Sze Hai Tong Banking & Insurance Company Limited, one of Singapore’s earliest banks, was established on 7 January 1907. It was founded by members of the Teochew community, including Tan Teck Joon (managing director), Ng Song Teng (assistant manager), Na Kim Seng, ...

Strikes and other forms of labour unrest were common in 1950s Singapore. The year 1955 saw 57 cases of labour unrest involving bus company workers, including the Hock Lee bus workers’ strike and riot. That same year, bus workers of the Singapore Traction Company ...

First established in Singapore in 1931 as International Assurance Co. Ltd. (INTASCO), AIA Singapore is now a leading life insurance company in the Asia-Pacific region.

The former Asia Insurance Building is located at 2 Finlayson Green. With 18 storeys rising above a double-volume ground floor, it was once the tallest building in Southeast Asia at a height of 270 ft (82 m). Designed by one of Singapore’s pioneer architects, Ng ...

Boustead and Co., which was set up by Edward Boustead, one of Singapore’s earliest merchants, is almost as old as modern Singapore itself. Established as a small trading house less than 10 years after the founding of Singapore by Stamford Raffles, the company expanded ...

Guthrie & Co.’s history began in 1823 when a partnership was established between Alexander Guthrie and Thomas Talbot Harrington, a family friend. First located in a rented godown on Hill Street, the company sold British goods to the European and Chinese communities ...

Lee Wee Nam (b. 1881, Theng Hai, Guangdong, China–d. 24 January 1964, Singapore) was an eminent entrepreneur and community leader. Better known as Wee Nam Yia, a title given by the Teochews to a distinguished man of high position, Lee was the chairman and managing ...

Sandilands Buttery and Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest British trading firms established in Malaya. Established in Penang in 1854–55, it was founded by Scottish merchant adventurers George MacFarlane Sandilands and Francis Currie Lorrain, and originally named ...

Goodyear Orient Company (Private) Limited (GOCPL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (GTRC), one of the largest tyre companies in the world. It was established in Singapore in 1917 to ensure continual access to rubber plantations and ...

The Straits Steamship Company (SSC) was formed as The Straits Navigation Company in Singapore on 20 January 1890. It was the brainchild of Dutchman Theodore Cornelius Bogaardt, who was one of the company’s seven directors. Before the establishment of SSC, European ...

The ARTS FISSION Company is a local non-profit dance company founded by choreographer Angela Liong and visual artist S. Chandrasekaran in 1994. As the first multidisciplinary contemporary dance group in Singapore, the company creates original works and new dance ...

Frontier Danceland is a local non-profit contemporary dance company founded by Low Mei Yoke and Tan Chong Poh in July 1991. The main focus of the company’s repertoire of original works is on fusing Western dance techniques with Asian aesthetics and culture. These ...

Temasek Holdings is an investment holding company incorporated on 25 June 1974 under the Singapore Companies Act to manage the Singapore government’s investments in government-linked companies (GLCs). Headquartered in Singapore, the company covers a broad spectrum ...

Richard Tay Tian Hoe (b. 195?, Singapore–) is the executive chairman and group managing director of YHI International Limited, a Singapore public-listed company that distributes automotive and industrial products. The company is an original design manufacturer ...

Firestone Tire and Rubber Company was founded in the United States by Harvey S. Firestone in 1900. It was one of the largest producers, purchasers and users of natural rubber. Besides producing tyres for almost every type of vehicle, the company also manufactured ...

A talented dancer and outstanding choreographer, Kuik Swee Boon (b. 1973, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia–) is hailed as one of the local dance pioneers who revitalised the contemporary dance scene in Singapore. Kuik spent 10 years dancing for the Singapore Dance Theatre ...

The Lady Mary Wood was a 49-metre-long wooden paddle steamer launched on 16 September 1841 and registered in January 1842. It is said to be named after the wife of Charles Wood, who was England’s secretary to the Admiralty. The steamer had a gross tonnage of 556 ...

Alexander Laurie Johnston (b. Dumfriesshire, South Scotland–d. February 1850, Bluehill, Kircudbright, Scotland), a former ship’s owner/captain, merchant, businessman, magistrate and Justice of the Peace, arrived in Singapore between 1819 and 1820. One of the earliest ...

McAlister & Co. was founded in 1857 by two Scots: Alexander McAlister and James Parker Niven, who saw the opportunity to set up a trading partnership in Singapore. During its initial years, the partnership was involved in general trade and Australian pearling. ...

Prima Limited is a Singapore-based company founded in 1961, and has its beginnings in flour milling. The company is now involved in a variety of businesses, such as restaurant management, food manufacturing, information technology and real estate. Prima is known ...