Tony Tan Lay Thiam
# Tony Tan Lay Thiam

Tony Tan Lay Thiam (Chinese: 陈礼添; pinyin: Chén Lǐtiān; born 1970) is a Singaporean politician and businessman.

## Education

Tan attended Victoria Junior College before receiving a Singapore Armed Forces Merit Scholarship to study Engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge where he graduated with first class honours. Tan also holds BSci (BioMed) degree from Central Queensland University and an MBA from the University of Leicester.

## Biography

After completing his degree, Tan served in the Singapore Army and was promoted to the rank of Major when he was 27. During his service, he was named the Top Student for the Basic Army Intelligence Course, Company Tactics Course and Combat Engineer Advanced Officer Course. After nine years, he left the armed forces at the age of 31.

In 1999, Tan and his wife established Smartlab Education Centre Pte Ltd, a chain of education centres. Tan was a recipient of the Spirit of Enterprise Award in 2006 and the company under his leadership was a recipient of a Singapore Prestige Brand Award (Promising Brand) in 2007.

### Political career

Tan and his wife joined the Reform Party ahead of the 2011 general election and were slated to stand as candidates for the party in the election. However they were among six members of the party who resigned in February 2011. Differences of opinion with the party's leaders were cited as the cause for their resignation.

Tan and Poa then joined the National Solidarity Party. In the 2011 general election, Tan and Poa were members of the party's five-person team which stood in the Chua Chu Kang Group Representation Constituency. The NSP's team lost to the team from the governing People's Action Party (PAP) by 56,885 votes (38.8%) to 89,710 (61.2%). As a husband and wife pair of former government scholars standing for an opposition party, Tan and Poa drew notable media attention during the election campaign.

## Personal life

He met his future wife Hazel Poa while they were both students at Cambridge. They got married and has two adopted sons.

