SMU hosted the inaugural SMU Alumni Awards 2025 on 12 November 2025 at SMU Hall, with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam as Guest of Honour.
Launched in celebration of SMU’s Silver Jubilee, the SMU Alumni Awards marked the University’s highest recognition of alumni achievement. To be conferred every five years, the Awards honour SMU alumni and associate alumni who have distinguished themselves through professional excellence, innovation, and service to society.
Recipients were trailblazers and changemakers who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and drive, advanced social impact, and embodied the University’s values of integrity, inclusion, sustainability, and community upliftment — both within SMU and beyond.
Honouring excellence and purpose
SMU Chairman Mr Piyush Gupta said: “Our alumni are different. They speak well, think critically, and act with confidence and empathy. As we look at our recipients tonight, we see leaders who inspire by example: entrepreneurs redefining industries, servants of the public strengthening communities, and changemakers who use their success to serve. Their achievements are a powerful reflection of what it means to be both successful and significant.”
Celebrating 25 years of impact
President Professor Lily Kong shared: “It is fitting that we are introducing these alumni awards in our 25th anniversary year. This evening, we celebrate not only our award recipients’ achievements, but the enduring spirit of SMU, embodied in our people. The Awards recognise many forms of excellence – changemakers improve the lives of those in the community they serve, innovators who imagine and create that which did not exist before, and achievers who persevere despite the odds.”
Recognising a diverse slate of recipients
The inaugural Awards recognised 22 recipients representing the breadth and impact of the SMU community – spanning entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, public service professionals, social innovators, academics, and athletes.
Among them were Tan I-Ren Gabriel, Founder of Bamboo Builders, a Singapore-based social enterprise that equips individuals with real-world skills to multiply real-world impact; Lin Fengru, CEO and Founder of TurtleTree, which is pioneering dairy-free nutrition with animal-free lactoferrin (LF+), a rare dairy protein that supports immunity, gut health, and iron regulation; Aaron Tan Wei Cheng, Aditya Lesmana, and Chng Soon Yeong Kelvin, Co-Founders of Carro, a full-stack ecosystem that guides customers across the region through every stage of car ownership; Yip Pin Xiu, seven-time Paralympic gold medallist and seven-time World Champion; and Charles Chen Yidan, Core Founder of Chinese multinational technology conglomerate Tencent and Founder of the Yidan Prize Foundation, established in 2016 with the mission of creating a better world through education.
Together, they exemplified the SMU ethos of leading with purpose – using creativity, empathy, and collaboration to create positive change in their fields and communities.
