3 S'poreans including Ho Ching & OCBC CEO Helen Wong on Forbes 100 most powerful women list

Three women from Singapore have made it to Forbes' list of the World's Most Powerful Women for 2024.

They are Ho Ching, Chair of Temasek Trust, Helen Wong, the CEO of OCBC, and Jenny Lee, a senior managing partner at Granite Asia, a venture capital firm.

Ho Ching: 32nd, was previously 33rd

Ho was ranked 32nd for 2024, up by one from her previous position of 33 in 2023.

Forbes noted that the 71-year-old was the CEO of Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek from 2004 to 2021, and helped its portfolio grow to more than US$313 billion (S$422 billion).

In October 2021, Ho Ching was named the next Chair of the Temasek Trust, the entity responsible for Temasek's philanthropic endowments.

Ho opened offices in San Francisco in 2018 and poured over a quarter of Temasek's money into sectors like life sciences, tech and agribusiness.

Forbes also noted that Ho is the wife of Singapore's previous Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, who is now Senior Minister.

Wong: 59th, first time on the list

Wong was ranked 59th for 2024.

This is the first time she has made it to the list.

According to Forbes, Wong draws upon four decades of banking experience to lead OCBC, a Singaporean bank that in fiscal 2023 recorded US$10 billion (S$13.4 billion) in total income.

She was named CEO of OCBC in 2021 and a director of the bank's board in 2023.

She had previously spent 27 years in a variety of roles at HSBC; her last job within the bank was overseeing its Greater China business.

In addition, Wong is a council member for The Association of Banks in Singapore and the Institute of Banking & Finance Singapore.

Lee: 96th, up from 97th in 2023

Lee was ranked 96th, an increase of one from her previous position of 97 in 2023.

Forbes noted that at Granite Asia, Lee focuses on focuses on sectors like edtech (education), fintech, and the Metaverse.

She is also considered a trailblazer in her field, she has a portfolio of 21 companies valued at more than US$1 billion (S$1.35 billion) each, and has facilitated 16 Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), including one in 2023 and two in 2021.

She is also the first woman to crack the Midas List top ten in 2012, Forbes' ranking of the world's best venture capital investors.

Lee's portfolio ranges from China's first flying taxi, eHang, to software development company Kingsoft WPS.

Other notable figures on the list

The most powerful woman in the world is Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union.

She is the first woman to serve in the role, which is responsible for legislation affecting more than 450 million Europeans.

She was appointed to the role in July 2019 and was re-elected for a second five-year-term in July 2024.

Other prominent women on the list include pop stars Taylor Swift who came in at 23rd, Beyonce who came in at 35th and Rihanna, who come in at 76th.

Top left image via OCBC, centre image via Teamsek/FB, right image via Granite Asia