Tan Su Shan

For all her many accomplishments, Tan Su Shan may be best known in the Singaporean banking world for one thing: bringing a Bloomberg terminal into the hospital when she was giving birth in 1999. She had “no choice,” she would later recount; after all, the yen was plunging against the dollar. Tan is the first woman to lead DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank. She’s spent over 15 years at DBS, having joined after stints at Morgan Stanley and Citi. Before becoming CEO in March, Tan led DBS’s institutional banking division and has helped expand its businesses in consumer banking, wealth management, and international banking. 

Tan takes over from Piyush Gupta—sometimes called Singapore’s Jamie Dimon—who is credited with growing the bank’s revenue from $4.6 billion in 2009 to $17 billion today. DBS chairman Peter Seah called Tan a “standout candidate” to lead the bank into a “new chapter.” Tan, in interviews, has compared herself to a “nagging grandmother”—citing an interpersonal style she picked up from her DBS predecessor that emphasizes consistency, clarity, and good communication. DBS’s performance is threatened by geopolitical uncertainty, a pressing problem for trade-exposed Singapore and Southeast Asia. Yet Tan remains upbeat on the bank’s growth, and is betting on Singapore’s future as a financial hub connecting Southeast Asia, China, and India. She’s also keen on new technologies, calling AI models “game changers” for the bank.