Yaacob Ibrahim

Prof Yaacob Ibrahim joined the board on 1 Jan 2019. He is currently a professor of engineering at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) where he is also Advisor to the President of SIT.

Prior to his current position, Prof Yaacob served as a Minister in the Ministries of Communications and Information (2011 –2018), Environment and Water Resources (2004 –2011) and Community Development and Sports (2002 –2004). Throughout the 16 years as a Minister, he was also Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs. He started his political career as a Member of Parliament (MP) in Jalan Besar GRC on 2 January 1997. He held several political appointments before becoming a minister in 2002.

Prof Yaacob graduated from the University of Singapore with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1980. He worked as a structural engineer with a multinational engineering consulting firm from 1980 to 1984. He pursued his Ph.D at Stanford University from 1984 and graduated in 1989. He spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at Cornell University. He joined the National University of Singapore as a faculty member in 1990 where he became a tenured member. He took a leave of absence from NUS from July 1998 till his resignation from NUS in August 2018.

He is currently advising several start-ups and also sits on several boards of private companies and unions.