Sellapan Ramanathan (born 3 July 1924) is the sixth and current President of the Republic of Singapore. Often referred to as S. R. Nathan, he was first sworn in on September 1, 1999.

In 1999 and 2005 he was proclaimed president after an uncontested election (all competing candidates disqualified). In 2009, he surpassed Benjamin Sheares to become Singapore’s longest serving President.
Sellapan Ramanathan Biography
Early life
Nathan is a Singaporean of Tamil descent; his childhood was spent with his three older sisters and parents, V. Sellapan and Apiram, in Muar, Johor, in a house overlooking the sea. His father had been posted to the Malayan town as a lawyer’s clerk for a firm that serviced rubber plantations, but the Great Depression and rubber slump of the 1930s sent the family’s fortunes crashing.

Nathan’s father accrued debts and, eventually, lost his job. Which there for the family lost money and they had to find his father a new job.
By then, the young Nathan had returned to his birthplace, Singapore, to live, and received his primary and earlier education in Anglo-Chinese Primary School in Singapore as well as the Rangoon Road Afternoon School, and his secondary/senior high school education at Victoria School.

Sellapan Ramanathan started working before completing his studies. During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, Nathan worked for the Japanese civilian police as a translator.

After the war, whilst working, he completed his secondary education through self-study, and entered the University of Malaya (then in Singapore) where he graduated in 1954 with a Diploma in Social Studies (Distinction).
Sellapan Ramanathan Civil-service Career
Nathan began his career in the Singapore Civil Service as a medical social worker in 1955. He was appointed Seamen’s Welfare Officer the following year. In 1962, he was seconded to the Labour Research Unit of the Labour Movement, first as Assistant Director and later Director of the Labour Research Unit until January 1966. He continued as a Member of its Board of Trustees until April 1988.
Sellapan Ramanathan with then United States Secretary of Defense, William Cohen.
In February 1966, he was transferred to the Foreign Ministry. He served as Assistant Secretary and rose to be Deputy Secretary before being appointed Acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 1971. In August of the same year, Nathan moved to the Ministry of Defence where he was Director of the Security and Intelligence Division (SID), with the rank of Permanent Secretary.
Sellapan Ramanathan was involved in the Laju incident on January 31, 1974, when members of the terrorist Japanese Red Army (JRA) bombed petroleum tanks on Pulau Bukom off the coast of Singapore. Nathan, was among a group of government officers who volunteered to be held hostage by the JRA to secure the release of civilian hostages.
In February 1979, he returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became its First Permanent Secretary until February 1982 when he left to become the Executive Chairman of the Straits Times Press (1975) Ltd, the Singapore newspaper company.
At various times from 1982 to 1988, Nathan also held directorship of several other companies including the Singapore Mint Pte Ltd, The Straits Times Press (London) Ltd, Singapore Press Holdings Ltd and Marshall Cavendish Ltd. He held a directorship in the Singapore International Media Pte Ltd between September 1996 and August 1999.
Sellapan Ramanathan was Chairman of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Singapore—a ship-repairing and engineering joint venture with the Mitsubishi Group of Japan, from 1973 to 1986.

Biography of Sellapan Ramanathan, President of Singapore