Board Of Directors

Mr. Chou Cheng Ngok

Mr. Chou Cheng Ngok is passionate about books, a passion which he picked up from his late father, Mr. Chou Sing Chu, the founder of POPULAR. Since his graduation in 1964 from the US with a Masters Degree in Political Science, he has been living in Hong Kong and working with POPULAR. With foresight in recognizing the potential in books and stationery, Mr. Chou embarked on an aggressive plan to grow and develop the business when he took over the reins of management in the early 1980s. He has been instrumental in strategizing the development of POPULAR into an established brand and an integrated group which today has operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Greater China, Canada and United Kingdom.

Mr. Wayne Chou

Mr. Wayne Chou, son of Mr. Chou Cheng Ngok, holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Murdoch University, Australia. Upon returning to Hong Kong, he started his career with Deloitte Touche Tomatsu followed by KPMG before leaving as consultant. He then went into the banking sector with ABN Amro in equity research. While pursuing his own career, he was appointed to the Board in August 1999 and is a member of the Audit and Remuneration Committees. He joined STAR group of News Corporation in the year 2000 where he rose to Head of Taiwan territory before leaving in 2007. Since then, he has worked for Hong Kong listed companies, Tom Group and QJY Media Services. At present, he is the Head of Greater China for a NASDAQ-listed internet media company Travelzoo. Mr. Chou is appointed to the board of the Media Development Authority of Singapore in January 2009.

Ms Khang Swee Cheng

Ms Khang Swee Cheng is the Executive Director responsible for Singapore operations. She joined POPULAR in 1986 as a Group Financial Controller and has held various positions over the years. In 1997, she played a strategic role in getting POPULAR publicly-listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange. Ms Khang is a Certified Public Accountant and has extensive audit and commercial experience at PricewaterhouseCoopers and a retail & distribution company respectively prior to joining POPULAR.

Ms. Lim Lee Ngoh

Ms. Lim Lee Ngoh is the Executive Director responsible for Malaysia operations. She joined Popular Book Co. (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. in 1986 as its Accountant. Over the following 10 years, Ms. Lim held various positions in Popular Book Co. (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., including Retail Manager and General Manager before being promoted to Executive Director of Popular Book Co. (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. in May 1995. Ms. Lim holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting, Finance and Business) Degree from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Mr. Vangatharaman Ramayah

Mr. Vangatharaman Ramayah, better known as Vangat Ramayah, was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of POPULAR in May 2002. He is the Chairman of both the Audit and Remuneration Committees and is a member of the Nominating Committee. Mr Ramayah is currently a Consultant in the firm M/s Wee Ramayah & Partners. Graduating with LLB (Hons) and LLM Degree from the University of London and a MA Degree in Business Law, his legal experience over two decades encompasses Banking, Commercial Law, Shipyard and Marine Construction Finance, Cross Border Construction Projects, Insurance, Transnational Joint Ventures, Admiralty Law, Aviation Law and Arbitration. He is the author of the seminal work Ship Finance in Singapore & Malaysia. He has been made a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators. He is also a member of the Law Reform Committee of the Academy of Law.

Mr Ramayah is often sought as an arbitrator in Asian and Common Law jurisdictions on construction, commercial, transnational, and maritime disputes and acts as an arbitrator in ICC arbitrations as well. He is familiar with English, Malaysian and Singapore Law and is exposed to US Law and Indonesian Law. He is on the panel of various arbitral institutions, namely: The Beijing Arbitration Commission, The Korean Commercial Arbitration Board, The Singapore International Arbitration Centre, and The Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitrators, Asia-Pacific Regional Arbitration Grouping and Singapore Institute of Arbitrators.

Mrs. Lim Soon Tze

Mrs. Lim Soon Tze is an Independent Director of POPULAR. She is the Chairman of the Nominating Committee and a member of the Audit and Remuneration Committees. An Economics and English (Hons) graduate, she started her career in education as a teacher in Raffles Girls' Secondary School in Singapore, and went on to become Head of Department and Vice-Principal in National Junior College, and Principal of Anderson Secondary School before her posting to the Ministry of Education Headquarters.

In the Ministry of Education, Mrs. Lim's appointments included Senior Inspector of Schools, Deputy Director of Primary and Secondary Schools, Director of Curriculum Planning Division which she set up, Director of Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore (CDIS), Director of Educational Technology, and Director of Schools. She played a major role in drawing up the Ministry of Education's first Masterplan for IT in Education and set up the Educational Technology Division to implement the Masterplan in schools. During her period as Director of Schools from 1997 until her retirement from the Education Service in April 2002, she implemented the School Cluster structure as an innovative way of improving school management. She also introduced a computerised self-appraisal system (the School Excellence Model) to appraise the effectiveness of schools. Mrs. Lim has sat on various bodies such as the National Institute of Education Council, the National Computer Board, National Library Board and was Chairman of the Governing Board of SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. For her contribution to education, she has received several National Day Awards, culminating in the Public Administration Medal (Gold) in 2001.