Khaw Boon Wan Will Be Chairman Of SPH’s Nonprofit Business, Shareholders Agree He’s The Right Choice

Khaw Boon Wan Called Upon To Chair SPH Nonprofit Business

When Khaw Boon Wan retired from politics prior to GE2020, we paid tribute to his years of self-sacrifice in public service.

But with Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) at an important crossroads in its history, it seems Mr Khaw will return to chair the new entity.

Source

Communications and Information Minister S Israwan confirmed this in Parliament on Monday (10 May).

Shareholders pick Khaw Boon Wan as SPH nonprofit chairman

Under the agreement, the media business of SPH will be transferred to a new public company limited by guarantee (CLG).

Shareholders currently in SPH will form the CLG and become the founding members.

These are:

National University of Singapore
Nanyang Technological University
OCBC
Great Eastern
UOB
DBS
Singtel
NTUC Income
Temasek via Fullerton

Together, they have selected Mr Khaw to be the chairman of the new CLG.

Mr Iswaran said that Mr Khaw has agreed to take up the role.

Mr Fix-It returns

Back in the day, Mr Khaw took charge of various portfolios that were seen as tricky.

They included the Ministry of National Development, and the Ministry of Transport.

Both of these portfolios were seen as particularly important to fix.

Mr Khaw also tackled SARS as part of the Ministry of Health, leading to the media coining the nickname “Mr Fix-It” for him.

That said, he has no experience in the media industry.

Less political appointment than the right person for the job

Mr Iswaran responded to a question by the Workers’ Party’s Sylvia Lim on the link between Mr Khaw’s previous political affiliation and his new appointment.

He responded that the matter is less about politics than whether the person is the right one for the job.

Mr Iswaran also cited that the chairman of both SPH (Lee Boon Yang) and Mediacorp (Niam Chiang Meng) are previous political holders or career civil servants.