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Business Times - 11 Nov 2010
OBITUARY
Singapore shipping luminary Lua, 71, dies
Lua Cheng Eng, who put NOL in the big league, dies 5 years after China accident
By GEORGE JOSEPH
(SINGAPORE) He was a soft-spoken man who had never been known to have raised his voice at subordinates, or anybody else for that matter. He was a father-like figure to his staff. For 20 years he kept the nation's budding shipping line on an even keel during a tumultuous period.
The passing of Lua Cheng Eng, 71, who steered Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) as general manager, managing director, and later president and chief executive officer, is being mourned far and wide and especially across the local maritime community.
Singapore has not known another shipping veteran of its own, and the loss is more hurting as it comes after an unfortunate twist of fate.
While in Beijing in October 2005 to attend the opening of Temasek Holdings' representative office there, Mr Lua tripped and fell, hitting his head near the coffee house of the hotel he was staying in. He was taken to a Beijing hospital where he was operated on to remove a blood clot. He was then transferred to a hospital in Singapore a few days later and remained in a coma for a long period.
Although he came out of it, he never fully recovered from the accident, remaining wheelchair-bound till the end. He died on Tuesday evening five years after the accident.
The story of NOL is part of the Singapore story, of a young nation early in its independence yearning for a national shipping line to serve its bustling and expanding trade. And Mr Lua was a key craftsman of this national story. He belongs to a group of three NOL pioneers who executed the plan of leaders like the late Dr Goh Keng Swee and Hon Sui Sen to build and operate a Singapore shipping company from scratch.
Pakistani M J Sayeed, NOL's first managing director, started the company in 1968 in a room in the Fullerton Building. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, as a then young civil servant, took over from Mr Sayeed in 1973, and Mr Lua took over from Mr Goh in 1978 and served the longest as the captain of the ship. He retired as chairman of NOL in 2002.
He was a good friend and tennis partner of Mr Goh and the two maintained close links even as Mr Goh went on to be prime minister. Mr Lua was seen as a pair of safe hands to entrust the shipping line with. And when the time came to bring disparate and splintered shipping groups in the private sector together under a single association to partner government efforts to promote Singapore as a maritime hub, again it was Mr Lua who could be relied on to forge them together under the Singapore Shipping Association. He was the founding president of the SSA and served for 18 years before he retired from the post in 2003.
As the NOL chief, Mr Lua would be remembered for presiding over what is arguably the best corporate exercise it has ever executed after its public listing, the acquisition of America's shipping standard bearer, American President Lines (APL), in 1997. Described by Mr Goh as a shrewd strategic move, it catapulted NOL immediately into the big league of container shipping, giving it a critical mass to compete effectively globally. NOL thus became one of the first Singapore companies to go global and multi-cultural. In a tribute, the NOL Group said yesterday that Mr Lua guided the integration of two great names in the maritime sector, describing it as 'the most important transaction in Singapore's maritime history'.
NOL chairman Cheng Wai Keung said: 'The NOL Group is today the fifth-largest container shipping company in the world. We could not have achieved this position without Mr Lua's bold vision and years of contributions to the enterprise. We are deeply indebted.'
Current SSA president S S Teo said Mr Lua was very passionate about the Singapore shipping industry. 'He had envisioned Singapore to be developed into a maritime centre like London. Much of what we are today owes much to his leadership in the SSA.'
Copyright © 2010 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,412647,00.html?
>
Business Times - 11 Nov 2010
OBITUARY
Singapore shipping luminary Lua, 71, dies
Lua Cheng Eng, who put NOL in the big league, dies 5 years after China accident
By GEORGE JOSEPH
(SINGAPORE) He was a soft-spoken man who had never been known to have raised his voice at subordinates, or anybody else for that matter. He was a father-like figure to his staff. For 20 years he kept the nation's budding shipping line on an even keel during a tumultuous period.
The passing of Lua Cheng Eng, 71, who steered Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) as general manager, managing director, and later president and chief executive officer, is being mourned far and wide and especially across the local maritime community.
Singapore has not known another shipping veteran of its own, and the loss is more hurting as it comes after an unfortunate twist of fate.
While in Beijing in October 2005 to attend the opening of Temasek Holdings' representative office there, Mr Lua tripped and fell, hitting his head near the coffee house of the hotel he was staying in. He was taken to a Beijing hospital where he was operated on to remove a blood clot. He was then transferred to a hospital in Singapore a few days later and remained in a coma for a long period.
Although he came out of it, he never fully recovered from the accident, remaining wheelchair-bound till the end. He died on Tuesday evening five years after the accident.
The story of NOL is part of the Singapore story, of a young nation early in its independence yearning for a national shipping line to serve its bustling and expanding trade. And Mr Lua was a key craftsman of this national story. He belongs to a group of three NOL pioneers who executed the plan of leaders like the late Dr Goh Keng Swee and Hon Sui Sen to build and operate a Singapore shipping company from scratch.
Pakistani M J Sayeed, NOL's first managing director, started the company in 1968 in a room in the Fullerton Building. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, as a then young civil servant, took over from Mr Sayeed in 1973, and Mr Lua took over from Mr Goh in 1978 and served the longest as the captain of the ship. He retired as chairman of NOL in 2002.
He was a good friend and tennis partner of Mr Goh and the two maintained close links even as Mr Goh went on to be prime minister. Mr Lua was seen as a pair of safe hands to entrust the shipping line with. And when the time came to bring disparate and splintered shipping groups in the private sector together under a single association to partner government efforts to promote Singapore as a maritime hub, again it was Mr Lua who could be relied on to forge them together under the Singapore Shipping Association. He was the founding president of the SSA and served for 18 years before he retired from the post in 2003.
As the NOL chief, Mr Lua would be remembered for presiding over what is arguably the best corporate exercise it has ever executed after its public listing, the acquisition of America's shipping standard bearer, American President Lines (APL), in 1997. Described by Mr Goh as a shrewd strategic move, it catapulted NOL immediately into the big league of container shipping, giving it a critical mass to compete effectively globally. NOL thus became one of the first Singapore companies to go global and multi-cultural. In a tribute, the NOL Group said yesterday that Mr Lua guided the integration of two great names in the maritime sector, describing it as 'the most important transaction in Singapore's maritime history'.
NOL chairman Cheng Wai Keung said: 'The NOL Group is today the fifth-largest container shipping company in the world. We could not have achieved this position without Mr Lua's bold vision and years of contributions to the enterprise. We are deeply indebted.'
Current SSA president S S Teo said Mr Lua was very passionate about the Singapore shipping industry. 'He had envisioned Singapore to be developed into a maritime centre like London. Much of what we are today owes much to his leadership in the SSA.'
Copyright © 2010 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,412647,00.html?
>
