2009
7 Oct 2009
TA Group exec chairman Tiah makes a comeback to prepare a succession team
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Tony Tiah, who has been notably absent from the glare of the limelight for years, is making an active comeback into the corporate world with the listing of TA Global Bhd, the property arm of TA Enterprise Bhd.
At 62, the executive chairman – who made a surprising re-appearance at TA Enterprise EGM on Monday – plans to hand over the baton to his children in five years.
“I’ve come back to prepare my successor and I am training a succession team to take over,” he told StarBiz in what he called his “first and last interview to the press”.
From left: Datuk Tony Tiah, Datin Alicia Tiah, Joo kim and daughter Sook Lin
Tiah said the controversy surrounding his conviction about a decade ago should be kept in the past.
“I am not a stumbling block for this company. The shareholders are happy with me,” he said, adding that he did not “disappear” but had been behind the scene, making land acquisitions and steering the company.
“Without Tony Tiah, there is no TA. My wife is good at operations, I am the visionary one.”
Tiah was convicted for making false reports to the stock exchange in 2002, which led to his resignation from TA Enterprise in the same year. He was fined RM3mil and barred from holding any directorship for five years.
“My past is something difficult to explain. What’s the point of blemishing me? What can you achieve? It has been years,” he said.
Tiah and Datuk Soh Chee Wen were charged with defrauding Omega Securities Sdn Bhd of RM424mil in a share transaction in August 1999.
His wife Datin Alicia Tiah, who has been shouldering the business for the past five years, said: “He has paid the price. It is unfair to keep bringing up the past. Judge the performance of the company.”
Meanwhile, Tiah said he was on his last leg and training the right people to take over.
“If we are not careful, after one generation it will go away.
“I am not the end. I am the beginning of bigger things to come. If I don’t have good succession, this would be the beginning of the end,” he said.
Tiah also said his role as executive chairman was not to be involved in operations but focus on the strategy and future growth of the company.
“We are all transient here. A lot of tycoons don’t seem to realise that. We all have an expiry date,” he said, adding that his “drive is almost drying up”.
He continued: “I am using my last portion of my drive to form a young team to lead my company. We are the first team. There will be many teams to come in years to come. I don’t want to build up something and it disappears after I am gone.
“I don’t want to be associated with the Chinese saying that wealth does not extend beyond the fourth generation. That’s why there is an urgency for me to train the next team.”
His son Joo Kim, who is slated to take over from him eventually, has been with the company for the past 22 months. He acknowledged that he was on a steep learning curve and grateful for his parents’ steering hand.
Source: The Star
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