Directors

Mr Lim Swe Guan is the Independent Non-Executive Chairman of the Company. He was appointed a Director on 26 April 2024 and is the Chairman of the Nomination & Compensation Committee and Investment Committee and a member of the Audit Committee and Sustainability Committee of the Company.

Mr Lim has extensive experience in the investment management and real estate sectors. From 1986 to 1995, he was with Jones Lang Wootton in Sydney, where his last held position was Research Director. He joined Suncorp Investments, Brisbane, Australia and worked as the Portfolio Manager of Property Funds from 1995 to 1997. From 1997 to 2008, he was with the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, where his last held position was Regional Manager. From 2008 to 2011, he was the Managing Director of GIC Real Estate. His responsibilities included being the Regional Head of Property Investment for Australia, Japan, India and Southeast Asia and the Global Head of the Corporate Investments Group that invests in public REITs and property companies.

Mr Lim is the Chair and Independent Non-Executive Director and a member of the Nominating and Remuneration Committee, the Sustainability Committee and the Audit and Risk Committee of Singapore-listed Cromwell European REIT and a director of the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA), a non-profit organisation that promotes real estate investment in the Asia Pacific region.

Mr Lim holds a Bachelor of Science in Estate Management from the University of Singapore and a Master of Business Administration from the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business, The University of Virginia. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst of the CFA Institute.

Mr Kartar Singh Thakral is an Executive Director of the Company and was the Executive Chairman since the Company’s listing until 31 December 2011. He was first appointed a Director since the incorporation of the Company on 7 October 1993 and was last re-elected on 26 April 2024. He stepped down as a member of the Nomination Committee of the Company on 1 January 2020 and remained as a member of the Investment Committee of the Company.

Mr Kartar Singh is widely knowledgeable and has an excellent record in steering the Group successfully through its peaks and troughs through many business cycles. His foresight and astute reading of the macro economic trends have continuously benefitted the Group. The sale of the Group’s Hong Kong warehouse at the height of the property cycle is one example of his foresight. He was pivotal in the re-positioning of the Group’s businesses and entry into the Japanese and Australia investments are now being rewarded. Mr Kartar Singh continues to provide insight and guidance on the Group’s operations and contributes effectively in his role as an Executive Director and at the Board, Board Committee and operational levels.

Mr Kartar Singh was the Joint Chairman and a Non-Executive Director of Australia listed Thakral Holdings Limited till 22 October 2012 and a Director of the Singapore Trade Development Board appointed by the Minister for Trade and Industry for a period of four years until 31 December 1998. He was also a member of the Committee to Promote Enterprise Overseas and a member of the Regional Business Forum, both appointed by the Singapore Government; and was a trustee of Singapore Indian Development Association from 1991 till 31 December 2006. Mr Kartar Singh was awarded the Singapore Australian Business Council President’s Medal in 1998 for significant contribution to the Australian Singapore business community. He had been awarded Businessman of the Year 1995 at the Singapore Business Awards 1996.

Mr Kartar Singh is a Director of a number of subsidiaries of the Company in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. He is a Founder Trustee and Vice-Chairman of Nishan-E-Sikhi Charitable Trust, India, a trustee of the Singapore Sikh Education Foundation and Sri Guru Nanak Sat Sang Sabha and a patron of Singapore Khalsa Association, Singapore Sikh Welfare Council and Central Sikh Gurdwara Board.

Mr Kartar Singh will be retiring as an Executive Director of the Company at the annual general meeting to be held on 30 April 2025.

Mr Inderbethal Singh Thakral (“Mr Bethal”) is the Chief Executive Officer and an Executive Director of the Group. He was first appointed a Director on 12 August 1994 and was last re-elected on 29 April 2022. He is a member of the Investment Committee of the Company.

He played an instrumental role in the listing of the Group back in 1995, as well as the transformation of the Group including the growth of its investments in markets such as Japan, Australia and Singapore and the repositioning of the lifestyle business to focus on beauty, fragrance and lifestyle products.

Having broadened the Group’s income streams beyond China, Mr Bethal continues to spearhead the Group’s strategic growth in these markets for positive and sustainable returns. He has a long and illustrious track record having led the Group’s operations in Hong Kong and China since 1984.

Mr Bethal is a Director of the Company’s various subsidiaries in China, Hong Kong and Singapore and the Chairman of a charity organisation, Sahib Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji Education Trust, Hong Kong.

Mr Bikramjit Singh Thakral (“Bikram”) was appointed as a Non-Independent Non-Executive Director of the Company on 2 January 2020 and was last re-elected on 27 April 2023. He is a member of the Nomination & Compensation Committee, Investment Committee and Sustainability Committee of the Company.

Bikram is the Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Thakral One Pte Ltd, a Thakral Family group-owned technology consulting firm, headquartered in Singapore with operations across Asia Pacific. Thakral One Pte Ltd is primarily focused on providing technology and data-analytics solutions to financial institutions, telcos, healthcare institutions and other regional enterprise customers. Bikram also oversees Thakral Services (India) Ltd, which provides electronic security solutions and products across India. He is part of the leadership team that evaluates and executes mergers and acquisitions for the Thakral Family Group of Companies. Prior to joining the Thakral Family businesses, Bikram was a strategy consultant at a leading management consulting firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, where he focused on corporate and consumer strategy. He also consulted with various public sector organisations in Asia in the areas of sector competitiveness and public policy.

Bikram is a Director of various Singapore subsidiaries of the Company. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) from the National University of Singapore and has attended executive education at the Harvard Business School.

Mr Nagaraj Sivaram was appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director of the Company on 1 October 2023 and last re-elected on 26 April 2024. He is the Chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Nomination & Compensation Committee and Investment Committee of the Company.

Mr Sivaram was an assurance partner in Ernst & Young (“EY”), Singapore and retired from the firm in June 2019 after 35 years with the firm. His audit experience included the audit of listed companies and multinationals in the food and beverage, logistics and real estate industries. His business advisory experience encompassed financial due diligence work for EY’s Transaction Advisory Services Group. As Technical Partner for many years, he advised other partners on complex accounting and auditing issues, conducted training, and set policies relating to risk management for the assurance practice of the firm.

Mr Sivaram was a member of the Accounting Standards Council, the standard setter in Singapore for nine years and received the Public Service Medal in 2018 for having served as its Deputy Chairman for several years. He was also active on multiple committees of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (“ISCA”), the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority and the Singapore chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (“ICAEW”).

He is currently a Board Member and Audit Committee Chairman of the Land Transport Authority, ESR Logos REIT and Frasers Hospitality Trust. He was an Independent Non-Executive Director of the formerly SGX-listed G. K. Goh Holdings Limited. In 2020, he completed three terms on the Board of the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Mr Sivaram graduated from the University of Bombay with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and qualified as a chartered accountant in London. He remains a member of both ISCA and ICAEW.

Ms Veronica Lai is an Independent Non-Executive Director of the Company. She was appointed a Director on 13 January 2025 and is the Chairman of the Sustainability Committee and a member of the Audit Committee and Compensation & Nomination Committee of the Company.

Ms Lai has more than two decades of extensive corporate, legal and sustainability experiences in the info-communications industry. She was the Chief Corporate and Sustainability Officer, General Counsel and Company Secretary for the StarHub Group and retired in July 2024 after 25 years with them. She was conferred the Chief Legal Officer 2020 Award by the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association, and is listed annually in Legal500’s GC Powerlist South East Asia since 2017. In 2023, she was also recognised on the inaugural list of the Legal500 Green GC Powerlist South East Asia, which ranks the top General Counsels leading in Sustainability practice. Prior to joining StarHub, she practised law at Rajah and Tann Singapore LLP.

Ms. Lai is currently a Board Member and serves on the Governance, Audit and Nominating Committee and Vice President of the United Nations Global Compact Network Singapore. She is accredited as a Senior Director by the Singapore Institute of Directors and appointed as a specialist mediator by the Singapore International Mediation Centre; and served on the Income Tax Review Board.

Ms Lai holds an LLB Honours (Second Class Upper) from the National University of Singapore and was admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore.

Mr Ashmit Singh Thakral was appointed as an Alternate Director to Mr. Kartar Singh Thakral on 1 March 2024 and is alternate to him as a member of the Investment Committee.

Ashmit is the Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) of GemLife Group which develops and manages over-50s lifestyle resorts under the GemLife brand in Australia. He has been involved with GemLife since joining the Company’s principal subsidiary, Thakral Capital Australia Pty Ltd as an Investment Manager in 2017, where he also supported on various other property development projects in Australia. As the CFO of GemLife from 2020, he spearheaded the financial strategy and ensure the financial funding to support the rapid growth of GemLife and improved its supply-chain management, delivery lead-time and know-how capabilities through the purchase of a joinery partner. He is concurrently acting as the CFO for Living Gems from October 2022 and had successfully led the Living Gems team in the sale of 5 assets to Stockland for A$210 million in July 2023.

With over 10 years of experience in the finance industry, Ashmit has covered various roles and responsibilities including credit/risk analysis, financial structuring & modelling, feasibility analysis, and overall project management and financial reporting. Ashmit gained extensive experience as the General Partner of a fund investing in the secondary market shares of billon-dollar valued US private companies during his time living in Shanghai. He also worked as a credit/risk analyst facilitating investment decisions for
purchasing corporate bonds of global listed entities.

Ashmit is an Executive Director of the Company’s various subsidiary entities in Australia. He holds a MMath Masters in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.