Tan Su Shan tops Fortune’s list of most powerful women in Asia

Besides DBS CEO, business magazine also ranks Josephine Teo among most influential

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DBS chief executive Tan Su Shan, who took over the reins at the bank in 2025, has topped Fortune’s 2025 list of the most powerful women in Asia.

Selected by Fortune editors for their measurable impact, reach and capacity to shape the future, the list includes influential women leaders who have seized on regional and global volatility as opportunities for business advantage, the business magazine said.

Separately, Fortune in its first “Most Influential Women” list named Singapore Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo among the 12 women from policymaking, pop culture and professional sports “who together show the diverse ways that power gets expressed across the Asia-Pacific”.

Also on this list is Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, the four members of K-pop girl group Blackpink, actresses Michelle Yeoh and Xin Zhilei, Olympic skier Eileen Gu, and tennis players Naomi Osaka, Zheng Qinwen and Alexandra Eala.

On Mrs Teo, Fortune said she has overseen updates to Singapore’s pioneering AI governance framework — one of the world’s first national AI strategies. Mrs Teo has prioritised building an Al-fluent workforce, with robust training partnerships placing more than 2,600 professionals in Al, data analytics and cyber-security roles, the magazine said.

In her previous role as minister for manpower, she implemented a 10-year road map to raise retirement and reemployment ages, championed a 30 per cent cumulative wage increase for essential workers, and expanded wage support for Singapore’s most vulnerable citizens, Fortune said.

As for Fortune’s most powerful women in Asia, here are the leaders on the list:

TAN SU SHAN (DBS)

Ms Tan Su Shan, CEO of DBS, has spent more than 15 years at Singapore’s largest bank after stints at Morgan Stanley and Citi.