KEPPEL Corp chairman Lim Chee Onn is stepping down after more than nine years at the helm of the industrial powerhouse.
Taking over is Dr Lee Boon Yang, until recently Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Keppel said in a statement on Friday.
Mr Lim, 64, and himself a former Cabinet minister, will however stay on for an unspecified period as a senior adviser.
In December, he quit as chief executive (CEO) of Keppel Corp but remained as chairman, although only in a non-executive capacity. He was replaced as CEO by Mr Choo Chiau Beng, formerly Keppel Corp's senior executive director.
Since then, he has been progressively relinquishing his roles in the Keppel group of companies.
At Keppel Land, Mr Lim is stepping down as chairman, giving way to Mr Choo with effect from April 30.
Last month, Mr Lim also ceased to be chairman and director of the board of telco M1, and stepped down as a non-executive director at k1 Ventures.
Mr Lim, together with Mr Choo and Keppel's finance director, Mr Teo Soon Hoe, has been instrumental in helping to transform Keppel.
A naval architect, he had joined Keppel Corp in 1983 as a senior executive director. On Jan 1, 2000, he became executive chairman and CEO of Keppel Corp, taking over from the late top civil servant Sim Kee Boon who was handling the restructuring of the conglomerate.
Keppel faced a turning point then. It was involved in businesses ranging from shipyards to telecommunications and banking, and had turned in a loss of $223 million for 1998, its first loss in 13 years, due to the Asian financial crisis.
