.jpg?itok=fs9s5oE1 "MOH permanent secretary Chan Yeng Kit to step down, take over as SPH Media CEO from July 15")
SINGAPORE — Mr Chan Yeng Kit, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health (MOH), will be relinquishing his role and be seconded to SPH Media as chief executive officer with effect from July 15.
The announcement on Monday (April 8) by the Public Service Division (PSD) came less than a month after the top civil servant stepped down as chairman of the board of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on March 15 and was appointed to the board of SPH Media Holdings.
Mr Chan, 59, will take over from the current CEO, Ms Teo Lay Lim, who is retiring from SPH Media, the company said in a separate statement on Monday. SPH Media publishes The Straits Times, The Business Times, Lianhe Zaobao and other titles.
Ms Teo, 60, who previously worked in the private sector, has helmed the media organisation for about two years since March 1, 2022.
The change in SPH’s leadership came about a month after Communications and Information Minister Josephine Teo revealed in Parliament that the media organisation has failed to meet a few of its key performance indicator (KPI) targets for the financial year 2023.
“Accordingly, it did not receive the full funding that was committed,” Mrs Teo said on March 1, referring to the sum of up to S$900 million announced in 2022 for SPH Media over a period of five years.
Mr Chan, a longtime civil servant, started his public sector career in 1989 as an assistant director in the public service division of the Ministry of Finance.
Since then, he has assumed a wide range of posts, including being seconded to the labour movement as well as to infrastructure and investment group Keppel Corporation, before serving as a director at the Ministry of Trade and Industry and later, at the Ministry of Defence.
He was appointed CEO of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore in 2005 until 2007, and later assumed the post of chairman of its board in 2015. The agency was later merged with the Media Development Authority in 2016 to become IMDA.
Mr Chan rose through the ranks in civil service and was appointed by several government ministries to serve as a permanent secretary in various points in his career, including in the information, communications and the arts, as well as the defence and health ministries.
SPH Media said in a statement on Monday: “Yeng Kit brings a wealth of experience from his extensive career in the public sector, the labour movement, and the private sector. In his various leadership roles, he has led organisations through challenges posed by digital disruption and behavioural shifts.”
Mr Chan said on Monday that he was thankful for the opportunity to lead “Singapore’s premier news organisation”.
“I look forward to working with my SPH Media colleagues to better serve Singapore, Singaporeans and our partners.”
Ms Teo, the outgoing chief of SPH Media, was former chairman of Accenture Singapore, an information technology services and consulting firm, where she had spent 30 years in various leadership roles.
In announcing her appointment as CEO in 2022, SPH Media Trust said that she was a seasoned business leader with a track record of building businesses from the ground up.
On Tuesday, Ms Teo said: “It has been a tremendous privilege to have served SPH Media in the first lap of its transformation journey. The digital foundation is now in place, and I am confident that Yeng Kit will adeptly navigate SPH Media through the next lap.”
Mr Khaw Boon Wan, chairman of the SPH Media Trust, said in the SPH Media statement that Mr Chan will support the newsrooms in tapping digital platforms to reach new audiences and build a sustainable commercial model, “against the competitive pressure from social media”.
“We are grateful to Lay Lim for kick-starting our organisation’s digital transformation. Yeng Kit will build upon the foundations that she has built,” Mr Khaw added.
LED MOH TEAM DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in a Facebook post on Monday that Mr Chan is a “close colleague” at the ministry.
He recalled how Mr Chan was posted to MOH just a month before the Covid-19 pandemic struck and Mr Chan quipped at the time that his posting might have been a “jinx” to the ministry.
“I like to think that his posting was prescient, and he came to MOH where he was most needed,” Mr Ong said.
Mr Chan led the MOH team to carry out “a lot of quiet work” without which, the multi-ministry task force handling the pandemic “could not function”, Mr Ong added.
The team under Mr Chan’s charge simultaneously embarked on several key national initiatives such as ramping up of healthcare manpower.
“He is always calm and level-headed, and offers insights and practical solutions that only years of experience can bring,” Mr Ong said.
“Yeng Kit will move on to his next challenge, at SPH Media. It is a different challenge, but one which I believe his innate qualities and years of experience in public service will bring to bear.”
