Cordlife’s executive chairman resigns after less than 5 months in the role
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Cordlife's executive chairman Zhai Lingyun has resigned. The private cord blood bank will appoint a new chairman in due course.
PHOTO: CORDLIFE
SINGAPORE – Cordlife’s executive chairman has resigned less than five months after he assumed the position, even as the private cord blood bank is facing a possible one-year suspension of its services after significant lapses were found in an audit.
Mr Zhai Lingyun’s resignation takes effect from Nov 5. He will be focusing “on other business and personal commitments”, Cordlife Group announced in an Oct 30 bourse filing.
The 52-year-old will also step down as its director, and cease to be a member of the nominating committee.
However, he will continue to serve in “certain management capacities” within the group. No details were provided on this.
Mr Zhai was first appointed as Cordlife’s non-independent non-executive director on Dec 12, 2019.
He was redesignated as its non-independent non-executive chairman on Jan 7, 2025, replacing Mr Teo Tong Kooi, who resigned from the position of chairman after less than eight months in this role.
Mr Zhai was subsequently redesignated as Cordlife’s executive chairman from June 16. This followed his agreement to be appointed as the chief executive officer of HealthBaby Biotech (Hong Kong), a subsidiary of Cordlife Group.
In a separate Oct 30 bourse filing, Cordlife Group said that its board will appoint a new chairman in due course.
Cordlife is facing a possible one-year suspension, which is to be decided by the regulator – the Ministry of Health (MOH).
In response to queries from The Straits Times, MOH confirmed it has received written representations from Cordlife on Oct 27, and is currently reviewing them.
“MOH will inform Cordlife of the outcome of its review in due course,” said an MOH spokeswoman.
Cordlife was issued a Notice of Intent to suspend its cord blood banking services for one year by MOH on Sept 29, after significant lapses were found during MOH’s audit in July.
The lapses included Cordlife failing to keep to various regulatory requirements, including governance, incident reporting and management, as well as processes for collection, testing and processing of new cord blood units (CBUs).
Cord blood contains stem cells that can be used to treat blood diseases and some cancers, such as leukaemia and lymphoma, should the baby develop these illnesses later in life.
If it is suspended, Cordlife will not be able to bank new CBUs, but it can continue operations and will be required to focus on proper maintenance of the safety and quality of all existing CBUs.
In an Oct 6 bourse filing, Cordlife said that if the suspension takes effect, its operations for the next 12 months to Sept 30, 2026, will continue, but its future beyond that is not certain.