Cham Tao Soon graduated in Civil Engineering from the University of Malaya in 1964 under a Singapore State Scholarship, and received a PhD from the University of Cambridge, in Aerodynamics in 1968. He joined the National University of Singapore (NUS) and later rose to become the President of Nanyang Technological University. He is credited to have started 3 universities, namely NTU, Singapore Management University (SMU) and UniSIM. Throughout his career he sat on boards of large companies like Keppel Corp, Natsteel, UOB and SPH. He was also active in non-profit organisations such as the SSO and Tan Chin Tuan Foundation.
