Toh Kin Woon is Fellow of Penang Institute. An accomplished economist trained at University of Malaya and University of Leeds, he served Penang as a lawmaker and state minister from 1995-2008. His research interests centre on developmental state, inequality and education. He received his PhD in 1982 from the University of Malaya and was an Associate Professor in Economics at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (1973-1993). After retiring from UKM, he went into politics, being elected to the Penang State Legislative Assembly for three consecutive terms (1995-2008) and appointed a State Executive Councillor.

He later left politics to pursue his political goals through civil society, where his focus was on clean and fair elections and equal treatment for all mediums of education. In pursuit of these goals, he was a member of the Steering Committee of Bersih 2.0 (2009-2018) and National Chairman, LLG Cultural Society (2009-2014). In his home state of Penang, he established the Penang Independent Schools Society, which he chaired from 2007-2020.