Geographer Lily Kong made history in 2015 when the Singapore Management University (SMU) appointed her as its provost, making her the first woman university provost in Singapore.

Three years later, she made history again when, after a seven-month global search, SMU announced that Lily had been chosen as its fifth president. She is the first Singaporean to helm the 21-year-old university, and the first Singaporean woman to head a Singapore university.

SMU board chairman Ho Kwon Ping, when he announced Lily’s appointment as president, said in the few years she was the provost, she had driven many projects that had enhanced the quality of SMU’s students and faculty, and its educational offerings and research. Among her numerous initiatives were a major revamp of the university’s undergraduate core curriculum, and a strengthening of selection processes in undergraduate admissions

Together with her team, Lily also introduced new interdisciplinary majors and tracks, including politics, law, and economics; smart city management and technology; and healthcare economics and management programmes. Another major project was the establishment of the SMU Academy, which offers skills upgrading programmes for working adults.

When she became SMU president in January 2019, one of the first tasks Lily undertook was to review the university’s strategy to achieve Vision 2025, which is to ‘be a world-renowned global city university, tackling the world’s complexities, and impacting humanity positively’.

As she explained in a newspaper interview: “I wanted us to move from organic to organised; from serendipitous to strategic. It’s well and good to say we want to impact humanity positively, but how exactly are we going to do that? In what areas are we going to do that?”

Lily and her team identified the three areas they would focus on: Digital transformation, sustainable living, and growth in Asia. She explained the process: “We asked ourselves: Were these areas good for students? Would they give faculty every opportunity to develop ground-breaking research that would make a difference? Was this good for Singapore, and for the region? Absolutely, the answer was yes.”

In 2020, Forbes named Lily as one of Asia’s 25 Power Businesswomen. The business magazine noted that as SMU president, she had continued to expand the university’s entrepreneurship capacity for students. SMU had, for example, created 700sqm of incubation space to foster innovation and entrepreneurship among students, alumni, and local businesses.

Lily’s vision of a university is that it gives back to its community. “Not just in terms of producing graduates to populate the workforce, as important as that is – but also in terms of developing entrepreneurial, innovative young people to come up with new ideas that can address the challenges of the world,” she once said.

Apart from her achievements as a university administrator and leader, Lily is widely known for her research on urban transformations, and social and cultural change in Asia. She has published a large body of work on religion, cultural policy and creative economy, urban heritage and conservation, national identity, smart cities, and education. Lily’s work has earned her international awards, including the Association of American Geographers Robert Stoddard Award for Distinguished Service (Geography of Religion and Belief Systems). In a 2020 Stanford University study, Lily was ranked among the top one percent of scientists in the world in her discipline.

She is on the editorial boards of more than 15 international journals in her field and is frequently featured as a keynote speaker or a moderator at conferences. She has co-authored or co-edited more than 20 books, published over 100 refereed journal articles, and contributed over 60 book chapters.

When she was an undergraduate, Lily thoroughly enjoyed writing her thesis because, she explained, “I could pick any topic I wanted, frame the questions as I thought fit, read copiously, marshal the evidence, and craft a narrative and argument as I thought worthwhile. It was a liberating experience, not to be answering set questions.”

On the question of getting more women into leadership roles, Lily feels ‘systematic and intentional’ efforts are needed. “Exhortation alone will not get us there. Cultural change does not come about via dialogue alone, though it is important for us to have open conversations about the issues. Systematic and intentional systemic change comes about through policy changes, regulations, training (eg, to understand and hopefully obviate unconscious biases), programmes (eg, mentoring) and so forth.”

Lily was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2006 and the Public Service Star in 2020.

Geographer Lily Kong made history in 2015 when the Singapore Management University (SMU) appointed her as its provost, making her the first woman university provost in Singapore.

Three years later, she made history again when, after a seven-month global search, SMU announced that Lily had been chosen as its fifth president. She is the first Singaporean to helm the 21-year-old university, and the first woman to head a Singapore university.

SMU board chairman Ho Kwon Ping, when he announced Lily’s appointment as president, said in the few years she was the provost, she had driven many projects that had enhanced the quality of SMU’s students and faculty, and its educational offerings and research. Among her numerous initiatives were a major revamp of the university’s undergraduate core curriculum, and a strengthening of selection processes in undergraduate admissions

Together with her team, Lily also introduced new interdisciplinary majors and tracks, including politics, law, and economics; smart city management and technology; and healthcare economics and management programmes. Another major project was the establishment of the SMU Academy, which offers skills upgrading programmes for working adults.

When she became SMU president in January 2019, one of the first tasks Lily undertook was to review the university’s strategy to achieve Vision 2025, which is to ‘be a world-renowned global city university, tackling the world’s complexities, and impacting humanity positively’.

As she explained in a newspaper interview: “I wanted us to move from organic to organised; from serendipitous to strategic. It’s well and good to say we want to impact humanity positively, but how exactly are we going to do that? In what areas are we going to do that?”

Lily and her team identified the three areas they would focus on: Digital transformation, sustainable living, and growth in Asia. She explained the process: “We asked ourselves: Were these areas good for students? Would they give faculty every opportunity to develop ground-breaking research that would make a difference? Was this good for Singapore, and for the region? Absolutely, the answer was yes.”

In 2020, Forbes named Lily as one of Asia’s 25 Power Businesswomen. The business magazine noted that as SMU president, she had continued to expand the university’s entrepreneurship capacity for students. SMU had, for example, created 700sqm of incubation space to foster innovation and entrepreneurship among students, alumni, and local businesses.

Lily’s vision of a university is that it gives back to its community. “Not just in terms of producing graduates to populate the workforce, as important as that is – but also in terms of developing entrepreneurial, innovative young people to come up with new ideas that can address the challenges of the world,” she once said.

Apart from her achievements as a university administrator and leader, Lily is widely known for her research on urban transformations, and social and cultural change in Asia. She has published a large body of work on religion, cultural policy and creative economy, urban heritage and conservation, national identity, smart cities, and education. Lily’s work has earned her international awards, including the Association of American Geographers Robert Stoddard Award for Distinguished Service (Geography of Religion and Belief Systems). In a 2020 Stanford University study, Lily was ranked among the top one percent of scientists in the world in her discipline.

She is on the editorial boards of more than 15 international journals in her field and is frequently featured as a keynote speaker or a moderator at conferences. She has co-authored or co-edited more than 20 books, published over 100 refereed journal articles, and contributed over 60 book chapters.

When she was an undergraduate, Lily thoroughly enjoyed writing her thesis because, she explained, “I could pick any topic I wanted, frame the questions as I thought fit, read copiously, marshal the evidence, and craft a narrative and argument as I thought worthwhile. It was a liberating experience, not to be answering set questions.”

On the question of getting more women into leadership roles, Lily feels ‘systematic and intentional’ efforts are needed. “Exhortation alone will not get us there. Cultural change does not come about via dialogue alone, though it is important for us to have open conversations about the issues. Systematic and intentional systemic change comes about through policy changes, regulations, training (eg, to understand and hopefully obviate unconscious biases), programmes (eg, mentoring) and so forth.”

Lily was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2006 and the Public Service Star in 2020.