SINGAPORE - The new chief executive officer of the SPH Media Trust that is to be set up should ideally be Singaporean and digitally savvy, said its chairman Khaw Boon Wan.
Mr Khaw, a former Cabinet minister, will chair the board of the new company limited by guarantee that will be formed after Singapore Press Holdings restructures its media operations.
He also announced that former SPH deputy CEO Patrick Daniel will be the interim CEO of SPH Media Trust.
Mr Daniel, 66, had retired in 2017 and in his 30 years at the company, held various roles including editor-in-chief of the English/Malay/Tamil Media Group.
Mr Khaw told journalists at a press conference on Wednesday (May 12): "The search will start quite soon. I hope (it will not) take too long, but still, these are not talents which are available easily."
Mr Khaw added that he hopes the search will be completed next year.
"In terms of what kind of people we are looking for, Singaporean or non-Singaporean, I think it will be very hard to get a foreigner to be able to instinctively understand what this Singaporean interest is all about," Mr Khaw said.
"Ideally, therefore, I hope we can find one Singaporean who may not be here today but may be somewhere overseas."
He added that this person should hopefully be digitally savvy or even have digital media experience.
"We have not started the search yet, but we will be able to assess several weeks or months down the road, to see how likely we will be able to secure such an ideal candidate," he said.
In his speech to SPH staff, Mr Khaw added that the search will be for a CEO who can take SPH Media into the future as a multilingual digital media organisation.
This should be one "who understands both East and West and is Singaporean at heart - and be among the world's best", he said.
In the meantime, the transition should be "uneventful" with newsroom veteran Mr Daniel as the interim CEO, Mr Khaw added.
"Like me, he is enjoying his retirement. But he has a strong personal interest to see SPH Media succeed."
