[081011.EN.SEA] NOL Accelerates Promotion of Lieutenant General Ng Yat Chung as CEO

SINGAPORE-based Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) has announced that Ng Yat Chung has taken his position as new CEO three months ahead of schedule, succeeding Ron Widdows who now retires.

Lieutenant General Ng was Singapore's 5th Chief of Defence Force from 2003 to 2007. A former artillery officer, he studied math at Cambridge and took an MBA at Stanford. General Ng was also the top foreign graduate of the US Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in 1988-89.

General Ng relinquished his command as defence chief and joined Temasek Holdings in a newly created position as its portfolio management managing director. He then moved to NOL as executive director.

"We have completed the implementation of our executive succession plan and are moving ahead under Yat Chung," said NOL chairman Cheng Wai Keung in a company statement. "There are important decisions to be made that will affect NOL into the future, thus it is a good time to put our new management team in place."

"It has become clear that the environment has changed, that numerous important decisions need to be taken and that most of those will have an effect on our business and our company well beyond the end of this year," said General Ng and Mr Widdows in a joint statement.

"As such, we both feel strongly that it is in the best interest of the company that the new leadership begins to drive the company and shape these important decisions now, and not wait until 2012," they said.

NOL is the parent of APL, the world's seventh-largest container carrier. The group's another major brand is APL Logistics, a global supply chain management firm.

Source : HKSG, 04.10.11.