Sports Hub CEO Lionel Yeo to step down, Quek Swee Kuan to take over as new CEO

SINGAPORE: Sports Hub CEO Lionel Yeo will step down from his position on Dec 9, when the Government takes over management of the facility.

Mr Yeo had "politely declined" the opportunity to continue in Sports Hub as joining the new entity in the public sector is "not in line with his personal career plans".

The 49-year-old shared this with CNA in an interview on Thursday (Nov 3), where he spoke about his time as chief executive of the Sports Hub, having seen it through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mr Yeo had served in the public service for 22 years and was the chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board from 2012 to 2018. He then joined tech firm Grab as CEO adviser before starting at the Sports Hub in February 2020.

Sport Singapore (SportSG) announced on Friday evening that Mr Quek Swee Kuan will be appointed the new CEO of the entity that will manage the Singapore Sports Hub.

There will also be a new chairman Mr Keith Magnus, and both are to be appointed on Dec 1.

SportSG is taking over the ownership and management of the Sports Hub from next month and has said that it has plans to make it more accessible to the broader community in Singapore.

The 35-hectare Singapore Sports Hub comprises the 55,000-capacity National Stadium, an indoor aquatics arena, the multi-purpose OCBC Arena, a water sports centre, the Singapore Indoor Stadium and Kallang Wave Mall.

It was built under a public-private partnership between the Government and a consortium of companies that came together to form SportsHub Pte Ltd (SHPL).

The consortium partners are InfraRed Capital Partners, real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield and venue manager Spectra.

A fourth company, construction and engineering firm Dragages Singapore, was involved in the construction phase.

SHPL was to operate the Sports Hub up until 2035, but SportSG announced in June that it had reached a mutual agreement with the consortium to terminate the public-private partnership.

SportSG will set up a new corporate entity to run the sporting arena and had said that it intends to retain the expertise and experience of SHPL employees, who will be given the opportunity to join the new entity.

SportSG said on Friday that it has established the Kallang Alive Holding Co Pte Ltd to oversee the entire Kallang Alive precinct.

A new entity under this holding company will manage the Singapore Sports Hub from Dec 10.

Nearly 90 per cent of staff from SHPL and more than 95 per cent of partners and vendors will be joining the new entity, SportSG said.

"This provides a good level of continuity and helps the new company to hit the ground running," said Mr Yeo.

Mr Yeo acknowledged that there were "teething issues" in the early years of the Sports Hub's operations, but said that these have mostly been resolved.

There were complaints about the stadium's turf and facilities when it first began operating; and when it hosted the National Day Parade for the first and only time in 2016, it was dogged by bad press about the high cost.

There were also complaints that crowd favourites like the Red Lions parachutists could not be included due to the roof over the National Stadium.

These challenges came with multiple changes in leadership from 2016 on.

Mr Yeo is the fourth CEO of the facility, following Mr Philippe Collin-Delavaud, Mr Manu Sawhney and Mr Oon Jin Teik. Chairman Bryn Jones stood in as acting CEO for the period before Mr Yeo came on board. 

Responding to questions on earlier reports that the project had too many stakeholders with misaligned objectives, Mr Yeo said that it was a strength to have a diversity of partners and expertise, but the challenge was how to bring everyone together behind one strategic vision.

He said that in the early years, there was "some tension", but as the project matured, the people involved also understood how to "work across partners" better.

"By the time I joined in early 2020, yes, there were different parties involved, and everybody has their own micro-agenda. But what they needed was for someone to say: Here's the macro-agenda ... Are you able to support it?" he said.

"It's about getting people into the room and having an honest conversation about what we want to achieve together."

Giving examples of how the partnership evolved, he said that they were able to step up and respond to a national need, and provide temporary housing for migrant workers in the thick of the pandemic in 2020.

Mr Yeo said that the global pandemic came as a shock but the team quickly pivoted to ask: "How do we remain relevant?"

This was how, in 2020, the sports arena was transformed into temporary housing for about 2,500 migrant workers, as coronavirus cases in migrant worker dormitories spiked early on in the pandemic.

"The pandemic is a good example of something which is a real externality ... we're all in this together," he said.

"Are we going to sit on our hands and mope? No, let's channel the energy ... and discuss how we are going to pivot and respond."

After the "circuit breaker", and when some activities came back online, the Sports Hub then found its purpose in offering safe training facilities for athletes who were preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, he said.

When Singapore relaxed COVID-19 restrictions and events could resume, the Sports Hub hosted all the games of the AFF Suzuki Cup in December 2021.

Large-scale events have now resumed with Singapore star JJ Lin kicking off his world tour at the National Stadium on Friday and many more events packing the calendar for the Sports Hub's venues.

While many view running the Sports Hub using a PPP model as a failed experiment, Mr Yeo said that the reality was "a lot more nuanced".

He feels that the transition is mainly driven by the Government's desire to have a stronger say in programming decisions for the Sports Hub.

"Within the current framework, you get a certain set of optimal outcomes. If you think that these are not the outcomes that are best aligned with what you want, then you should change the framework," he said.

"It is the Government's prerogative to say that ... things have changed, we now feel that we're able to take on the project more directly ourselves."

When asked what lessons he has learned that he would like to pass on to the incoming team, Mr Yeo said that one was to recognise there are "inherent limitations" and capacity constraints that will require trade-offs to be made.

"(It's a) fact that there's only one National Stadium and there are 365 days a year, there are only so many things you can schedule together," he said.

"Are we going to go with a concert in this window or are we going to go with a football match? That basic tension ... doesn't go away."

He said that difficult decisions have to be made at times, and in making those decisions, stakeholder consultations and engagement are a "key piece" of managing the project.

"At the end of the day, this is a national asset - we have to balance between competing priorities ... It doesn't matter who's running the Sports Hub, that doesn't go away."

NEW SPORTS HUB LEADERS

Mr Quek is currently the CEO of New Business at Surbana Jurong. He was the CEO of Sentosa Development Corporation from 2015 to 2020, and has 26 years of public service experience, including at the Economic Development Board and the Singapore Tourism Board.

"Mr Quek is well versed in attracting investments and visitors to Singapore, through strategic branding, marketing, international relations and business development efforts," said SportSG.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong said in a Facebook post that Mr Quek is "a good candidate".

"When I met him, he was bubbling with energy and buzz.  He resonated deeply with our vision of a sporting Singapore, where sports and Sports Hub can be a part of the life of every Singaporean," Mr Tong said.

Mr Magnus, chairman of investment advisory firm Evercore’s Asia business, is a Sport Singapore board member and co-chair of the SportCares Advisory Board. He also sits on the SportSG finance committee.

As a board member, Mr Magnus played a key role in the Sports Hub public-private-partnership review, and he was also the chief negotiator for SportSG with SHPL.

He was "at the core" of a team that prepared for the takeover of the Sports Hub over many months, said Mr Tong.

"I can think of no one who is more well placed to help drive our ambitions for the Sports Hub," he added.

SportSG said that as part of the official handover on Dec 10, there will be a Sports Hub Opening Day and a series of community events.

There will also be a Christmas light-up and activities over the Chinese New Year period.