Australians Darren Cooper, Robert Sultan appointed to Netccentric Ltd Board

• Appointments represent emphasis on investor relations and corporate governance
• Ganesh Kumar Bangah drives Netccentric business model into platform-centric one

As the star performer of the Media & Entertainment sector on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) with a 1,140% share price gain, albeit from a very low base, Netccentric Ltd (NCL) has benefited from Ganesh Kumar Bangah’s late-January 2020 purchase of an 84 percent equity interest, making him the company’s majority shareholder.

Ganesh has subsequently moved to transform an essentially blogger services network into a Southeast Asian focused platform-centric business model offering end to end solutions and services around e-commerce.

With the past seven months focused on putting these pieces together, today, Ganesh made a strategic move to strengthen his investor relations and corporate governance in Australia so as to maximise shareholder value.

NCL, repositioned as a pioneering digital growth ecosystem (visual below), today announced the appointments of Australians Darren Cooper and Robert Sultan to its Board as independent non-executive directors with effect from 1 Sept 2020. Sultan will also be assuming the role of Chair of NCL’s Remuneration Committee.

David Chiam, meanwhile, has stepped down as Non-Executive Director and Chair of NCL’s Remuneration Committee effective 1 Sept 2020.

Further, the NCL Board (excluding Ganesh Kumar Bangah) approved the appointment of Ganesh (pic, left) as NCL’s executive chairman effective 1 Sept 2020.  The move allows Ganesh a more hands-on approach to fulfil the transformation of NCL from its existing services-based business model to a platform-centric one.

Ganesh’s vision is for NCL to become a sustainable growth entity managed by a team of experienced professionals, while overseen by a Board able to provide strategic guidance with strong governance and oversight.

Ganesh, who tells DNA, “with this move, I’m showing that I am very serious about investor relations and corporate governance,” will lead the team to focus on management execution for sustainable success, while Angeline Chiam has been re-designated from her former positions of Interim CEO and regional finance director to chief financial officer.

NCL’s two other key management personnel are Joanne Chen and Daniel Wong who are chief operating officer and chief technology officer, respectively.

Both Cooper and Sultan are highly experienced leaders within the Australian corporate scene.

With over 25 years senior and executive management experience, Cooper is currently managing director of a private consulting business, Board Chair of The Go2 People Ltd and Spectur Ltd and Deputy Board Chair of Foundation Housing Ltd, in addition to being a non-executive director of JDSi Consulting Engineers Pty Ltd and Ocean Gardens Retirement Village Inc.

Robert, meanwhile, is a corporate and commercial lawyer as well as former partner of international law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright Australia, with a 30-year portfolio in merger and acquisitions (M&A), corporate advisory and corporate governance. A former member of the Australian Takeovers Panel, Robert is also currently a director of the Gourlay Family Office which includes the Gourlay Family Trust. The Trust, in conjunction with Trinity College Melbourne, established the Gourlay Visiting Professor of Ethics in Business.

NCL’s platform-centric strategy revolves around ‘social commerce’, which essentially is an extension of e-commerce being enhanced through social media and user contributions to assist online buying and selling of products and services.

In a filing to the ASX on 24 July 2020, NCL had announced its first strategic move towards this new strategy via a joint venture agreement with Commerce DotAsia Ventures Sdn. Bhd. and Docono Holdings Sdn Bhd to operate a live streaming e-commerce business platform.

The new entity called Nuffnang Live Commerce Sdn Bhd was established to capitalise on the fast-growing social ‘live commerce’ trend. In 2018, live commerce generated over US$14.5 billion (RM60 billion) in transactions on Taobao, Alibaba’s premier C2C ecommerce marketplace in China. For Singles Day 2019, live commerce generated US$2.9 billion (RM12 billion).

Nuffnang’s platform solution is integrated with Facebook to provide seamless user interface from live streaming, automated order management, online payment and fulfilment; while artificial intelligent-based technologies would progressively be introduced to ensure automation for end-users to order and purchase.

A Malaysian, Ganesh is regarded by various industry observers as a ‘visionary’ having become Malaysia’s youngest CEO of a public listed company in 2002 when just 23 years old with the listing of MOL AccessPortal Bhd, before listing MOL Global Inc on the Nasdaq market of the United States in 2014. Today, Ganesh also serves as Chairman of Future Digital, the think tank arm of the National Tech Association of Malaysia (Pikom).