Published June 20, 2009

Changing of the guard at CapitaLand

Chief investment officer Kee Teck Koon to retire on Aug 1; younger officers to rise

By EMILYN YAP

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IN the first major management reshuffle since it was listed in 2000, CapitaLand is promoting several younger staff in their 40s to leadership roles from July 1.

Among the changes, CapitaLand chief investment officer (CIO) and stalwart Kee Teck Koon will retire on Aug 1. This comes after the departure of two other top executives in the past nine months.

CapitaLand group president and CEO Liew Mun Leong said yesterday that the reshuffle reflects not just a changing of the guard, but also CapitaLand's new plans in a 'changing environment'.

For one, The Ascott Group will become more active in buying, investing in and trading serviced apartment properties. 'We want to concentrate on real estate, which means we have to have more people with real estate skill-sets,' Mr Liew said.

For this, Lim Ming Yan will become Ascott's CEO. He now heads CapitaLand China Holdings (CCH) and is credited with having grown the group's Chinese operations in his nine years there.

Ascott's current president and CEO Jennie Chua will become chief corporate officer (CCO) at CapitaLand. She will focus on international relations and oversee various corporate functions such as marketing, communications and corporate social responsibility. She will remain a board member of Ascott and Ascott Residence Trust.

The current vice-president in CapitaLand's Office of the President Lee Chee Koon, who is in his 30s, will become managing director of Ascott China.

Replacing Mr Lim as CEO of CCH will be the unit's deputy CEO, Jason Leow. He will look after CapitaLand's residential, integrated development and related businesses in China.

CapitaLand aims for greater growth in China. And to better coordinate its investments, operations, branding and resources there, it will form a CapitaLand China Executive Committee. Mr Liew will chair the group, which will include Mr Lim as deputy chairman.

As younger officers make their way up, CapitaLand CIO Mr Kee, 52, is saying goodbye. Mr Liew said that Mr Kee has attained 'financial security' and is interested in social enterprise work.

Mr Kee has worked with Mr Liew for the past 20 years and is part of the latter's trusted inner circle. The circle also included former CCO Tham Kui Seng and former CapitaLand Retail and CapitaMall Trust Management CEO Pua Seck Guan, who both left CapitaLand last year.

The current CEO of CapitaLand Commercial (CCL) and co-CEO of CapitaLand Financial, Wen Khai Meng, will take over as CIO on July 1. He will also become CCL's deputy chairman. Mr Wen, with Ascott's incoming CEO Mr Lim, could become part of Mr Liew's new inner circle.

Mr Liew said that besides laying out a succession plan, there is still a lot to accomplish at CapitaLand. He is 63 this year, but has no plans to retire. In fact, he is already mapping out the next milestone for the group, which is for all major foreign operations to be led by locals in five years or so.