Chua Sock Koong | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1957-09-14)14 September 1957 (age 67) | ||||||||
| Occupation | Businesswoman | ||||||||
| Office | CEO ofSingtel (2007–2021) | ||||||||
| Board member of |
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| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 蔡淑君 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 蔡淑君 | ||||||||
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Chua Sock KoongBBM (born 14 September 1957) is the former CEO ofSingtel, having held this position from April 2007 to December 2020.[1][2]
Chua completed her education atRaffles Girls School andRaffles Institution.[3] Chua holds a Bachelor of Accountancy (First Class Honours) from theUniversity of Singapore.
Appointed Group Chief Executive Officer in April 2007, Chua directed Singtel’s global strategy and oversees its consumer, enterprise and digital businesses. Before helming Singtel as Group CEO, Chua served in various key capacities within the company, most notably CEO International and Group CFO, after first joining as Treasurer in 1989. She was instrumental in the corporatisation of Singtel in 1992 and its subsequent successful listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange a year later.[4] She also restructured the company for competition in the lead up to the full liberalisation of the Singapore telecoms market in 2000.
Chua led Singtel’s transformation from a traditional telecommunications company into a communications technology company.[5]
In February 2014, Chua asked for regulators to grant telecommunications companies the right to charge technology companies such asWhatsApp andSkype, for use of telecommunication networks, which she said was necessary because of the fall in telecommunication companies' revenues from phone calls and text messaging as a result of competition from these new carriers.[6]
Faced with the realities of a small domestic market, Chua was part of the core leadership team which developed Singtel’s internationalisation strategy which accounts for the Group’s acquisition ofOptus in Australia and a host of other regional telecom investments.
As CEO International, she stepped up Singtel’s diversification across some of Asia’s fastest growing economies, leading and overseeing investments in India’sBharti Airtel, Indonesia'sTelkomsel, Thailand’s AIS and Philippines' Globe.
In 2019, she became the first woman to join Singapore’s Council of Presidential Advisers when she was made an alternate member by PresidentHalimah Yacob. She was appointed a full member of the council in 2020.[7]
Chua is also the Deputy Chairman of thePublic Service Commission in Singapore.[8]
She was Deputy Chair of theGSMA Board from 2019 to 2020.
In 2023, she was named a member of theMcKinsey & Company External Advisory Group.[9]
She is also a Fellow Member of theInstitute of Singapore Chartered Accountants and holds a CFA charter.
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Public Service Star, in 2019.[10]