Millennium & Copthorne Hotels PLC Additional Board Changes (1333X)

TIDMMLC

RNS Number : 1333X

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels PLC

17 February 2017

For immediate release 17 February 2017

MILLENNIUM & COPTHORNE HOTELS PLC

LEI: 2138003EQ1O4LZ1JNH19

Additional Board Changes

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc (the "Company") today announces the following additional changes to its Board of Directors (the "Board") and executive management team, further to the Company's announcement on 8 February 2017 regarding the retirement of Alexander Waugh.

Retirement of Nicholas George

Like Mr Waugh, Nicholas George has decided to retire from the Board with effect as of 5 May 2017 and accordingly will not stand for re-election at this year's Annual General Meeting. Mr George, who serves as the Senior Independent Director and as a member of the Audit, Risk, Remuneration and Nominations Committees, has been an Independent Non-Executive Director of the Company since June 2009.

Appointment of Howard Wu

In connection with the retirements of Mr Waugh and Mr George, Howard Wu has been appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director with effect from today, 17 February 2017. Mr Wu brings broad information technology, data security and e-commerce experience to the Board, having held senior positions with technology companies in North America and Europe. He presently serves as the Vice President, Head of Software Defined Infrastructure at Ericsson and technology advisor to the office of the Mayor of Taipei, Taiwan. Prior to his current roles, Mr Wu was President of Greater China at Joyent Inc., a software and services company, and founder and Chief Executive Officer of Layerboom Systems, a company specialising in cloud infrastructure software that was acquired by Joyent. He was educated in the U.S. and Canada, having obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Furman University in South Carolina and an Executive MBA from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Appointment of Interim Group Chief Executive Officer

Whilst the search for a permanent Group Chief Executive Officer continues, after consideration by the Nominations Committee and Board, Mr Tan Kian Seng, who joined the Group as Group Chief of Staff and interim President of Asia in October 2016, will assume the position of Interim Group Chief Executive Officer of the Company on 1 March 2017 following Aloysius Lee's retirement at the end of February. Mr Lee has been transitioning his responsibilities to Mr Tan over the past several weeks and will continue to do so as necessary to ensure a smooth handover process. Mr Tan is based in Singapore and has not been appointed as a Director at this time, although it is expected that he will spend significant time in London and attend Company Board meetings on a regular basis.

Prior to working for the Group, Mr Tan had over 30 years of senior executive experience in operations and managing finance, legal, investor relations, purchasing, business development, human resources, information technology and other functions. Most recently he served as advisor to the CEO and Chairman of Venture Corporation Limited ("Venture"), listed on the Singapore Exchange, a leading global provider of technology services, products and solutions that has over 12,000 employees and operations in markets worldwide. Mr Tan joined Venture in 2001 and held increasingly senior roles in various jurisdictions, including Vice President of Operations in Malaysia until February 2006, Chief Financial Officer until February 2012 and Group President from 2011 until February 2016. Mr Tan helped to drive the growth of the business during his tenure and in 2015, Venture achieved sales of S$2.65 billion with annual profit of S$154 million.

Before joining Venture, Mr Tan was Finance Director and held other senior finance roles with LenovoEMC (formerly Iomega Corp.) and financial controller and accounting roles with various technology and toy manufacturers. He started his career as an accountant in the U.K. and audit manager in Malaysia with the audit firms currently known as Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers respectively. Mr Tan is an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Committee Appointments

Given Mr Wu's experience, he has been appointed to the Risk Committee effective as of today.

Further details on changes to Board Committee membership and the role of Senior Independent Director resulting from the retirements of Mr George and Mr Waugh will be announced in due course.

Mr Kwek Leng Beng, Chairman of the Company, said, "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Alexander and Nick for their long service and contribution to the Group over the past many years. I wish them and Aloysius the best in their next endeavours. Whilst the three Directors are retiring from the Board, we must look forward. In that regard, I would like to welcome Howard to the Board and congratulate Kian Seng on his new appointment. In light of the challenging geopolitical climate and structural changes in the hospitality industry, including a greater focus on new distribution platforms, it is imperative that the skills and experience of the Directors and senior management team continue to evolve to meet these challenges. I look forward to working with Howard and Kian Seng, together with the rest of the team, to develop and grow the business, which continues to be underpinned by our successful model of long-term asset ownership and lean operations."

No further information is required to be disclosed pursuant to Listing Rule 9.6.13R (1) to (6) in respect of Mr Wu's appointment.

Enquiries: [phone]

Jonathon Grech, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary

Peter Krijgsman, Financial Communications (Media)

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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February 17, 2017 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)