LONDON—City Developments Limited (CDL) has appointed Clarence Tan as the group CEO for Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Limited (M&C)—the group’s wholly owned hospitality subsidiary, taking effect on April 2.
As the first CEO for the privatized M&C, Tan will spearhead a turnaround in the performance of M&C’s global hotel portfolio, which encompasses 150 hotels and 43,500 rooms worldwide, many in key gateway cities. Reporting to Kwek Leng Beng, CDL and M&C executive chairman, Tan will work closely with the CDL leadership team to deliver sustainable hotel performance by focusing on achieving synergies, cost efficiencies and driving profitability. Tan’s appointment will offer stability to M&C and comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the global hospitality industry, the company reports.
Tan has more than 20 years of global hospitality experience, with a track record in hotel development and management, financial management, merger and acquisitions, integration, partnerships and joint ventures, as well as people development. He has deep experience in international hotel chain management, having headed several regions as CEO or COO. He was most recently the managing director for South East Asia and Korea with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), where he was responsible for the growth, financial and operational performance of about 100 hotels in South East Asia and Korea. Under his stewardship, the business delivered $1.2 billion in hotel revenue to the London-listed IHG at a healthy margin and added to its system size and pipeline.