CNA – George Goh, the founder of Harvey Norman Ossia, yesterday announced his intention to run for the Singapore presidency, becoming the second person to step forward after Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
A statement from his media team said Goh will contest as an “independent candidate”.
“He has no political party affiliations – past or present. He has no political baggage. He was never in the public sector.
“He is an entrepreneur who started working at the age of 16, and has since built a business empire spanning 14 countries,” it said.
Goh – who brought Australian electronics store Harvey Norman to Asia – had been floated as a possible presidential hopeful in recent days.
The 63-year-old is chairman of Ossia International, an SGX-listed investment holding company.
Married with four children, he also co-founded the charity Border Mission and is a council member at the Red Cross Society, among other roles.
He was in 2017 appointed as Singapore’s non-resident ambassador to Morocco.
To contest the Presidential Election and to “maintain his independence”, Goh tendered his resignation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 9, the statement said.
President Halimah Yacob’s six-year term ends on September 13 this year.
The 68-year-old announced on May 29 her decision not to seek a second term. She is the country’s eighth president and first female president.
According to Goh’s team, he made the decision in 2017 to stand for election, after the eligibility requirement for private sector candidates was raised – from those helming corporations with at least SGD100 million (USD75.6 million) in paid-up capital to corporations with at least USD500 million in share equity.
