NOL accelerates leadership change

   The NOL Group, parent company of APL and APL Logistics, said Friday it has completed the transition to a new chief executive officer three months early, with Ng Yat Chung taking the helm of the company from Oct. 1.
   Ng has served as an NOL executive director since May, when the succession plan for current chief executive Ron Widdows was announced. Widdows will retire Dec. 31, but will function as a senior advisor after that.
   Ng is a former executive with NOL majority shareholder Temasek Holdings and one-time chief of defense force in the Singapore Army.
   The transition to new leadership has concluded ahead of schedule, NOL said, “permitting the company to accelerate succession plans in the midst of a difficult operating environment for transportation and logistics providers.”
   “It has become clear that the environment has changed, that numerous important decisions need to be taken and that most of those will have an effect on our business and our company well beyond the end of this year,” Ng and Widdows said in a joint statement. “As such, we both feel strongly that it is in the best interest of the company that the new leadership begins to drive the company and shape these important decisions now, and not wait until 2012.”