SingPost appoints former execs of SGX and SIA Engineering as non-executive, independent directors
This comes months after the firing of three senior management executives over their negligence in handling internal investigations related to a whistleblower’s report
SINGAPORE Post (SingPost) on Monday (Feb 17) announced the appointment of two new non-executive, independent directors, Chng Lay Chew and Ng Chin Hwee, effective Feb 17.
Chng was chief financial officer (CFO) of the Singapore Exchange between December 2011 and September 2020 and holds 30,000 ordinary SingPost shares, the company said in a bourse filing. Ng formerly served as chief executive officer and executive director of SIA Engineering between April 2020 and September 2023.
The announcement comes months after SingPost announced the firing of three senior management executives over their negligence in handling internal investigations related to a whistleblower’s report, the company said.
They were former group CEO Vincent Phang, group chief financial officer Vincent Yik and the CEO of the company’s international business unit (IBU) Li Yu.
Phang stepped down from his role as the company’s non-executive, non-independent director in January, after being asked to resign as a director of SingPost and all its related companies. He held directorships in several SingPost-linked entities prior to his termination.
Yik and Yu were not previously on the company’s board.
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Earlier in February, SingPost also announced the resignation of its then local operations CEO Shahrin Abdol Salam.
Neo Su Yin, who assumed the group chief operating officer (COO) role in January to oversee the group’s Singapore and international business units, among others, was named to take over after his departure.
Neo was formerly SingPost’s Singapore CEO from November 2021 to April 2024.
Parcelgate
SingPost received a whistleblower’s report earlier in 2024 relating to its non-regulated international e-commerce logistics parcels business. A whistleblower’s report on the same issue was also sent to the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore.
After beginning investigations into the report, SingPost found that three managers in the IBU committed “serious breaches” in its code of conduct while handling delivery for one of the company’s largest customers.
They had performed or approved manual updates of the “delivery failure” status code for parcels SingPost had agreed to deliver even though no delivery attempt had been made. There was also no supporting documents.
The company fired the three managers with immediate effect on Dec 21, 2024, and filed a police report. It informed the customer about the whistleblowing reporting, as well as the findings and both parties agreed on a settlement.
On the day of their firing, Phang and Yik said in a joint statement that they would “vigorously contest” the termination of their employment, citing procedural unfairness, but later said in early January that they were prepared to abandon their litigation option if an independent professional inquiry were to be carried out.
SingPost said it would announce the appointment of a new group CEO “in due course” and that Isaac Mah, the current CFO of its Australian business, would be appointed as the new group CFO. The company said that an acting CEO would be appointed to lead the IBU but added that there were no plans yet to appoint a new IBU CEO.
The settlement is not expected to have material impact on SingPost’s net tangible assets or earnings per share for the current financial year, the company said in December.
Phang was appointed group CEO in September 2021 after joining SingPost in 2019 as CEO for postal services and Singapore. Yik joined SingPost in December 2021 after having previously held CFO roles at OUE Lippo Healthcare and Far East Orchard. Yu joined SingPost in September 2022 from United Parcel Service where he most recently oversaw its Asia-Pacific global logistics and distribution.
SingPost shares closed 0.9 per cent or S$0.005 up at S$0.56 on Friday before the announcement.
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