APB shuffles staff

Singapore - Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) has officially announced a raft of changes to its senior management team, to come into effect from 1 July.

Les Buckley who holds dual roles as regional director SE Asia/Oceania and director, group commercial, will now relinquish the latter to concentrate on his regional duties. He is responsible for the profitability of business units and business development activities in Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Mongolia.

The director, group commercial post will now go to Edmond Neo, who is currently GM of Asia Pacific Breweries Lanka. He will oversee brand development of all the Group's brands globally including its flagship brand, Tiger, as well as Anchor, ABC Stout and Baron's Strong Brew.

James Wong, currently GM, Tiger Export/Singapore will now also oversee Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore), and as reported in Marketing's 5 April bulletin, Alan Gourdie, GM of APB Singapore will be leaving for the UK to take up the post of MD, Tiger Beer UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tiger Export Pte Ltd.

Bennett Neo succeeds Gourdie as the new GM of the Group's Singapore operations, and will be responsible for its overall management of strategic and operational matters including sales, marketing, technical and business development. Prior to joining the Group, Neo was with a petrochemical company and worked in several countries including Hong Kong, China, USA, Japan and Vietnam. In his new role, Neo reports to Wong.