Benjamin Pwee

Pwee was a former senior political diplomat with the Singapore Foreign Ministry, and has held senior positions in Singapore's Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home Affairs. He went on to become Executive Director of Medical Services International based in Hong Kong. He was interpreter and note-taker for former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. He was also one of 12 Special Central Policy Advisors to the Hong Kong Government Chief Executive Donald Tsang.

On the non-profit, faith-based front, he was also previously Associate General-Secretary of Asia Theological Association, Special Assistant to the Anglican Bishop of Singapore, Vice-President of Singapore Graduates Christian Fellowship, and Development Director at China Graduate School of Theology. He was also Assistant Chief Commissioner of Singapore Scouts Association, and has held various advisory roles with Singapore Heart Foundation, Hong Kong Hospital Authority, Medicines Sans Frontiers Hong Kong, and more.

On the political front, he was Assistant Secretary-General of Singapore People's Party (SPP) since 2011, and later, Secretary-General of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) since 2013. He subsequently joined the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) in February 2019 and heads up media management.

He stood as an opposition candidate for national-level parliamentary elections in Singapore, at both the 2011 general election, and the 2015 general election, both times in the Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency (GRC).

Pwee was a recipient of a Singapore government Overseas Merit Scholarship and attended University of Cambridge. Upon returning from his studies, he served in Administrative Service of the Singapore Civil Service for eight years, holding various posts in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1995 to 1998, he was the First Secretary (Political and Economic Affairs) at the Singapore Embassy in Beijing, where he acted as interpreter and note-taker during Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's visits to China. He was also involved in key projects like the Singapore-Suzhou Industrial Park and the PSA-Dalian Port Development projects. In both ministries, Pwee served under then-Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng.

Pwee left the civil service to become an Executive Director of Medical Services International, a regional non-governmental organisation doing social welfare work in China. He subsequently became the managing director of E-deo Asia, a business consultancy firm.[1]

Pwee leads a team of 15 senior regional consultants in Asia, headquartered in Hong Kong, with local presence in Japan, China, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. They specialise specifically in regional business and organisational strategy consulting, for global MNCs, Asian conglomerates, family businesses, SMEs, start-ups, as well as international organizations, non-profits, charities, and faith-based organisations.

He and his team has done almost 20 years of strategic consulting for sectors including healthcare, consumer retail, real estate, hospitality, banking and insurance, industrial manufacturing, education, energy, renewables, agriculture, technology, telecommunications, logistics and supply chain, as well as government.

His list of regional and global clients and contacts include JP Morgan, Shroders, Philips, Abbot, Panasonic, Hitachi, Starwood, AXA, ING, Prada, Gucci, Air Products, Sumitomo, Berjaya Group (Malaysia), YTL Group (Malaysia), CapitaLand Group (Singapore), JG Summit Group (Philippines), Vincorp Group (Vietnam), Tokyu Group (Japan), Langham Group (Hong Kong) etc. As well as the governments and related agencies of Japan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

His non-profit and charity clients include Medicines Sans Frontiers (Hong Kong), Singapore Heart Foundation, Cancer Research Malaysia, CCF Philippines, and many others.

He has also moved into corporate and charity fundraising, private equity and venture capital investment, as well as doing mergers and acquisitions work in Asia, including deal structuring and private placements, in partnership with licensed financial advisory and professional firms like PWC, KPMG, Simmons & Simmons, and others.

Pwee grew up living in the Bishan area of Singapore and is the son of the late active PAP grassroots leader Robert Pwee Kong Joo.

Pwee was educated at The Chinese High School (Singapore) (1981–82), Raffles Institution (1983–84) and Raffles Junior College (1985–86). He then received a Singapore government Overseas Merit Scholarship to study at University of Cambridge, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Literature and Music, and proceeded as Master of Arts.

In 2015, after stepping into politics, he went on to complete a Master in Public administration at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, and a Master in Asian Studies at the S Rajaratnam School of Strategic and International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore thereafter. He went on to also become Adjunct Research Fellow at RSIS, and at the School of Public Policy Chiangmai University Thailand.

He is currently working on a PhD in Islamic Political Science at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) in Malaysia.

Pwee is a committed Protestant Christian since youth. He grew up in the Navigators Singapore Campus Ministry, and went on to be part of International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) at Cambridge University UK.

Upon graduation and return to Singapore, he took on various local church lay leadership roles in his home church St James Church Singapore, including Missions Committee, Music Ministry, and Cell Group Leadership.

He did a Postgraduate Diploma in Intercultural Studies at Singapore Bible College, and went on to obtain a Master's degree in Christian Studies from the China Graduate School of Theology in Hong Kong. He continued into a Master's in Theology (ThM).

He has been Adjunct Lecturer at China Graduate School of Theology (Hong Kong), Bible Graduate School of Theology (Singapore), International School of Theology (Manila) and Kobe Lutheran Theological Seminary (Japan). [7]

He went on to take on part-time leadership roles as Associate General-Secretary of Asia Theological Association, Special Assistant to the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Singapore, and Vice-President of Graduates Christian Fellowship (Singapore).

He has also been a highly sought-after Christian speaker, preacher and teacher for Christian events like missions conferences (Go Forth Singapore, regional conferences (IFES East Asia Graduates Conference, and seminars on Christian business ethics, business as missions, Christianity and government, Christian public theology and politics, etc. He speaks, teaches and preaches fluently in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.