New CEO of SPH Media Trust to be named within two weeks: Khaw Boon Wan

SINGAPORE - A new chief executive for SPH Media Trust (SMT) has been chosen and will be revealed within the next two weeks, said its chairman Khaw Boon Wan on Thursday (Jan 27).

Speaking at a media briefing, Mr Khaw said SMT interim CEO Patrick Daniel made a big sacrifice when he agreed to come out of retirement to do the job.

"I could understand the difficulty because I am in retirement, you know, and we retire for a reason," said Mr Khaw, 69.

Mr Daniel, 67, retired as Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) deputy CEO in 2017.

In his 30 years at the company, he held various roles including editor-in-chief of the English/Malay/Tamil Media Group.

Mr Khaw added that the search for a permanent CEO began almost immediately after he was appointed SMT chairman in May last year.

"We have completed the search and we'll be making an announcement within the next week or two, so stay tuned," he said.

Last May, Mr Khaw said the new CEO should ideally be Singaporean and digitally savvy or have digital media experience.

He had described the ideal CEO as someone who would be able to take SMT into the future as a multilingual digital media organisation.

The CEO should also be someone who "understands both East and West and is Singaporean at heart - and be among the world's best", he had said.

SMT, a company limited by guarantee, was officially formed last December. The media operations of SPH were restructured and all its media assets, including The Straits Times, were transferred to SMT.