Tony Tan - Second Retirement From The Cabinet

Second Retirement From The Cabinet

Tan stepped down as Deputy Prime Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for Security and Defence on 1 September 2005. After his retirement from the Cabinet, Tan became the chairman of the National Research Foundation, and deputy chairman of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council. He was also the Executive Director of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), and Chairman of Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH).

Tan's tenure at GIC coincided with moves towards "greater disclosure in the investment fund’s activities amid mounting concerns about the secretive fund's influence after high-profile investments in UBS and Citigroup." In September 2008 GIC issued the first of a series of annual reports on GIC’s portfolio management, governance, and people. In 2008 during the global financial crisis, GIC experienced a significant drop in its real rate of return which recovered subsequently.

Tan has served as patron of many organisations, including the Singapore Dance Theatre, the Singapore Computer Society, SJI International, the Duke-NUS Medical School, and the MIT Club of Singapore. Most recently, in May 2011, he was named as the first patron of Dover Park Hospice.

Tan was awarded a medal from the Foreign Policy Association in 2011 for "outstanding leadership and service".