Professor Yaacob Ibrahim is currently an Advisor, Office of the President, Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), as well as Director, Community Leadership and Social Innovation Centre (CLASIC), SIT, where he oversees the University’s efforts in community-related projects and initiatives, and the nurturing of social advocate leaders who are grounded in research and community development. He also serves as Advisor, AI Singapore, a national Artificial Intelligence (AI) programme launched by the National Research Foundation to catalyse Singapore’s AI capabilities.
Prior to his current positions at SIT, 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. Prof Yaacob started his political career as a Member of Parliament in Jalan Besar GRC on 2 January 1997, and held several political appointments before becoming a Minister in 2002.
Prof Yaacob sits on the board of several private companies and unions. He is Chairman of the Governing Board for the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS). He is on the Board of Trustees for the Building Construction and Timber Industries Employees’ Union (BATU), and is a Board Member of Surbana Jurong Group. He is also an independent director of Chip Eng Seng Corporation Limited. His most recent appointment would be as a non-executive independent director for Oceanus Group Limited on 1 September 2020.
Prof Yaacob graduated from the University of Singapore with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1984 before getting his PhD at Stanford University in 1989. He spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at Cornell University. He joined the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a faculty member in 1990, till his retirement in 2018.
