15/07/2025
We are proud and delighted to share that Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the President of the Republic of Singapore, recommends Beyond Storms & Stars by Noeleen Heyzer.
"The Presidential pop-up library outside Plaza Singapura is the first of its kind by the National Library Board, Singapore. It reveals something interesting about each of Singapore’s nine Presidents to date... I recommended some books for the pop-up library, which I had enjoyed reading myself...And stories of Singaporeans who have led lives of courage. Like Noeleen Heyzer, who led international efforts to improve the lives of women all over the world." says the President.
Noeleen Heyzer was the first woman from outside North America to be appointed as Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the first woman Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). In these memoirs, Noeleen Heyzer reflects on her remarkable journey – from the challenges of her childhood and youth, her intellectual development at the University of Singapore and the University of Cambridge, to her groundbreaking work on women’s empowerment and her meteoric rise to the position of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. It is a book that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the courage of individuals, communities, and societies to transform structures of discrimination and injustice.
