MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy names Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of the Republic of Singapore, as winner of the Miriam Pozen Prize
The former chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore is being honored for his leadership in international financial policy, and will give a lecture at MIT Sloan School of Management.
Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy (GCFP) is awarding President of the Republic of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam the Miriam Pozen Prize in recognition of his leadership in international financial policy. President Tharman, an economist, longtime public servant, and politician, has served as president of Singapore since 2023. For the previous 12 years, he was chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s central bank and financial regulator.
“I am privileged to receive the Miriam Pozen Prize and doubly honored to follow in the footsteps of Stanley Fischer and Mario Draghi,” President Tharman said. “I thank the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy, the judges, and Robert Pozen, whose generosity has made this prize and fellowship possible. I hope it helps advance ideas for the principled stewardship of public finances, and renewed construction of a cooperative international order — both critical to addressing the most pressing issues of our times.”
“MIT has a long history of fruitful collaboration with Singapore and a deep appreciation of President Tharman — his leadership in research and education, his dedication to public service and his insightful, compassionate approach to global policy challenges,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth said. “We’re delighted to welcome him to campus to accept this well-deserved honor and share his wisdom with our students.”
The Miriam Pozen Prize is awarded biennially in honor of the late mother of Robert C. Pozen. Pozen, who has endowed the award, is a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan and the former president of Fidelity Investments and executive chairman of MFS Investment Management.
“It is a great honor to host President Tharman at MIT Sloan. His record of public service and his impact in an array of different areas — public finance and education — make him the perfect recipient of the Miriam Pozen GCFP prize,” Richard M. Locke, John C Head III Dean and Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, said. “President Tharman’s work at the intersection of policy and finance is exactly what MIT Sloan’s Golub Center for Financial Policy seeks to achieve. Having this kind of impact in the world is central to MIT Sloan's mission.”
An award ceremony will be held at the MIT Sloan School of Management, at Samberg Conference Center, on December 9, 2025 at 12 p.m., and at that time, President Tharman will deliver the Miriam Pozen Lecture. In addition to the $200,000 prize, a fellowship named in President Tharman’s honor will be awarded to an incoming MIT Sloan MBA student, selected in 2026. MIT GCFP hopes the award inspires talented young people to dedicate their careers to service and leadership in financial policy, thereby enhancing the quality of financial decision-making.
MIT Sloan Distinguished Professor of Finance Deborah J. Lucas, who serves as director of the GCFP, said, “President Tharman’s contributions to Singapore’s outstanding record of inclusive growth and financial stability, and his effectiveness at bringing world leaders together to address some of the biggest financial and humanitarian challenges of our time, should stand as an inspiration to students who plan to devote their lives to making a meaningful impact on the world.”
President Tharman was in politics for over two decades, serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister over several years, and as Education Minister earlier. He also served as Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator over more than a decade. Internationally, President Tharman has led several high-level councils focused on global financial reforms, and preparedness for future pandemics, among other global challenges.
He led the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the IMF’s top policy forum, for an extended term of four years starting in 2011. He later chaired a G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance over 2017-18, which laid the basis for subsequent and ongoing reforms in the system of international financial institutions. He also co-chaired a G20 High-Level Panel on financing pandemic preparedness and responses. In 2019, the Institute of International Finance awarded him its inaugural Distinguished Leadership and Service Award.
President Tharman recently co-chaired the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, which released its final report in October 2024. In addition, he has co-chaired the Advisory Board for the UN’s Human Development Report (HDR)—with Joseph E. Stiglitz in 2023-24, and Michèle Lamont, Michael Spence, and Thomas Piketty, respectively, for the previous three editions.
He currently chairs the board of the Group of Thirty, an independent global council of economic and financial leaders from the public and private sectors. He also co-chairs the High-Level Advisory Council on Jobs, established by the World Bank Group in July 2024, with Michelle Bachelet.
Domestically, President Tharman has been committed through his years in government to building both economic resilience and a more inclusive society. He has been deeply involved in building fair and sustainable fiscal strategies, and initiatives to sustain social mobility and make lifelong learning a reality for all.
Following his schooling in Singapore, President Tharman earned a BSc in Economics at the London School of Economics and an MPhil in Economics at the University of Cambridge. He later obtained an MPA at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he was conferred the Lucius N. Littauer Fellow award for outstanding performance and leadership potential. In 2011, he was made Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics.
“I have known President Tharman Shanmugaratnam for over two decades,” Robert C. Merton, co-director of the GCFP and the School of Management Distinguished Professor of Finance at MIT Sloan said. “He combines a blend of remarkable expertise and profound empathy. He has served in an incomparable array of senior governmental positions as an extraordinary leader with global influence. As president of Singapore, he carries not just the badge of the office, but a trust that comes from decades of service and a demonstrated concern for both the economy and the people. His journey shows that leadership can be about both structural vision and human connection.”
Previously awarded to the late Stanley Fischer in 2021, and to Mario Draghi in 2023, the Miriam Pozen Prize advances MIT GCFP's mission to serve as a catalyst for innovative, cross-disciplinary and nonpartisan research and educational initiatives that address the unique challenges facing governments in their role as financial institutions and as regulators of the financial system.
“I am pleased that the judges of the Miriam Pozen Prize have selected President Tharman as this year’s honoree,” Pozen said. “He combines the deep insights of a well-trained economist with the willingness to apply his ideas to policymaking, and he is a model for the application of financial science to practice that the Miriam Pozen Prize is intended to encourage.”
About the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy
The mission of the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy (GCFP) is to serve as a catalyst for innovative, cross-disciplinary and nonpartisan research and educational initiatives that address the unique challenges facing governments in their role as financial institutions and as regulators of the financial system. The center is building a foundation that will support transformative improvements in the development and execution of financial policy today and in the decades to come. It combines the Institute's reputation of academic excellence and commitment to public service with the acumen of MIT Sloan. For more information on the GCFP, please visit gcfp.mit.edu.
About MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is where smart, independent leaders come together to solve problems, create new organizations, and improve the world. Learn more at mitsloan.mit.edu.
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Casey Bayer MIT Sloan School of Management 914.584.9095 bayerc@mit.edu
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