MyRepublic appoints senior executives as it seeks to go public

MYREPUBLIC announced on Wednesday that it has appointed Jeannie Ong to be the group's chief investor relations officer (CIRO) as it seeks an initial public offering (IPO) in the near future.

The telco said that as the group's CIRO, Ms Ong will establish and maintain relationships with investors and stakeholders and be responsible for the company's corporate communications function.

Before this role, she was StarHub's chief strategic partnership officer and chief marketing officer, where she led the group's corporate communications, investor relations, branding, marketing and sustainability portfolio.

Between 2012 and 2014, Ms Ong was recognised as the best investor relations officer (IRO) in Singapore by IR Magazine Awards - South East Asia. In 2015, she was also the only Singaporean IRO to be named in the Global Top 50 IROs.

MyRepublic noted that she was also part of the management team that launched StarHub's IPO in 2004.

Group chief executive officer Malcolm Rodrigues said that he is "delighted" to have Ms Ong on the team and that the move signals the company's "bold intent" to go public.

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"Her strong industry reputation coupled with her robust business acumen will put us in an advantageous position as our business develops," he said.

Ms Ong said she looks forward to working closely with the MyRepublic team to roll out its growth plans in Singapore and across the region.

Her appointment comes after a series of delays in the company's IPO plans in the past as the eight-year-old company had pushed its debut back from late-2018 to mid-2020.

Then, in October 2019, the company delayed its IPO again till end-2020 as Mr Rodrigues cited a hold-up in investor funds which delayed its growth plans. At the time, he said that the company was on track to turn a profit by end-2020 as well.

Meanwhile, MyRepublic also announced that Tun Tun Myint will be the company's new group chief technology officer.

Formerly the head of engineering at MyRepublic, he left the company to lay the groundwork for Frontiir's network engineering and operations team as its vice-president. Frontiir is the largest Internet service provider in Myanmar.

"I look forward to leading our team of talented engineers to continue developing an agile and disruptive telco for the digital age," Mr Tun said.

READ MORE: 

• MyRepublic adds M1 as MVNO partner

• MyRepublic delays Hong Kong IPO again, blames hold-up in investor funds

• StarHub axing 10% of staff amid telco industry woes