Sarojini Padmanathan
Sarojini Padmanathan, retired HR Practitioner, had been in the field of Human Resource in the Healthcare Sector for 40 years. She was overseeing the overall HR functions and had opportunity to recruit, train, develop and manage personnel from the Medical, Nursing, Scientific, Pharmaceutical Paramedical and Management echelons, an opportunity which was unique and enabled her to grow in broadening and deepening her career in HR in both the Ministry of Health and later in the Health Sciences Authority. She had been an integral part heavily involved in the restructuring exercise of Government Hospitals to Restructured Hospital in the early 1990s to end 2000. The 40 years of experience had given her a good understanding in people management to development and most importantly in the much needed staff engagement and culture building aspects, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. She has had the experience of business units restructuring, emergency preparedness and succession and contingency planning and been on various transformation projects, notable one being in People Transformation at the Health Sciences Authority prior to her retirement.
Also as a seconded officer from the Health Sciences Authority to the Singapore Indian Development Association as its Chief Operating Officer, she interacted and worked along well with Political Officer Holders (POH), leaders in the Social and Multi-Racial and Religious Communities to ordinary citizens in the course of her work over the 6 years from 2010 to 2016. That strengthened her link with the ground and understanding the needs of the community and what support she could give to them via SINDA’s Programmes and Services. That stint enabled her to hone her organization skills, management acumen, finance & business acumen, staff management, organisation development and excellence clinching the coveted Singapore Quality Class Award and the Charity Sector transparency award by the time her secondment ended in 2015.
An avid trainer, she had been well sought after for training in Human Resource Management and Development. She had been an Associate Trainer with the Singapore Civil Service College from 1990. She had trained HR practitioners and organizational leaders both in Singapore and overseas. She had trained a large number of leaders on Human Resource Management and Development. Notable training overseas includes projects in Namibia, Botswana, Brunei, Qatar, Fiji, Samoa, Myanmar and Kazakhstan. She has obtained her Advanced Certificate in Learning Performance (ACLP) awarded by WSG in early 2024. She supported the Human Resource Community by being a Council Member of the Singapore Human Resource Institute (SHRI) for the last 10 years.
She is passionate about giving public speeches and educating fellow parents on the topic of upbringing children and maintaining happy marriages. As a parenting facilitator, she had been conducting talks and workshops at Schools, Community Clubs and SINDA for the last 33 years and had sat on several panel discussions and spoken at Conferences and Congresses held at national level.
She is also a media personality and a local celebrity, having hosted several info-ed programmes in the local Indian TV Channel and Radio programmes. She has written several think-pieces which were published in the daily newspapers, Parenthood Magazine and other on-line magazines. She is the Vice-Chairman of the Indian Programmes Advisory Committee, having served the Committee for more than 15 years.
She voluntarily reaches out to people and especially the under privileged and women in need. She first started as a volunteer befriender with the Singapore Girls Home in 2003. She has the heart to do more for the well-being of women, especially the younger women and aspire to reach out to as many young women as possible, motivating them to do well in their chosen fields of study and excelling in their careers. On 26 August 2022, she was awarded the ‘Distinguished Community Award’, by the Tamils Representative Council, Singapore and it was announced that she was the first woman to receive this in Singapore.
As a career coach in the public sector, she had offered her time to fellow public service officers and gave career guidance, and many have benefitted from her coaching from 2021 to 2024. She had completed the Basic Career Advisor Training by WSG and have been assigned to volunteer her services from June 2024. For her exemplary service as a Career Coach she was awarded the Trailblazer Award by PSD in November 2024. She has coached many individuals as a Volunteer Career Advisor.
Appointed by the President of Singapore as the Justice of the Peace since Sep 2020, she had been actively engaged in being on the Board of Visiting Justices (BOVJ), SPS’ Inmates Families Support Fund Committee (IFSF), Council member of the National Council for Problem Gambling and also as a Licensed marriage Solemniser, conducted 118 marriage solemnisation ceremonies as at 1 April 2025. She was appointed by the Minister for MCCY in August 2024 as the Finance Member of the Hindu Endowments Board.
She is happily married for 38 years with a beautiful family of 3 daughters and 3 grandchildren.
