DBS’ Tan Su Shan among Forbes’ list of 100 most powerful women globally; two other Singapore leaders ranked

[SINGAPORE] DBS Group chief executive officer Tan Su Shan is one of three business leaders from Singapore on 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 leaders from Singapore who made the cut were Temasek Trust chair Ho Ching, 72, and Jenny Lee, 53, senior managing partner of Asian venture capital firm Granite Asia. They were 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 role in March, taking over from Piyush Gupta.

Before she became the 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 more than 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 bank.

As for Ho, her time as director of Temasek Holdings began in 2002. She took on her position as chair of Temasek Trust in 2022. She is also the wife of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, formerly prime minister of Singapore.

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Ho is said to among the four women who have made the list since its inception, alongside Oprah Winfrey, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde 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 86th place on Forbes’ 2019 edition of the world’s 100 most powerful women.

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

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

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

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; those from North America account for the largest share, with 50.

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

Both are new to the list.

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

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