Keppel Corp names inaugural chief digital officer and chief sustainability officer

KEPPEL Corporation BN4 on Monday (Feb 7) announced 2 new leadership appointments to drive digital transformation and sustainability.

Manjot Singh Mann, chief executive of telco M1, will take on the role of chief digital officer to lead the group's digital strategy, while Keppel's current director of group corporate communications Ho Tong Yen will be appointed chief sustainability officer.

Both inaugural appointments will take effect from Mar 1, and are concurrent to their existing responsibilities within the group.

Prior to his serving as chief executive and director of M1 in 2018, Mann, 56, was chief executive of Pareteum Asia. He was appointed to the role to drive the expansion of Nasdaq-listed cloud software company Pareteum Corporaiton's footprint in Asia. Before that, Mann was global chief executive officer for communications and convergence for Lebara Mobile in the UK, and prior to that, chief executive of Hutchinson Telecommunications in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Ho, 51, joined Keppel Group in 2010 and is currently director of group corporate communications and chief executive of the group's philanthropic arm Keppel Care Foundation. He was previously chief executive of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Investment and Development.

For many years before that, Ho served as a Singapore diplomat. He was at one point also press secretary to then-Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Both new appointments are in line with Keppel Corporation's Vision 2030, which it announced in May 2020 to drive the company's long-term strategy and transformation.

The group's chief executive Loh Chin Hua said Mann brings with him 30 years of operational leadership experience across diverse geographical markets and a "unique blend" of insights from the digital connectivity sector.

Ho, on the other hand, has been actively involved in the group's sustainability and corporate social responsibility efforts in recent years, and previously also drove the development of the Tianjin Eco-City, envisioned as a model for sustainable development.

Keppel shares closed down 0.17 per cent or S$0.01 at S$5.89 on Monday.