"Chip has capabilities I don't have," the Temasek Holdings CEO Ho Ching graciously said about Charles "Chip" Goodyear. That was five months ago when she announced she would be stepping down in October, leaving him in charge. Now he is leaving instead, she is staying on, and her words have come back to haunt her.
Some of the Western media are already drawing unfavourable comparisons between the two. The Wall Street Journal commented:
Mr. Goodyear’s appointment was a step toward more transparency and professionalism. He was the first non-Singaporean to be named as CEO and had experience running companies in Australia and U.S. Current CEO Ho Ching, the wife of the prime minister, spent her professional career in Singapore and has presided over a huge fall in the company’s portfolio value amid the recent financial crisis.
The Wall Street Journal said in another report:
The trim, silver-haired Mr. Goodyear brought a more worldly background to Temasek than Ms. Ho, whose career has been based in Singapore, where she began work at the Ministry of Defence and took over as Temasek's CEO in 2004.
The Sydney Morning Herald was downright cheeky. Goodyear "has come a cropper in his new gig at Temasek before reaching the start line", it sniffed and added:
We suspect the old boss, Ho Ching, who will stay in the job, just had a pillow chat with the PM, Lee Hsien Loong.
Avoiding baseless allegations, the Wall Street Journal hectored: "Given that Temasek manages about $84 billion in taxpayer monies, Singaporeans deserve to know what happened." (The Temasek website says the fund manages a portfolio of more than $134 billion.)
Goodyear is leaving because of "differences regarding certain strategic issues that could not be resolved", says Temasek.
But that's a little vague for the media, which is coming out with its own stories. Reuters says the Temasek board didn't like the changes he proposed to make when they met last week and so he had to go. It adds:
The departure of American Goodyear is a setback for Temasek as it tries to present a more international image, after its close government links meant its investments in Southeast Asia and the West drew fire from the public, regulators and lawmakers outside the city-state.
His exit may not create a leadership vacuum, given CEO Ho Ching, the wife of Singapore's prime minister, and her management team are still intact, and may continue to pursue an investment strategy focused on emerging markets.
But as the company searches for a new CEO, top talent of Goodyear's calibre would be wary of moving to the hot seat after his dramatic departure.
A new CEO is not what Temasek needs at the moment. Ms Ho should take the heat and man the post to avoid further contretemps and prove her critics wrong.
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