Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Seeks Stability, Long-Term Growth Under New CEO

Nobody envies the job of a CEO these days, but Clarence Tan, who will take up the group CEO position at newly-privatized Millennium & Copthone Hotels starting April 2, is set for a tougher ride.

Singapore-based City Developments, which now owns the hospitality subsidiary wholly,Millennium & Copthorne was delisted from the London Stock Exchange last October, after a protracted two-year battle between City Developments and smaller shareholders to take the company private

The chain’s last CEO, Jennifer Fox, lasted all of three months in the job. Since her departure in September 2018, there has been no dedicated CEO, with the chain overseen an interim CEO, Tan Kian Seng. Two other directors, Sue Farr and Gervase MacGregor, also left in the latter half of 2018.

Apart from inheriting an organization that has seen a good deal of instability, and reporting to a real tough boss, City Developments and Millennium & Copthorne executive chairman and Singapore tycoon Kwek Leng Beng, Tan will have to lead Millennium & Copthorne during the worst crisis ever to hit the travel industry, the coronavirus.