Jane Ittogi has been deeply engaged in initiatives for social development and sustainability.
She co-founded Tasek Academy and Social Services a decade ago, as a social service agency enabling disadvantaged youth to build confidence and their abilities, and ex-inmates to rebuild their lives.
She co- chairs Conservation International’s Asia Pacific Advisory Council, and co-founded GreenSG COLLAB with a group of like-minded citizens, to help catalyse awareness and informed community responses to the climate crisis.
Ms Ittogi has also been long involved in art leadership and as an advocate of the transformative power of art, including for prison inmates. She was Chair of the Board of Singapore Art Museum, (SAM), the nation’s contemporary art museum, for a decade till 2018. She also co-chaired four editions of the Singapore Biennale, and had been on the Selection Advisory Committee for the Venice Biennale.
Ms Ittogi worked to initiate training in art with Singapore Prisons in the late 2000s, conducted by artists, faculty of La Salle College and museum curators. Inmates obtained certification upon completion of their courses, and their works were displayed at an annual exhibition in Prison and also at SAM, a practice that continues today.
She also served on the Board of the National Gallery Singapore, the nation’s historical and modern art museum from 2010 to 2018, and on the Board of La Salle College of the Arts from 2009 to 2023. In addition, she sat on the Board of the National Heritage Board, and chaired the Istana Art Collection Advisory Committee.
For several years she chaired the Singapore LSE Trust, which awards scholarships to Singapore students who demonstrate commitment to do good. She was conferred an Honorary Fellowship by the LSE in June 2023.
Ms Ittogi had her schooling in Singapore, and obtained an LLB and LLM from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She lectured in law at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the UK, and worked as a lawyer in London and Singapore.
She is married to Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and they have four children.