Seah was born into a family of six, consisting of his father, a line worker in a printing firm and his mother, a housewife who took on sewing gigs to supplement the family income, and himself, the third out of the four children.[2][3] Seah studied at Raffles Institution before he received a Colombo Plan scholarship to study at the University of New South Wales.[2]
Career
Early career
Upon graduation with a first class honours degree in building,[4] Seah returned to Singapore to complete his National Service, then worked in a government-linked company, Indeco Engineers,[5] before joining the Singapore Civil Service.[3] Seah was seconded to the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) to do corporate planning and start NTUC Healthcare's chain of pharmacies.[3] Seah then left NTUC for piling and engineering firm Sum Cheong Corporation between 1994 and 1996.[3][5] He returned to the public sector in 1996 to head NTUC Healthcare and NTUC Media successively, before being appointed as the chief operating officer of NTUC FairPrice in 2001, then as the chief executive officer of NTUC FairPrice in 2010.[3][5]
In Parliament, Seah served as Deputy Speaker from October 2011 to January 2016.[10] On 10 March 2010, Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, suggested that Seah to work out a private member's bill to propose amendments to the Maintenance of Parents Act.[11] After establishing a 10-person workgroup to look at the proposal,[12] the bill was introduced on 18 October 2010 and was passed on 23 November 2010.[13][14]
Seah was appointed as CEO of NTUC Fairprice from 2010 to 2022 and as chairperson of Social and Family Development Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) in the 14th Parliament.
On 21 July 2023, it was announced that Seah will be nominated to be the next Speaker of Parliament by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong after the previous speaker Tan Chuan-Jin resigned.[18] Seah was elected as Speaker on 2 August 2023.[19] In his first speech after his election as Speaker, he urged that all members of the parliament must be vigilant in personal conduct and serve the people.[20]
Personal life
Seah is married to Jean Yap and they have two children.[4]
The party affiliation of each member is indicated right after the constituency/seat he or she represents. PAP: People's Action Party; WP: The Workers' Party; PSP: Progress Singapore Party All of the leaders of the respective GRCs are in underline. MP(s) who is go on a leave of absence is in italic. NMPs do not belong to any party.
The party affiliation of each member is indicated right after the constituency he or she represents. PAP: People's Action Party; WP: The Workers' Party NMPs do not belong to any party. There were two terms of NMPs in this parliament, with nine NMPs in each term.
The party affiliation of each member is indicated right after the constituency he or she represents. PAP: People's Action Party; SPP: Singapore People's Party; WP: The Workers' Party For NCMPs, Gerald Giam and Yee Jenn Jong are from the WP, while Lina Loh is from the SPP. NMPs do not belong to any party. There were two terms of NMPs in this parliament, with nine NMPs in each term.
The party affiliation of each member is indicated right after the constituency he or she represents. PAP: People's Action Party; SDA: Singapore Democratic Alliance; WP: The Workers' Party NMPs do not belong to any party. There were two terms of NMPs in this parliament, with nine NMPs in each term.