Foo Mee Har

Foo Mee Har (Chinese: 胡美霞; pinyin: Hú Měixiá, born 10 January 1966) is a Malaysian-born Singaporean politician. She is a Member of Parliament (MP) for West Coast GRC. She is the Chairman of the Estimates Committee of Singapore Parliament. She is also a member of the Government Parliamentary Committees of both: 1) Finance and Trade & Industry; and 2) Education.

Foo was first elected MP in May 2011, standing as one of the five People's Action Party (PAP) candidates for the West Coast GRC, which garnered 66.6 per cent of votes. In the 2015 General Election, Foo was once again fielded as a member of the PAP team contesting in the West Coast GRC. The team defeated Reform Party with 78.6% of the votes.

Foo has twenty over years of experience with leading international firms, held senior leadership roles across businesses and geographies. She stepped down as the Global Head of Priority & International Banking for Standard Chartered Bank on 1 January 2013 to focus on constituency work and to pursue other interests. She had a long-standing career at Standard Chartered Bank spanning 19 years covering Asia, Africa and Middle East markets.

Foo was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Wealth Management Institute at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore as of July 19, 2017.

Foo started her career in 1990 as a Management Consultant with Coopers and Lybrand Management Consultants (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) and PA Consulting Group. She later joined Jardine Matheson's shipping group as the Head of HR.

Foo was with Standard Chartered Bank from 1994 to 2012, during which she held a number of senior positions across the Group.

Foo was involved with a range of corporate community programs, including advocacy, outreach and fund-raising for causes such as avoidable blindness, HIV/AIDs and healthy living. She started the inaugural Standard Chartered Bangkok Marathon, which has become one of the largest sporting events. From 2003–2005, Foo was appointed the Country Head of Consumer Banking in China, spearheading the growth of the Consumer Banking franchise in China.

From 2006–2008, she was President & CEO of Standard Chartered Bank (Thai) pcl with overall responsibility for the Bank in Thailand. In 2008, Foo was appointed Global Head for Priority & International Banking business with overall responsibility for banking, financing and wealth management of affluent and international banking client segments, a business that spanned over 30 countries in Asia, Africa and Middle East.

In March 2011, Foo was featured in Sunday Times' Women at the Top series, an eight-part weekly series on successful women in Singapore.

In July 2015, Foo was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Wealth Management Institute in Singapore.

Foo joined the PAP in 2010, and was unveiled as PAP's first new female candidate for the 2011 Singapore general election. During her introduction, Foo said that living abroad gave her the opportunity "to really reflect on Singapore, its government, systems and its processes" and appreciate its unique strengths

As a profession in the financial sector and a working mother, Foo has special interests in the following:

Singapore's economy

During the 2012 Budget Debate, Foo Mee Har said that the Budget achieved a “good balance between fulfilling the social needs of the country and addressing the longer-term economic competitiveness of Singapore” and was particularly “heartened by the range of schemes intended to help 3 important groups of Singaporeans: the elderly, the lower-income and the disabled.”

In July 2015, Foo supported the proposed amendment to include Temasek Holdings in the Net Investment Returns (NIR) framework. Foo mention that the amendment will widen the sources of revenue to help fund the expected increase in Singapore's future spending needs. However, she cautioned the government that while Singapore increases her spending needs, the government should continue on the path of prudence and sustainability, for the sake of future generations. The focus must be on building a strong and globally competitive economy that will continue to generate strong operating revenues to meet increasing demands for expenditure.

Small and medium-sized enterprises

To maintain a strong and vibrant small and medium-sized enterprises(SME) sector, Foo appealed to the government to maintain flexibility in applying policies. She added that SMEs were the backbone of Singapore's economy and Singapore's future depended heavily on the establishment of a strong and vibrant SME sector. Foo said that SMEs "provide 60% of the jobs, they create value, and they fulfill the dreams of many Singaporean entrepreneurs."

She also suggested streamlining the various government schemes that support productivity, making it easier for SMEs to tap into them. As such, she called on the government to reach out to SMEs with tailored sector-level interventions and support and be able to replicate best practices quickly within each sector.

During the 2013 Budget Debate, Foo praised the Wage Credit Scheme as innovative and 'provides the twin benefits of helping businesses cope with higher wages in a tight labour market as they upgrade, as well as encouraging firms to prefer Singaporeans and pay them better'.

Professionals, managers and executives

In the Debate on President's Address 2014, Foo hoped that the government will continue to do more for the Singaporeans' PMEs to help them fulfill their aspiration to upgrade their quality of life, which Foo noted that many feel further out of reach with the imposition of recent housing and car policies.

Foo urged the government to strengthen the Employment Pass system for foreign professionals, managers and executives to ensure employers show clear evidence of efforts to employ Singaporeans first before hiring foreigners, and are obliged to put in place a plan to invest in the training and development of Singaporeans to fill jobs that they are not qualified yet.

During the Population White Paper debate in Parliament, Foo called on the Singapore government to do more to build a stronger Singaporean core: (1) take bolder steps to improve Total Fertility Rate and (2) tap on economically inactive women and older workers.

Women workforce

Foo urged the Government to provide women in Singapore with the necessary support systems to manage work and family; so that they can be fully empowered to pursue career and family goals of their choice. She also urged the Government to increase the effort to encourage more women's participation in the workforce and leadership roles in both public and private sectors so that Singapore can leverage on their unique talents and experience.

• Ave Maria Convent School, Ipoh, Malaysia (1973–1982)
• Loreto Normanhurst, Sydney (1983–1985)
• In 1989, she was awarded with a Bachelor of Science (Psychology) degree by the University of New South Wales, Australia, graduating with First Class Honours

PAP Women's Wing

Foo is the Treasurer to the PAP Women's Wing Executive Committee. She is also a member of the Advocacy Subcommittee. She led a position paper urging the government to put in an enhanced level of resources to effect the necessary change in the workplace to make it pro-family and called by flexi-work legislation.

In an interview with Channel NewsAsia, she said, "As a professional woman, I'm hoping that I can contribute to the women's agenda in Singapore. I'm a banker by profession, so hopefully this network can help me reach out to women, especially the professional women, and understand their issues."

After university graduation in 1989, Foo moved to Singapore as a permanent resident and married a Singaporean. She has 2 sons, aged 20 and 18 years. She became a Singapore citizen in January 2008 after her stint of overseas postings (2003–2008), when she was eligible to apply for citizenship. Foo spoke about 'Singapore being home for the last 21 years' and that she 'want to make a difference to the lives of Singaporeans'.

In an interview with The Straits Times on 8 September 2008, Foo mentioned that taking up overseas postings in her job was "always a family decision". When Foo was offered the China position in 2003, her husband, then a general manager of a multinational company, quit his job to take up a China post with another company so that the family could relocate together. When Foo was offered the CEO post in Thailand, her family rallied behind her again.