City Developments Limited (“CDL”), a Singapore-headquartered property developer with a strong global presence, is currently grappling with a boardroom and leadership shake-up. Known for pioneering innovations in sustainable real estate, CDL has expanded its footprint across Asia, Europe and North America, with significant investments in residential, commercial and hospitality sectors, including the historic Los Angeles Millennium Biltmore, iconic Hudsons Theatre in New York and The Biltmore Mayfair in London.
Beyond meteoric commercial success, CDL has championed “Conserving as We Construct” blending modern development with heritage preservation. The Biltmore Mayfair embodies this vision, with roots dating back to 1710 as a private residence before its hotel transformation by architect, Richard Seifert. Over the centuries, it housed figures like Melusine von der Schulenburg and Major Henry Percy, who delivered news of the victory over Napoleon. The historic site, steeped in cultural significance, also inspired Oscar Wilde, influencing works like The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Yet, even as CDL preserves history, it now finds itself navigating a contemporary corporate turbulence, as internal tensions surfaced to the public eye. Concerns arose on 28 January 2025—Lunar New Year’s Eve—when CDL’s corporate secretary sent an email nominating two additional Independent Non-Executive Directors. The timing, coinciding with the start of a major holiday in Singapore, when businesses slow down and executives are less likely to respond, raised suspicions that the move was calculated to evade immediate questioning. Days later, CDL Executive Chairman Kwek Leng Beng challenged the hasty appointment of Wong Su Yen and Jennifer Duong Young, which was announced via a Singapore Exchange (“SGX”) notification on 7 February 2025. The appointments, made without following the usual nomination process, blindsided a key leadership figure, the Executive Chairman and other minority Directors.
Wong, a professional corporate speaker and a former council member of the Singapore Institute of Directors (“SID”), should, in theory, be well-versed in corporate governance best practices. However, with doubts cast over the legitimacy of these appointments, her own credibility in upholding governance standards is now placed under scrutiny.
CDL had framed these non-unanimous Board appointments as part of its commitment to Diversity as stated in a SGX filing, though the rationale remains unclear. If Diversity were the driving factor, CDL should look beyond gender representation—an area where the company already excels, with nearly 70% of its workforce and approximately 50% of its Heads of Departments being female, a consistent trend as recognised by the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) over the past decade.
Protecting good governance, including the office of the executive chairman, and not me as an individual, is critical. Stripping away any meaningful authority of the executive chairman is a coup.
Executive Chairman, Mr Kwek Leng Beng, in a Press statement on Friday (28 February 2025)
While Wong’s expertise in human resource management and leadership development is valuable, CDL has not articulated how her inclusion addresses specific gaps beyond gender, such as ethnicity, age, cultural background, professional expertise and cognitive styles. This raises the question: Is the Diversity justification a convenient narrative or a corporate governance principle? The boardroom brouhaha has led to the suspension of the two newly appointed Independent Non-Executive CDL Board Director’s powers, pending Court rulings. They may be compelled to resign due to serious dissent by the CDL Board’s minority directors or face a shareholder vote on their tenure. This underscores a corporate governance misalignment within one of Singapore’s largest and most established property developers.
CDL Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) Sherman Kwek has denied attempting to oust his father, the current Executive Chairman, instead deflected the matter to issues surrounding his father’s former personal assistant and adviser to one of CDL’s subsidiaries, Dr. Catherine Wu, whom he claims has wielded influence beyond her scope.
The majority directors are alive to their duties and will continue to uphold corporate governance and accountability within the CDL Group.
Chief Executive Officer, Mr Sherman Kwek, in a Press statement on Friday (28 February 2025)
Amid the ongoing father-and-son struggle, Sherman’s cousin, current Group Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Executive Management Committee, Kwek Eik Sheng, has emerged as a potential candidate to fill in the interim CEO position. CDL’s stakeholders are keeping tabs on this governance matter as the company navigates its future, that bears no impact on Hong Leong Asia. While Sherman retains his CEO title for now, he must continue to prove his capabilities through results.
Leadership Measured By Results
Mr. Philip Yeo, one of the Non-Independent, Non-Executive, minority directors opposing CDL CEO Sherman Kwek’s actions to appoint the two new Independent Non-Executive Directors without unanimous or official approval by the CDL Board, dismissed these actions and a further deflection to his father’s former personal assistant and adviser as “an attempt to distract everyone” from the core issue—financial performance of the main-board SGX listed company, CDL. The company has since issued a temporary trading halt on 26 February 2025.
Weighing in on the disagreement, three days after the court papers were filed by the Executive Chairman to veto the appointment of the two new Independent Non-Executive Directors, Mr. Yeo implied that leadership should be measured by delivering results, not grasping for power.
He further urged the younger Kwek to focus on bouncing back from the S$1.9 billion losses from the Sincere Property Group deal—a China investment spearheaded by CEO in the 2019-2020s period, that quickly led to a massive write-off in September 2021 and the resignation of three former CDL Independent Non-Executive Directors, all of whom had openly cited disagreements with the deal. Instead of blame-shifting, the high-flying civil servant and former Chairman of SPRING Singapore, Mr. Yeo emphasized the CEO’s need for accountability to deliver profit improvements for CDL shareholders, ought to take precedence.
In a rare 2023 exclusive media interview titled “Billionaire Kwek Leng Beng on Why It’s Better to Work Hard and Talk Less” the 84-year-old business magnate reflected on his decades of accomplishments in real estate. The conversation, marked by introspection and pragmatism, was followed shortly by the launch of his biography, “Strictly Business: The Kwek Leng Beng Story“, published by a content agency helmed by a veteran journalist and best-selling author.
Known for his prudence and driven by ambition, Kwek emphasized the value of experience—that may sometimes be shaped by hardship—and the importance of making well-analyzed decisions. He underscored the need to learn from missteps and, with a hint of candor, acknowledged that in family businesses, “not everyone agrees all the time.” Despite the inevitable challenges of succession, he spoke positively of his son’s work ethic, even remarking that the younger Kwek might be the harder worker of the two.
More than just reflecting on past success, Kwek made it clear that he remains invested in the future, highlighting the company’s strong financial standing, with gearing at a comfortable level. His remarks reinforced a long-held philosophy: sustainable, profitable growth requires both systematic discipline and vision. Qualities he hopes will define his legacy at CDL for generations to come.
Featured image: Officially Appointed CDL Board of Directors, as at 22 March 2024. L-R: Ong Lian Jin Colin, Tan Kian Seng, Chan Swee Liang Carolina, Sherman Kwek Eik Tse, Kwek Leng Beng, Chong Yoon Chau, Tang Wong Ai Ai, Lee Jee Cheng Philip, Philip Yeo Liat Kok and Daniel Marie Ghislain Desbaillets.
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