In this special Christmas edition of People in the News, the boss of a leading data centre operator heads for new horizons, one of China’s biggest real estate investors names a new chairman following a corruption scandal and Shanghai announces charges against a former top boss in its planning office.
Chinese-owned data centre operator Global Switch announced that its chief executive officer, John Corcoran, will be retiring from his role on 31 December after two decades leading the company. Corcoran is said to be leaving the company to pursue private investment interests, but will continue as chairman of of the holding company for Global Switch’s Australia business. In the statement earlier this month the company said its current chief operating officer, Ashley Muldoon will be taking over the chief executive role.
AVIC Trust chairman Yao Jiangtao has resigned from his positions with the Chinese investment giant, according to local news reports citing official records. In March of this year, the official website of China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection had announced that Yao, who had earlier served as chief economist for Chinese state-owned aviation giant AVIC, was suspected of serious violations of discipline and law and is currently undergoing disciplinary review. With Yao’s departure, He Tangbing, was named legal representative and chairman of the board at AVIC Trust.
On 20 December official government channels in Shanghai announced that Yao Kai, former deputy secretary of the Shanghai Construction and Transportation Party Committee and former director of the city’s Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Management Committee had been fired from both roles for serious violations of discipline and law. The government will also confiscate any of Yao’s illegal gains and he will be referred for criminal prosecution.
Gaw Capital Partners said on 20 December that it has appointed Oliver Yates as head of climate tech strategy for Australia. Yates built and was the first chief executive of Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which serves as a green lender. Formerly an executive with Macquarie Group, Yates is now expected to lead Gaw Capital’s strategic expansion in Australia with a focus on investments in climate tech and the energy transition, the company said.
KKR earlier this month promoted Seoul-based managing director Keith Kim Yang-han to partner, according to an announcement by the private equity giant. Kim, who joined KKR in 2019, previously spent a decade with Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets in Seoul where he was involved in establishing the company’s Korea infrastructure funds. The University of California, Berkeley graduate also has previous experience with Arisaig Partners in Singapore and Seoul, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Colour Life Services Group informed the Hong Kong stock exchange on 19 December that Xu Xinmin has resigned from his role as an independent non-executive director on its board, which will also remove him from the board’s audit committee, remuneration committee and nomination committee, with effect from 18 December. Now 71, Xu had served on the board of the property management unit of troubled mainland developer Fantasia Holdings since 2014 and is said to be stepping down for reasons of age and health.
Singapore property agency OrangeTee & Tie announced on 19 December that it has promoted Justin Quek to chief executive officer of OrangeTee with effect from 1 January. Quek, who has served as deputy CEO since April of this year, will be succeeding Steven Tan, who will remain with the company as key executive officer while focusing on OrangeTee’s international business. Quek had spent just over a year with rival Propnex before rejoining OrangeTee in the second quarter. He had previously served 16 years with the agency from 2006 through 2021.
If you know of other Asia real estate professionals changing their jobs, getting promoted or just doing something exciting, please contact us here at Mingtiandi.
Leave a Reply