Ariel Tan is Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Malaysia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. She was previously a Singapore Foreign Service Officer, who served in the policy, planning and analysis directorates for Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Americas, respectively, at the Ministry of Foreign affairs. She was First Secretary (Political) at the Embassy of Singapore in Washington DC and Deputy High Commissioner of Singapore in Kuala Lumpur. She has also worked at the Institute of Policy Studies, under the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (National University of Singapore), where she directed the institute’s strategic planning and communications.
Ariel was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) or Pingat Pentadbiran Awam (Gangsa), a Singapore National Day award, in 2013.
Ariel graduated from the National University of Singapore with a B.A. (Honours) in English Literature. She holds a Master in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, where she was also a Mason Fellow.
