Chandroo Returns to SICCI As Chairman For Second Term, Eight New Members Inducted
Nine directors from the previous board have been retained including two women: Purnima Kamath of De Ideaz and Shobha Tsering Bhalla of India Se Media
May 16, 2020·
Marking his second consecutive term as Chairman Dr T Chandroo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Modern Montessori International, returned unopposed as head of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI). Seventeen new members were appointed to the board, out of which nine directors are from the previous board while eight new ones have been inducted for the new two-year term.
Chandra Mohan Rethnam, a leading and much-decorated Singapore lawyer (he is a partner at Rajah & Tann) is one of the two new vice-chairmen while the other VP is Maneesh Tripathi, Executive Chairman & Group CEO of Sevak Limited.
Eight new members were appointed to the board while nine members from the previous board will continue their term consecutively for the second time, bringing the total strength of the board to 17. Of these, two are women who were also on the board in the previous term – Purnima Kamath MD of event management company De Ideaz and Shobha Tsering Bhalla, Founder & MD of India Se Media Pte Ltd the region’s oldest media company for the Indian diaspora.
The other new members are:
- Hanif Moez Nomanbhoy, Honorary Treasurer
- Muralli Rajaram, Director
- Raj Kumar S/O Perumal, Director
- Yahiya Khan, Director
- Tushar S/O Pritamlal Doshi, Director
- Saravanan Krishnasamy, Director
Collectively, the new board has a stellar line up of members said Dr Chandroo, in his welcome address at the chamber’s Annual General Meeting held online on Friday, May 15.
Some of them, he said, “bring decades of experience in key areas such as finance, law, and strategy implementation, that are vital to our future operations and strategy. Their counsel and expertise will strengthen SICCI’s commitment to uplifting the business community in Singapore as well as help to build deeper relationships and collaborations with both local and international trade associations and chambers.”
Noting that businesses were going through an unprecedented and challenging time due to the Covid19 pandemic, Dr Chandroo said the Chamber would be focusing on helping beleaguered businesses with a slew of innovative measures in line with the Government’s plans for the economy. One of them would be a ground-breaking two-year Executive-in-Residence (EIR) pilot programme, in response to the need for access to deep industry expertise to drive industry and enterprise transformation initiatives. The EIR will be deployed to companies to develop and drive long-term strategies in the areas of productivity, internationalisation and capability building. Enterprises seeking to transform can also tap the expertise of the EIRs, based on their business needs through SICCI.
In its efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects, SICCI will also be working with Enterprise Singapore and looking to set up the SG Together Enhancing Enterprise Resilience (STEER) Programme, which was recently announced by the Finance Minister for Budget 2020. STEER aims to help businesses tide over the challenges arising from COVID-19, and to push on with transformation efforts in preparation for economic recovery.
