ComfortDelGro appoints new chief digital officer

TRANSPORT giant ComfortDelGro has named Siew Yim Cheng as its group chief digital officer, a new position created to helm all future technological ventures.

Ms Siew will be responsible for the group's transformation roadmap and products, overseeing both the traditional information technology (IT) as well as digital transformation initiatives, ComfortDelGro said in a statement on Monday.

The group must leverage technology to further strengthen its operations, improve customer service, and gain insights into new trends and business possibilities, according to Yang Ban Seng, managing director and group chief executive officer of ComfortDelGro.

"We need to double down on our digitalisation effort to keep up with the game. There is no choice," Mr Yang said.

To explore new areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous driving, ComfortDelGro will need to ensure it has the necessary skills and talent, he added.

Before joining ComfortDelGro, Ms Siew was the global vice-president for the smart city domain at Envision Digital, where she led the development of AI-IoT (Internet of Things) and smart-city products and solutions. Prior to that, she was the chief digital officer at statutory board JTC Corporation.

ComfortDelGro has recruited more than 20 C-suite executives, including Ms Siew, in the last two years. They make up about 35 per cent of the group's senior bench strength.

The new senior hires came from a variety of industries and disciplines, bringing with them skills in areas such as finance, IT, artificial intelligence and data analytics. Some were also from the banking sector, the oil and gas sector, the military, the computing and software industries as well as the entrepreneurial sector.

Separately, the land transport company has recently expanded into a new adjacent business of non-emergency patient transportation services.

Shares of ComfortDelGro were trading at S$2.10 as at 11.42am on Monday, down S$0.08 or 3.7 per cent.