Penny Low
Quick Facts
Biography
Penny Low (Chinese: 刘钅梦琳; born 12 June 1967) is a businessperson and former Singaporean politician. A member of the Singapore-based political party People's Action Party (PAP), she was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Pasir Ris-Punggol Group Representation Constituency (GRC). She also founded various enterprises and not-profit organisation like the Social Innovation Park Limited and the Social Enterprise Association.
Early life and education
Penny Low was born in Singapore. She attended Bedok Girls' Primary School and graduated in 1979. Thereafter, she studied at Tanjong Katong Girls' Secondary School and its Pre-University division. Low graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1990 and went on to obtain the Chartered Financial Consultant and Chartered Life Underwriter designation.
In 2007, she was honoured as a Yale Scholar and completed the Yale World Fellow Programme at Yale University. Penny also spent time at Harvard University in Boston and Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Career
From 1990 to 1993, Low worked at the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). She became a hitch hiker and travelled the world before returning to freelance as a producer. She eventually joined the financial service industry and created new and successful financial management methods, where she gained fame. She anchored a television program on financial management and wealth planning, authored a Financial Management Module for SIM-RMIT, authored the first local Chartered Financial Consultant, the Chartered Life Underwriter the Certified Financial Planner modules; as well as adjunct lectured in a university. She went on to build new enterprises, including the Social Innovation Parks Limited in 2006 and the Social Enterprise Association. Since then, she has been serving as the organisations' chief on a pro bono basis.
A former member of the Singapore-based People's Action Party (PAP), Low served as an MP for the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, a position she held from 2001 to 2015 before she retired from politics and was replaced by the former Chief of Defence Force Ng Chee Meng. She is credited with having built the first eco town in the tropics from scratch, and pushed for many design thinking initiatives an innovative projects.
Personal life
Low is single and a free thinker. She resides in Singapore.