 | This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling.(January 2025) |
Li Hongyi | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Employer | Government Technology Agency |
| Parents | |
Li Hongyi is the director of the Open Government Products (OGP) division of the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech). [1] [2] [3]
Li is the oldest son of Lee Hsien Loong, the former Prime Minister of Singapore, and Ho Ching, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Temasek Holdings. [4] Li studied at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and Raffles Junior College.
In 2006, Li won the Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathematics and Science and was awarded a Public Service Commission (PSC) Overseas Merit Scholarship to study economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). [5] He switched his course of study partway and ultimately majored in Computer Science. [2]
In 2007, when serving his national service as a Second Lieutenant, Li sent an email to then Minister of Defence Teo Chee Hean, the Chief of Defence Force, the Chief of Army, and hundreds of military personnel alleging that one of his colleagues had been absent without leave (AWOL) on two occasions.
In his email, which exceeded 2,000 words in length, Li criticised the "quality control of officers" in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and asserted that the absent colleague's continued service in the organisation was "an embarrassment". He further wrote that "the SAF is not a charity organisation and does not owe anyone a career".
The Ministry of Defence found that Li had violated the chain of command by sending that email, and formally charged and reprimanded him after a summary trial. [4] [6]
Hongyi worked at Google from 2011 to 2013 as a product manager before returning to Singapore and joining GovTech to serve his six-year bond. [5] [7]
Li has held various roles within GovTech, including deputy director of the Government Digital Services Data Science Division, [5] deputy director for data science and AI, [8] deputy director of product and engineering, [9] and director of OGP.
In 2017, a team within GovTech led by Li released Parking.sg, a mobile application which allows drivers in Singapore to pay parking fees digitally instead of using paper parking coupons at all public carparks managed by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) or the Housing Development Board (HDB) that do not have vehicle gantries. [9] [10] [11]
In 2019, Li founded OGP, a new division within GovTech, with the goal of rapidly building and deploying software products across the Singapore Government. Some of the products produced by OGP include:
Despite being born in the Lee family that has two prime ministers of Singapore, Li had stated that he has "no interest in politics". His parents had also denied allegations that they have political ambitions for Li. [5]
In 2021, Li created and released a map of ice cream parlors in Singapore, icecreammap.sg, as a "fun side project". [17]