SPH appoints Chua Hwee Song as CFO

He will take over starting 1 April 2018.

Singapore Press Holdings Limited announced that its CFO, Tony Mallek, 63, will retire on 31 March 2018 after serving the company for about 15 years. It will be appointing Chua Hwee Song as CFO-Designate with effect from 1 March 2018 and as CFO from 1 April 2018.

Mallek first joined SPH as Senior Vice-President of Finance in 2003, and became Executive Vice-President in 2006, responsible for all the finance, tax, treasury and investment functions of the SPH Group. He was promoted to CFO on 1 January 2010 and his current responsibilities include overseeing the property business of the Group. He won the Best CFO award at the Singapore Corporate Awards 2016 for the large-cap category, which is for companies with a market value of $1 billion or more.

Chua, 50, brings with him over 25 years of working experience, as an executive and an entrepreneur in the public and private sectors. His most recent role was as the Group CFO and Executive Director with CWG International Limited - an SGX mainboard-listed integrated real estate company with projects and investments in China, Australia and the US, including education-linked projects in China. Among several past appointments, he was Founder and Managing Director of his own company - Tembusu Ventures Pte Ltd, that was involved in private equity investments, merger and acquisition and fund raisings amongst others, and in earlier time, served in various capacities with the Economic Development Board as General Manager for the Singapore-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation, and Head of Investments for North America, and subsequently Asia in EDB’s funds investment subsidiary, TIF Ventures Pte Ltd.

He has a Bachelor of Engineering (1st Class Honours) from King’s College, University of London as well as an MBA from the National University of Singapore. He is a CFA charterholder, and presently serves as a member of the CFO committee with the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants.

Dr Lee Boon Yang, Chairman of SPH, said: “On behalf of the board and management, I would like to thank Tony for his 15 years of sterling service. Besides his role as the Group’s CFO, he has helped to identify and spearhead some of our business diversification. I congratulate him on his achievements with SPH and wish him a happy retirement ahead.”

Ng Yat Chung, CEO of SPH, said: “I would like to thank Tony for his years of dedicated service to the company, during which we restructured our media business and expanded into new areas. He was especially instrumental in driving our property and healthcare ventures, as well as the formation of SPH REIT. I welcome Hwee Song into the SPH Group, and look forward to his contributions as we chart new growth for the Group."