Debra-Soon

Debra Soon

Head, Group Corporate Management, Tan Chong International Ltd

Ms Soon has over 25 years of experience in the corporate world with particular expertise in managing organizational change and media and communications. She joined Tan Chong International in November 2018 and handles a diverse portfolio including HR, Regional IT, Regional Events, Customer Experience, Merchandising and Corporate Communications.

 

She took on her current role at Tan Chong International after spending the prior 10 years in Mediacorp in Senior leadership roles. She has seen and experienced digital disruption first hand in an ever- changing industry and led organization restructuring and management as the company evolved from state broadcaster, to statutory board and private company. Prior to joining Tan Chong, she was Chief Marketing Officer for Mediacorp and responsible for the company’s marketing budgets and campaigns across all its media products and activities online and offline. She was also responsible for brand and communications of the corporate brand and product lines which included TV, Radio, Digital and events.

 

Ms Soon started her career in broadcast journalism with the then-Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. Her journalistic experience includes reporting on ‘live’ events in Singapore and from overseas, ‘live’ talk shows, leading coverage of major political and national news, and leading editorial and presentation for “In Parliament”, a show which summarizes Parliamentary debates when the House sits. She rose to the position of Executive Editor in MediaCorp News, where she led and directed the daily TV news operations of the Singapore newsgathering team for Mediacorp. In 2005, she left for an appointment in the corporate world, heading Investor relations and corporate communications and brand for public-listed company WBL Corporation Ltd, before re-joining MediaCorp News as its Chief Editor in 2008.

 

She was appointed Managing Director of Channel NewsAsia in March 2009 and was concurrently Chief Editor of Channel NewsAsia Singapore and International. In November 2014, in an organizational change aimed at increasing the company’s focus on customers and future growth opportunities, Ms Soon was appointed Head of News Segment. In that role, she was responsible for the programming, branding, marketing and distribution of Channel NewsAsia, TODAY newspaper and 938LIVE radio station and relinquished most of her editorial duties. She also took on additional responsibilities to oversee TV operations across all of Mediacorp.

 

In December 2015, she moved to manage the English entertainment properties of Mediacorp as Head of Family English Segment. These include the main TV channel 5, radio properties Class, Gold, Symphony and 8days Entertainment magazine. In January 2017, she was appointed Chief Customer Officer to oversee the Customer Group which comprises all the products and brands within the English, Chinese and Community Audience segments. This includes the financial and operational performance of TV, Radio, Publications as well as the digital and social media properties of the brands. In addition, her responsibilities extended to Broadcast Engineering and TV and Radio operations for Mediacorp. She was appointed to the new role of Chief Marketing Officer in June 2018 as the company moved to unite its budgets, resources and marketing efforts across the organization to better engage the public.

 

Ms Soon sat on the Board of the National Council on Problem Gambling, and chaired its Youth Sub-Committee for over 3 terms. She is currently the Treasurer of UN Women Singapore, and has been on the board of UN Women for over 7 years. She was also a Council member of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. Ms Soon has a BSc degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and MSc degree in International Relations from the London School Economics and Political Science; under scholarships from the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation and Television Corporation of Singapore.

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