PropertyGuru reshuffles board; co-founder Jani Rautiainen retires

REAL estate portal PropertyGuru Group on Tuesday appointed Olivier Lim as independent chairman as well as Jenny Macdonald and Melanie Wilson as independent non-executive directors to its board.

Meanwhile, four directors including the company's co-founder are also retiring from the board.

The appointments of Mr Lim, Ms Macdonald and Ms Wilson are part of a broader exercise to evolve the property technology company's corporate governance in tandem with its growth trajectory and the increasing scale of its business, PropertyGuru said.

"The new directors bring even greater diversity, breadth and depth to the board," the company added.

Mr Lim is chairman of Certis Cisco and Frasers Property Australia. He serves on the board of directors of DBS Bank, and on the board of trustees of Singapore Management University, among others. Previously, Mr Lim was chairman of property group Australand.

Ms Macdonald will head PropertyGuru's audit and risk committee. She used to be a chief financial officer and has considerable experience in marketplace businesses, PropertyGuru said. Ms Macdonald is now a director on the boards of companies including Bapcor Limited - an Australia-listed provider of automotive aftermarket parts, and Redbubble - a global online marketplace based in Melbourne and San Francisco.

Ms Wilson will chair the group's nomination and remuneration committee. She has years of experience as a director for consumer-oriented businesses, and sits on the boards of Australian nursery retailer Baby Bunting, insurance and utilities comparison website iSelect, and payments solutions provider EML Payments, among other firms.

PropertyGuru also said on Tuesday that the directors retiring from its board are co-founder Jani Rautiainen, who continues to be a shareholder, as well as Ashish Shastry, Jay Wacher and David Gowdey.

Other than the three new appointments, the board now also comprises co-founder and executive director Steve Melhuish, chief executive officer and executive director Hari Krishnan, three non-executive directors - Dominic Picone, Terence Lee and Paul Bassat - as well as Ganen Sarvananthan as adviser to the board.

Separately, in July this year, the company appointed industry veteran Tan Tee Khoon as country manager for Singapore. Dr Tan left Knight Frank Singapore in June, where he was a key executive officer of agency arm KF Property Network and head of residential project marketing.