SBS Transit Initiates Management Changes In Line With Planned Succession Strategy
SBS Transit has initiated several management changes including appointing two new chief executive officers (CEOs) to head its core bus and rail businesses as part of its planned succession strategy.
The move, which is effective immediately, will further strengthen its management bench strength, and lend greater focus to its two core businesses of serving the travel needs of the commuting public well.
Appointed to the newly created position of CEO Bus Business is Mr Lim Tien Hock, 50, who will relinquish his current positions as CEO of ComfortDelGro Driving Centre and ComfortDelGro MedCare Pte Ltd with immediate effect. Together with the CEO Rail Business, Mr Jeffrey Sim Vee Ming, 45, he will report directly to Mr Cheng Siak Kian, who holds overall responsibility for SBS Transit as its Group CEO.
Mr Cheng, who is also concurrently the Group Deputy CEO of ComfortDelGro, said: “As a member of the ComfortDelGro Group, SBS Transit is in a fortunate position to be able to leverage on the talent and global resources of the Group to further add to its management bench strength. I am therefore delighted to welcome Tien Hock onboard the SBS Transit team. With the two CEOs driving our core businesses, we believe we will be better placed to steer ahead in a competitive business environment and provide a higher level of customer experience for our increasingly sophisticated passengers.”
Newly-appointed CEO Bus Business Mr Lim, who is experienced in people and talent development and management and in strengthening harmonious tripartite labour-management-union relationship, has been with the ComfortDelGro Group since 2012. Prior to his latest appointment, he was the CEO of ComfortDelGro Driving Centre as well as the CEO of ComfortDelGro MedCare Pte Ltd. He has been credited with transforming the Driving Centre, which was heavily reliant on manpower, to be technology-enabling and operationally-efficient, and strongly driven by the needs of its customers. A graduate of the University College London, United Kingdom, he holds a Master in Engineering (Electrical and Electronic). He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Nanyang Fellows - MIT Sloan Programme.
CEO Rail Business, Mr Sim, has been with SBS Transit since 2015. Under his watch, the Downtown Line (DTL), North East Line (NEL) and Sengkang Punggol LRT (SPLRT) have achieved high levels of reliability in the provision of train services. In fact, DTL and NEL were the top two best performing MRT lines in Singapore in 2021. Notably, the DTL set a record high for the industry, doubling the industry's reliability performance. He is a Chartered Engineer in railway and transportation engineering accredited by the Institution of Engineers, Singapore and sits on the Board of the Land Transport Authority's Singapore Rail Academy. He is also an Industry Advisory Committee member of the Singapore Institute of Technology's Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering Programme. A member of the Transportation Standards Committee, he participates in the development and maintenance of relevant standards for the transportation industry. Prior to his latest appointment, he was the Head of Rail Development and Head of NEL and SPLRT.
In addition to the two CEO appointments, SBS Transit has also appointed Mr Anthony Mok Peng Fai, 56, as Head of NEL and SPLRT with immediate effect. He was previously Head of Operations for NEL and SPLRT. Mr Mok has close to 20 years of experience in railway operations starting out as a Chief Controller in the NEL’s Operations Control Centre (OCC). In this capacity, he was heavily involved in the start-up of the NEL, which was the world’s first automated underground heavy metro system then. Over the years, he assumed responsibilities for the daily operations of the SPLRT as well as the NEL’s OCC.