Mariam binte Jaafar (born 1977) is a Singaporean politician. A member of the governing

People's Action Party The People's Action Party ( abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) a ...

(PAP), she has been the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) representing the Woodlands division of Sembawang GRC since 2020.

Early life and education

Mariam grew up in a 1-room HDB flat with her parents and siblings. Her father was a

Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi: , Rencong: ) is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of the Philippines ...

teacher while her mother was a nurse. She attended Raffles Girls' Primary School for three years before transferring to

Bukit View Primary School Bukit Batok, often abbreviated as Bt Batok, is a planning area and matured residential town located along the eastern boundary of the West Region of Singapore. Bukit Batok statistically ranks in as the 25th largest, the 12th most populous and ...

. When she was 13 years old, Mariam received the MENDAKI Scholarship from then-Deputy Prime Minister

Goh Chok Tong Goh Chok Tong (; born 20 May 1941) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1990 and 2004, and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party between 1992 and 2004. He was the Member of Parliament (MP ...

. Mariam attended

Raffles Girls' School Raffles Girls' School (RGS) is an independent girls' secondary school located in Braddell, Singapore. Established in 1879, it is one of the oldest schools in Singapore. RGS, together with its affiliated school Raffles Institution, offers a six- ...

and

Raffles Junior College The Raffles Junior College (RJC) was a junior college in Singapore offering pre-university education. The college was founded in 1982, following a separation from the pre-university section of Raffles Institution (RI). Raffles Junior College ...

before graduating from Stanford University in 2000 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree and a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast ...

degree in

electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

and

electronics engineering Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current ...

. She subsequently went on to complete a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accou ...

degree at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...

in 2006.

Career

Following her graduation from Harvard Business School, she worked at

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (management consultancies), Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three larges ...

. She is currently a Managing Director and Partner at the BCG office in Singapore and is a core member of the firm's Technology, Media & Telecommunications and Financial Institutions practices. In 2016, Mariam was chosen to be a member of the Committee on the Future Economy, chaired by Finance Minister

Heng Swee Keat Heng Swee Keat (; born 15 April 1961) is a Singaporean politician, former police officer and civil servant who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore since 2019 and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies since 2020 and a ...

. Mariam serves on the board of directors at the

Government Technology Agency The Government Technology Agency (GovTech) is a statutory board of the Government of Singapore, under the Prime Minister's Office. It was restructured from Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) in 2016, and officially legislated i ...

and at the

Sentosa Development Corporation Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Government of Singapore. Purpose Islands The Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) was formed on 1 September 1972. Its main task is to ...

. She is also on the board of governors at her alma mater,

Political career

In the

2020 election This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *5 January: **Cro ...

, Mariam was nominated as a candidate of the ruling

(PAP) for Sembawang GRC. On 10 July, she was elected to the

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...

, defeating the opposition candidates from the National Solidarity Party (NSP).

Personal life

Mariam is married to Heng Teck Thai.

References

External links

Mariam Jaafar
on Parliament of Singapore
Mariam Jaafar
on

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Mariam Jaafar
on

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{{14th Parliament of Singapore 1977 births Living people Singaporean people of Malay descent Stanford University alumni Harvard Business School alumni People's Action Party politicians Singaporean women in politics Raffles Girls' Secondary School alumni Raffles Junior College alumni Members of the Parliament of Singapore