Ms Sheryl Shum currently serves as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Singapore in Washington, DC. Prior to this assignment, she served as Political Counsellor at the Embassy, where she took charge of the Embassy’s congressional outreach and covered other policy issues. Before moving to Washington in February 2014, she was Deputy Director (Special Projects) of the Southeast Asia I Directorate in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). There, she led a team that handled boundary negotiations and territorial disputes with Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as other maritime issues.

 

Sheryl joined the MFA in 2005, and was appointed to the Singapore Administrative Service in 2012. During her career, she served as Second Secretary (Political), then First Secretary (Political) at the High Commission of Singapore in Kuala Lumpur from 2008 – 2009. Prior to that, she served as a Country Officer on the Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia Directorates. She was also a delegate to the UN General Assembly in 2012, where she represented Singapore in negotiations on the Omnibus Resolution on Oceans and Law of the Sea as well as on the Fifth Committee. Outside of the Foreign Service, Sheryl worked on public housing for low-income Singaporeans during her two-year stint as Assistant Director at the Ministry of National Development from 2010 to 2011.

 

Sheryl received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Studies (2005) from the University of Chicago.