SINGAPORE — Mediacorp announced that Mr Niam Chiang Meng will be succeeding Ernest Wong as the Chairman of Mediacorp with effect from 21 April 2018. Mr Niam, 59, was appointed as a director of the Mediacorp Board in November 2016. He chairs the company’s Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) Board Committee and is a member of its Executive Committee and its Nomination and Remuneration Committee.
Besides serving on the Mediacorp Board, Mr Niam is Chairman of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Board Member of Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore. Before this, he was Chairman of the then-Media Development Authority from 2011 to 2016. He held key positions over a long career in the civil service including Permanent Secretary (Information, Communications and the Arts) and Permanent Secretary (National Population and Talent Division), Prime Minister’s Office, before retiring in 2016.
Mr Wong, 72, will complete his two-year term with the Mediacorp Board on 20 April 2018. During his term as Chairman, he was tasked to prepare the company for a digital future. A veteran banker, Mr Wong was United Overseas Bank Group President from 1990 to 2000 when he left to join Mediacorp as its Group CEO, a role he held for five years.
Under Mr Wong’s chairmanship, Mediacorp has put in place a stronger foundation to better position itself for the future. In 2017, as part of a broader corporate restructuring, Mediacorp assumed full ownership of Mediacorp TV Holdings, which owns Channels 5, 8 and U and Mediacorp Studios, as well as Mediacorp Press which operates TODAY. In a transaction completed last year, Mediacorp bought minority shareholdings held by Singapore Press Holdings in the two entities. Mr Wong also guided the board in making improvements to the company’s financial structure. He oversaw the appointment of Ms Tham Loke Kheng as CEO in September 2017 to lead Mediacorp’s transformation journey as Singapore’s national broadcaster.