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport concurrently. Lim lost her seat in Parliament in the 2011 general election, when she was part of the People's Action Party team that was defeated by the Workers' Party in the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency, following which she announced that she was retiring from politics.

Biography

Early career

Lim began her career as an administrative officer in the Ministries of Finance, Education and Law. In 1989, she joined Swiss Bank Corporation as an investment analyst and moved on to Jardine Fleming in 1992, where she served as head of research and director of business development. In 2000, she joined Temasek Holdings first as managing director of corporate stewardship and later, managing director of strategic relations. While she was at Temasek Holdings, she sat on boards including Port of Singapore Authority, Keppel Corporation and Mapletree.

Political career

Lim was elected as a Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC at both 1997 general election and the 2001 general election. Between April 2002 and August 2004, she was the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. Lim was appointed the Minister of State for Finance and Transport on 12 August 2004.
At the 2006 general election, Lim contested in Aljunied GRC and was elected along with George Yeo, Cynthia Phua, Yeo Guat Kwang and Zainul Abidin Bin Mohamed Rasheed. She was promoted to Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport on 1 April 2008.
On 1 April 2009, Lim become the first woman to serve in Singapore's Cabinet when she was made a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport.
Between 2002 and 2011, Lim was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the PAP, and the Chairman of the party's Women's Wing. She was inducted into the Singapore Council of Women's Organisation Hall of Fame on 31 March 2010, and she received the Her World Woman of the Year Award on 23 April 2010.
Lim contested the 2011 general election in Aljunied GRC, but her team was defeated by the team fielded by the Workers' Party led by its Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang. Lim was therefore unable to continue serving in the Cabinet. She subsequently stepped down from the Central Executive Committee of the PAP, and announced that she was retiring from politics and would not be contesting the next general election, saying she was surprised by the depth of resentment felt by citizens towards the government.

Post-political career

Following her retirement from politics, Lim was appointed as a non-executive director at Jardine Cycle & Carriage in July 2011. In October 2011, Lim was appointed as a senior advisor at the global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. In November 2011, Lim was appointed an independent non-executive director on Ernst & Young's Global Advisory Council. She was also the honorary chairman of the Securities Investors Association Singapore from 2013 to Jan 2017.
She published a book Government In Business: Friend Or Foe? with the Straits Times Press in 2013.

Education

After graduating from Raffles Institution, Lim was awarded an Overseas Merit Scholarship to study at Cambridge University where she read mathematics and engineering at Girton College and graduated in 1981. In 1989, she earned a Master of Business Administration, majoring in finance, from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Personal life

Lim grew up in family of nine children in Tiong Bahru. Her father was a tea merchant. Lim is married to Andy Lim, a partner and founder of Tembusu Partners, a private equity firm. They have a son and two daughters.