Background
Chan was born in 1953 to a "bilingual family" — both his parents were fluent in English and Chinese.
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Alan Chan
Edit ProfileEducation
He studied in Haig Boys School, Raffles Institution and National Junior College. He was awarded the President Scholarship and French Government Scholarship, and graduated with a Dip Ingenieur from Ecole Nationale de L"Aviation Civile in 1978. He subsequently went to European Institute of Business Administration (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires) and obtained a Master of Business Administration (with distinction) in 1983.
Career
He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Singapore-based media organisation Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). After studying in France and working in various Government Ministries, Chan successfully applied to be the Principal Private Secretary of Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew (as he then was). Thereafter, Chan was appointed as Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Strict on making his subordinates speak Chinese properly, he imposed a ten-cent fine on whoever who used English terms in their Chinese conversations.
Chan also served as the Ministry of Defence"s Director of Manpower. He rose to the position of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Transport before retiring from the civil service to join Singapore Press Holdings (SPH).
In total, his career as a government official spanned some 25 years. Becoming Group President of the Singapore-based media firm SPH in July 2002, it was in January 2003 that he became the company"s Chief Executive Officer.
He is also part of its Board of Directors.
Chan was listed as one of "100 Inspiring Rafflesians" and described as "a Rafflesian who has crossed many boundaries" by Guan Heng Tan in 2008. Chan contributed an essay titled "My Tryst With Chinese" for Lee Kuan Yew"s 2012 book, My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore"s Bilingual Journey. He was selected by European Institute of Business Administration (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires) in 2009 as one of the "50 Alumni who changed the world".
