Posted on October 16, 2023
Temasek Holdings-owned port operator PSA International will get a new group CEO with the appointment of Mr Ong Kim Pong.
Mr Tan Chong Meng, the company’s current group CEO and board member, will retire from his positions on Mar 1, 2024, said PSA International in a news release on Thursday (Oct 12).
Mr Ong, who is currently the regional CEO of Southeast Asia, will also be appointed to the PSA International board.
The regional CEO of Southeast Asia role will be taken up by Mr Nelson Quek, the current managing director of the container business division in PSA Singapore – the company’s flagship business unit. He will also become a member of PSA’s senior management council.
During Mr Tan’s role as group CEO since Oct 1, 2011, he increased PSA’s relevance to a wider customer base, which includes cargo owners, shipping lines and supply chain service providers, said PSA.
“Under his stewardship, the official launch of the first phase of Tuas Port in 2022 marked a historical milestone in Singapore’s maritime history,” added the organisation.
“Its incorporation of world-class technologies to support value-added port services and cargo solutions reinforces Singapore’s status as a global maritime and logistics hub port in the digital age.”
Mr Tan also supported and led efforts to decarbonise PSA’s operations, with steps taken to progressively electrify its port operations and explore low-carbon energy sources such as hydrogen.
He also received several awards as CEO, including the Meritorious Service Medal (COVID-19) in June for “coordinating Singapore’s pandemic response, safeguarding lives and livelihoods, and steering the nation towards recovery” during the pandemic.
“It has been a great honour to lead PSA and witness its metamorphosis into the global supply chain player that it is today, partnering port and logistics-related businesses and agencies, government authorities and cargo owners all over the world to achieve greater resilience and sustainability,” said Mr Tan.
“After more than a decade of spearheading PSA’s growth and transformation, I feel that this is a timely juncture for leadership renewal, and know that Kim Pong and the senior management team will be able to take PSA to the next level.”
NEW GROUP CEO
Mr Ong “was instrumental in the successful merger of two of the biggest port operators in Belgium to form Hesse-Noord Natie NV (HNN)” from 2001 to 2004, when he was based as its chief operating officer.
Besides being named as managing director of PSA Antwerp and PSA Zeebrugge in 2009, he also held the position of regional CEO of Northeast Asia from 2010 to 2015.
As PSA’s regional CEO for Southeast Asia for the last eight years, Mr Ong helped PSA Singapore strengthen its position as “one of Asia’s pre-eminent ports of call and launched the first phase of Tuas Port”.
The company also noted that Mr Ong also currently serves as the chairman of CrimsonLogic and sits on the board of PSA’s corporate venture capital arm, PSA unboXed.
Mr Ong said: “I endeavour to build on Chong Meng’s contributions to the organisation by expanding our core business in ports and logistics, and strengthening relationships with customers, partners and stakeholders.”
NEW REGIONAL CEO OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
Mr Quek first joined PSA in 1993 as a mechanical engineeer, noted PSA, adding that he was one of the pioneers in piloting and introducing overhead bridge cranes in terminal operations – a first in the world at the time.
He then became the head of Tuas planning in 2016, and conceptualised the world’s largest fully automated port, which began its first phase at the end of 2021.
As PSA Singapore’s current managing director of the container business division since 2021, the company noted that Mr Quek is also responsible for the overall development of Tuas Port.
