Who is Singapore’s Lawrence Wong? How an underdog with no grand political ambitions became the next prime minister

“I had not yet found my calling in public service,” Wong, who was then at the Ministry of Finance at the turn of the millennium, said in a media interview.

“So I was getting restless and [the] private sector beckoned at that time, beckoned with more enticing offers, a better job, more salary. I was very tempted to leave. In fact, I had an offer and I was going to leave.”

But word soon reached his then-boss, former permanent secretary Lim Siong Guan, who persuaded him to be “patient” and seize opportunities unavailable in the private sector.

That advice proved invaluable as Wong stayed the course and soon found himself working on national policies and “doing a lot of meaningful work, work that I certainly could never have done in the private sector”.

Singapore has Lim to thank for providing wise counsel, as Wong moved steadily up through the public-service ranks, to reach the pinnacle two decades later. On May 15, he will be sworn in as the city state’s fourth prime minister since independence.

“He clearly had a sharp mind, was able to think out of the box, prepared to try the new and the novel,” Lim told This Week in Asia.

Wong was “also a good team player, not the prima donna but the willing worker”.

Lim would be among many who would laud Wong to This Week in Asia for being a team player, a quiet go-getter and a persistent doer.

From their assessment, Lawrence Wong’s journey to the top political office in Singapore is a story of the understated overachiever who disarms with his humble demeanour and delivers with hard-wired determination.

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Singapore’s Lee Hsien Loong will hand over power to deputy Lawrence Wong on May 15

“I pledge to give my all in this undertaking, every ounce of my energy shall be devoted to the service of