The Harvard Club of Singapore (HCS) invites you to its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Annual Dinner to be held at The Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) Ballroom on Tuesday 26 March 2024.
The Annual Dinner is open to all Harvard schools’ alumni and their guests, but only HCS Paid Members can attend and vote at the AGM. All Harvard schools’ alumni who are HCS Paid Members also enjoy a discounted ticket price to attend this dinner.
Date: Tuesday 26 March 2024
Schedule: AGM (for HCS Paid Members) at 6.15pm; Formal Dinner at 7.15pm
Venue: The Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) Ballroom, 180 Island Club Road, Singapore 578772
(complimentary parking coupon, if needed, will be available at the registration desk)
Dress Code: Business Attire
Ticketing:
– SGD 180 each for HCS Paid Member + 1 Guest (if applicable)
– SGD 300 for all Harvard schools’ alumni (non-HCS Paid Members)
– Your attendance for the Annual Dinner is only confirmed upon payment and confirmation of Harvard alumni status
SEATS ARE LIMITED THUS DO PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS TODAY!
All Harvard alumni in Singapore are eligible to sign up for a $100 annual HCS membership. HCS Paid Members enjoy a discounted ticket price to attend this event. Membership details and payment information is available here.
A special feature in our Annual Dinner will be the awarding of our HCS Fellow. The HCS Fellow is our version of something akin to the Commencement Speaker at Harvard University, whom our alma mater awards an Honorary Doctorate to. In this case, the HCS Fellow Award is given to a person selected by HCS (as represented by its elected Committee), whose merits include achievements, qualities, values, virtues and scholarship that best reflect the values of Harvard University. This Award also focuses on Harvard’s motto Veritas, excellence and leadership, merits and virtues that best reflect the highest ethos of what the HCS stands for and wishes to recognise and honour in the Awardee.
We have the privilege to announce, in advance of our Annual Dinner, that our 2024 HCS Fellow is DR ANG SWEE CHAI, a gifted orthopedic surgeon and well-known humanitarian. Born in Penang, Malaysia, and raised in Singapore, she studied medicine at the National University of Singapore. She was silver medallist for her undergraduate medical degree and gold medallist for her post-graduate degree in Occupational Medicine in the United Kingdom. She became the first female orthopaedic surgeon consultant appointed at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.
Dr Ang’s notable achievements as a humanitarian started in 1982 when she volunteered as a doctor to treat war casualties in Lebanon and went to work at the Gaza Hospital near the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp in Beirut.
Moved by the medical needs of civilians caught in the Middle East conflict, Dr Ang co-founded the British charity, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), one of the earliest humanitarian organisations to offer medical services in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon, and advocate for Palestinians’ rights to health and dignity. Since the commencement of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, MAP has been providing essential healthcare and medical aid, and supplying bulletproof vests and helmets for health workers in Gaza.
Dr Ang was awarded the Star of Palestine, the highest award for service to the Palestinian people, by President Yasser Arafat in 1987, and inducted into the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame in 2016.
We all look forward to hearing Dr Ang’s address and sharing of her humanitarian work experience in the Middle East at our Annual Dinner!
Our Guest of Honour for this Annual Dinner will be DR NOELEEN HEYZER, a social scientist who served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) and was the highest-ranking Singaporean in the UN system during her term. As an Under-Secretary-General of the UN during 2007-2015, she was the first woman to serve as the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCACP) since its founding in 1947. Under her leadership (August 2007-January 2014), ESCAP has grown in profile and stature, focusing on regional co-operation for a more resilient Asia-Pacific, founded on shared prosperity, social equity, and sustainable development. She was at the forefront of many innovations including for regional disaster preparedness, inclusive socio-economic policies, sustainable agriculture and urbanization, energy security, regional connectivity and integration as new drivers of growth.
Dr Heyzer was a founding member of several international women’s networks and has served on numerous boards and advisory committees of international organisations, including the UNDP Human Development Report, the High-level Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding chaired by Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen, appointed a jury member of U.S., Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Innovation Award for Women’s and Girl’s Empowerment 2010, and on the Board of Trustees of the National University of Singapore.
She holds a BA Hons and MSc from Singapore University, a PhD from Cambridge University, and has received numerous international awards for leadership and was also the Inaugural HCS Fellow Awardee in 2019. More details of her bio is available here.
Other Esteemed Guests Attending Our Annual Dinner:
PROFESSOR WANG GUNGWU
Professor Wang is an internationally renowned historian famed for his scholarship on the history of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, as well as the history and civilisation of China and Southeast Asia. In his illustrious academic career, Professor Wang has held eminent appointments in various universities and organisations around the world. He was a History Professor at the University of Malaya (1963–68) and the Australian National University (1968–86), the Vice-Chancellor at the University of Hong Kong (1986–95), and Chairman of International Advisory Council in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Professor Wang is a Professor Emeritus at the Australian National University, and University Professor of the National University of Singapore (NUS), the highest academic title conferred by NUS.
He studied history in the University of Malaya, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
He was bestowed the title of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1988, awarded the 2020 Tang Prize in Sinology in 2020 and HCS Fellow in 2021, granted the Distinguished Service Order in Singapore in 2021 and conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by NUS in 2022. More details of his bio is available here.
THIRUNALAN SASITHARAN
Mr Thirunalan Sasitharan is one of Singapore’s finest theatre actors and his contribution to the arts cultural scene in Singapore is seminal. He was the successor to Kuo Pao Kun’s artistic directorship of the independent arts centre The Substation from 1996-2000. Together with Kuo, arguably Singapore’s most significant cultural figure, Mr Sasitharan co-founded the Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), then called TTRP – the Theatre Training and Research Programme in 2000. With Kuo’s untimely death in 2002, Mr Sasitharan took up the reins of the fledging institution and forged the development of a conservatory unique in the world of theatre training of actors because of its curriculum and pedagogy. ITI’s unique acting programme is characterised by its performer-centred, practice-oriented training that emphasises intercultural work and original creation. It immerses students in classical theatre forms from Asia – such as Beijing Opera, Kutiyattam, Noh Theatre and Wayang Wong – and juxtaposes these intense interactions with Stanislavskian and post-Stanislavskian actor training techniques.
Mr Sasitharan is a recipient of the Cultural Medallion, Singapore’s highest honour for artists, in 2012 and a HCS Fellow Awardee in 2022. He is regarded by his peers and the larger arts community in Singapore as a teacher and thought leader, who always stood for the independent and critical-minded artist, eloquently speaking truth to power.
He holds a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the National University of Singapore (NUS). More details of his bio is available here.