Ignatius spent 17 years of his career as a journalist and editor with The Straits Times, before he was appointed head of integrated sales at Singapore Press Holdings. He joined the paper in 1999 as a banking and telecoms reporter and subsequently became Business Editor, Sunday Times Editor, News Editor and finally, Deputy Editor. As a columnist, he has taken on a wide range of topics and is equally comfortable doing the occasional business or public policy commentary as he is with the more personal lifestyle column he writes regularly for The Sunday Times.