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Sports Hub hit by further senior staff departures

File photo Singapore Sports Hub

The Singapore Sports Hub is continuing to see senior management figures leave as the exodus of staff continues.

At least seven members have left the Sports Hub in recent weeks, according to socio-political news website The Online Citizen. The more high-profile departures are those of Rob Abernethy, deputy managing director at Global Spectrum; Jason Hrick, his acting managing director; Eugene Lee, Sports Hub director of marketing and communication; Daniel Teo, director of facility management at Cushman & Wakefield.

Global Spectrum and Cushman & Wakefield are two of the four partners in the private sector Sports Hub consortium. The other two are InfraRed Capital Partners and Dragages Singapore. This consortium has a 25-year deal with Sport Singapore to design, build, finance and operate the Sports Hub under a Public-Private-Partnership, according to its website.

In addition to aforementioned resignations, others include those of Sports Hub’s communications manager Sam Eatwell, social media and marketing manager Daphne Chew and creative manager Hendra Chong.

These departures follow a first wave of resignations last December, which included Global Spectrum’s managing director Mark Collins and director of contracts and compliance Daphne Letournel, as well as Sports Hub senior director of corporate communications and stakeholder management, Jose Raymond.

The current CEO of the Sports Hub project is Manu Sawhney, who succeeded Philippe-Colin Delavaud last October.

According to a TODAY report, former Sports Hub staff were not surprised that more employees are leaving as there has been a lack of communication between staff and leadership, in particular over the vision and future direction of the project, and unannounced hiring of new staff.

In the same report, Sports Hub senior director for corporate communications and stakeholder management Chin Sau Ho issued a statement that noted Hrick is still involved in the project in a “different capacity”, while Peter Sullivan (Global Spectrum general manager) and Adam Firth (vice-president, Commercial) have recently joined.

Since the $1.33billion Sports Hub opened in June 2014, it has been beset with numerous problems.

Concerns over the poor pitch standards raised initially by foreign teams that played here, such as Brazil and Juventus. There were also reports of roof leakages, while organisers have complained over the high costs of staging events there, although numerous concerts and various sporting meets have since taken place there.

Most recently, there was a software glitch during this year's National Day Parade where the Singapore flag failed to be projected onto the roof.