Geoff Tan exits SPH after 34 years

Singapore Press Holdings’ (SPH) Geoff Tan will be stepping down from his role at the media company, with his last day being 10 July. Having been with SPH since 1986, Tan last helmed the role of head, content marketing and was put in place to grow the Sweet operations.

In a statement to Marketing, Tan said he was meant to have retired two years ago but had his contract extended to serve across two portfolios - first as the managing director of SPH Magazines’ luxury business, and then as head of Sweet, SPH’s multi-disciplinary content marketing arm.

“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. That’s how I’ve felt all along and I’m truly thankful to SPH for allowing me free reign across its extensive media and publishing playground for more than three decades. Admittedly, I’ve had an absolute blast and loved every minute of it. I’m looking forward to exploring greener fields and bluer oceans up ahead," Tan said.

In a Facebook post, Tan thanked the people who contributed to "making his professional life enjoyable and fulfilling", including clients, industry partners, associates, advertising/media agency counterparts, ambassadors, readers, colleagues and friends. "Although I used the word ‘retiring’, this is more to accord resolve with regards to my full time tenure with the organisation. For me, there’s never ever a hard stop. Life for me has always been about transitioning and transformation," he added.

Tan was one of SPH’s first content creators and has been helping SPH Magazine’s with the creation of a lot more of its branded content. Prior to overseeing the Sweet unit, he was with SPH Magazines as its managing director, luxury and custom publishing. Tan was in charge of the luxury titles The Peak and ICON, with extensions coming under The Peak Selections Gourmet & Travel, The Peak Selections Timepieces, ICON Moments, and ICON Weddings. He also oversaw SPH Magazines’ portfolio of custom publications. The titles include SilverKris, the travel magazine of Singapore Airlines.

Among the leadership roles Tan held include senior vice president of SPH's marketing division, where he was in charge of five departments – business development, research & analytics, content marketing, product branding & promotions, and a creative lab. His contributions include pioneering the launch of The New Paper, taking charge of the advertising sales of SPH newspapers across multiple industry sectors and leading the strategy arm of SPH’s digital business.

Earlier in March, SPH said the global pandemic has affected its businesses and posed challenges to its stakeholders. As such, SPH CEO Ng Yat Chung took a pay cut of 10% in show of solidarity with the nation amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, while SPH's senior management staff had a 5% reduction in salary, while its board members took a voluntary 10% pay cut in directors' fees.

Separately, last year in September, SPH switched up its leadership in various divisions. CMO Ignatius Low took on the new role of chief commercial officer of SPH media solution, while Courts marketer Joanna Ho joined the media company as the head of business planning and operational efficiency. Low also expanded former GroupM talent Linda Lim’s role to head of content solution and market development to include leading up content sales and partnership management along with her prior duties of anchoring SPH’s relationship beyond straight media buys. She was also made in charge of SPH’s outdoor advertising business, SPHMBO, looking at how the portfolio can be expanded to better fit into the company’s overall media solutions proposition.

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