SIM Wong Hoo, the founding chairman and chief executive of home-grown electronics company Creative Technology : C76 0%, died on Wednesday (Jan 4).

Sim would have turned 68 this year.  

In a statement on Thursday, Creative said he “passed away peacefully” and paid tribute to Sim’s “immense contributions” to the company.

“Mr Sim has played an instrumental role in developing the business and has provided the company with strong leadership and vision,” Creative said.

Following Sim’s demise, Song Siow Hui, president of the company’s Creative Labs business unit, was named interim chief executive.

Creative’s lead independent non-executive director Lee Kheng Nam has been named acting chairman, while independent non-executive director Ng Kai Wa was appointed acting vice-chairman.

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“I have known and worked with Mr Sim for over 30 years. This is a sad and sudden development and we feel a great loss especially since Mr Sim and I recently had extensive discussions on the future direction of the company,” said Song.

Song said that the night before Sim’s passing, the Creative founder had a long discussion with the company’s engineering team and was scheduled to meet the online sales team the next day.

“The best thing to do now is to ensure the continued smooth running of the company, and also to execute and realise the vision and strategy that Mr Sim had for the company,” he added.

Under Sim’s leadership, Creative became a well-known brand in the personal computer market (PC) in the 1990s – particularly for its Sound Blaster sound cards, which became a de facto standard for audio on PCs.

The company made history in 1991 when it became the first Singaporean company to list in the United States, following a public offering on Nasdaq. A listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) was added in 1994.

Creative delisted from Nasdaq in 2007.

For his efforts, Sim was named Businessman of the Year twice – first in 1992, then in 1997 – at the Singapore Business Awards, organised by The Business Times and DHL.

He was also known for coining the “no U-turn syndrome” analogy, in his 1999 book Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium.

Most recently, Sim oversaw the development and commercialisation of Creative’s Super X-Fi technology – a novel US$100 million computational audio technology that was 20 years in the making.

In a 2018 interview, Sim had called the technology his “gift to humanity”.

After news of Sim’s passing broke, tributes poured in from those who have known him.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, former foreign minister George Yeo said he was deeply saddened by Sim’s passing, and paid tribute to Sim.

“He was always bubbling with ideas. Never left a meeting with him without new inspirations.”

Yeo was appointed as an independent non-executive director of Creative in 2021.

Remembering Sim as a “passionate entrepreneur who put Singapore on the global map” with Creative’s audio products, SGX chief executive Loh Boon Chye told The Business Times: “Sim will be remembered for his drive and grit, persevering in what he believed in to the very end.”

Alan Lee, managing partner of August Consulting, worked with Sim for some 15 years and described the late entrepreneur as “tireless”.

Lee added: “He doesn’t suffer fools, knows exactly what he wants and goes headlong in delivering what he promises. It was a privilege to have known him and worked with him.”

Razer co-founder and chief executive Tan Min-Liang noted on Twitter that both the technology industry and Singapore have “lost a legend”.

Shares of Creative rose as high as S$2 in intraday trading before ending Thursday (Jan 5) at S$1.76, up 24.82 per cent – their highest close since September.

According to the company’s most recent annual report, for FY2022 ended June, Sim held 33.1 per cent of Creative. He was also the only substantial shareholder.

The Singapore Code on Take-overs and Mergers requires anyone acquiring 30 per cent or more of the voting rights of a company to extend an offer for all other shares in the company.