DBS’ Tan Su Shan is 29th among Forbes’ 2025 World’s 100 Most Powerful Women; two other Singaporeans ranked

[SINGAPORE] DBS Group chief executive officer Tan Su Shan is one of three business leaders from Singapore who made it to Forbes’ list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2025.

She took 29th place on the list, which was released on Wednesday (Dec 10).

The other two women leaders on the list were Temasek Trust’s chair Ho Ching, 72, and Jenny Lee, 53, senior managing partner of Asian venture capital firm Granite Asia. They were in 34th and 96th place, respectively.

Tan – a newcomer to the list – is the first woman to lead DBS, the largest bank in South-east Asia.

The 57-year-old stepped into the position in March, taking over from her predecessor Piyush Gupta.

Before she became the Singapore bank’s CEO, she ran the Consumer Banking and Wealth Management, and Institutional Banking divisions at DBS. Together, these departments were responsible for about 90 per cent of DBS’ earnings.

The bank has over 38,000 employees and operations in 19 countries, with the assets it manages valued at over US$600 billion.

Tan is known for her “digital-first” strategy, Forbes reported, and is at the forefront of employing new strategies involving artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, with older trust and safety measures, in leading the South-east Asian bank.

As for Ho, her time as director of Temasek Holdings began in 2002. Thereafter, she took on her position as chair of Temasek Trust in 2022.

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She is also the wife of the former prime minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong.

The Singaporean businesswoman is said to among the four women who have made the list since its inception – alongside Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, and American philanthropist Melinda Gates.

Lee, based on her LinkedIn profile, founded GGV Capital Asia partnership in 2005; it has since been rebranded as Granite Asia.

She was the first female venture capitalist to break into the top 10 of Forbes’ Midas List in 2015.

The senior managing partner at Granite Asia was in 86th place on Forbes’ 2019 edition of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

Her past work experiences include being an associate at Morgan Stanley, and vice-president at venture capital firm Jafco Asia in Hong Kong.

She sits on several boards of institutions in Singapore, such as Temasek, Duke-NUS Medical School and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

All women leaders who made the 2025 list collectively oversee more than US$4.9 trillion in revenue, noted Forbes.

They also employ over 9.3 million people, and influence countries representing more than half of global GDP.

The full list features women from 25 countries, with North American female leaders accounting for the largest number among the 50 names.

Notable figures from the Asia-Pacific on the list include Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who is ranked third, and the chief financial officer of technology conglomerate ByteDance, Julie Gao.

Both are new to the list in 2025.

Others from the Asia-Pacific who made the cut this year were CEO of fast-food business Yum China Holdings Joey Wat, and India’s Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman.

The list for 2025 has 13 billionaires, who have a combined net worth of US$180.5 billion, up from US$163.7 billion last year.