Dr Kelvin Loh wins Executive of the Year at annual SBR Management Excellence Awards

IHH Healthcare’s CEO won the top award in the Healthcare category.

Dr Kelvin Loh took the helm as the Managing Director and CEO of IHH Healthcare (IHH) in January 2020, right at the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic. 

Anchored in the belief that trust is the bedrock of IHH’s future success, Dr Loh announced the Group’s bold vision to be the world’s most trusted healthcare services network along with the Refreshed Strategy that would take it there. 

Nearly two years have gone by. As we now learn to live with COVID-19, it is clear that IHH’s commitment to build trust with its patients, people and stakeholders has enabled the company to ride through this unprecedented crisis. 

For his remarkable outlook and decisions in the past year, Dr Loh was awarded the Executive of the Year – Healthcare award in the recently concluded Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards. 

This annual award recognises excellent executives, innovators, and teams, as well as HR and company initiatives that promote the well-being of employees. 

At the height of the pandemic, Dr Loh gave his promise to all staff that IHH would look after their lives and their livelihoods, so that they could focus on looking after its patients. 

As a consequence, voluntary staff attrition rates fell despite longer working hours and higher stress levels brought on by the pandemic. 

In most of its operating markets including Singapore, Malaysia, India, and Turkey, IHH was among the first private healthcare providers to partner governments by conducting swabs and COVID-19 testing, treating infected patients, and administering vaccines to the public. It also accelerated its rollout of telemedicine services across its key markets to provide more convenient patient care.

These actions enabled IHH to gain the trust of its patients and partners. Patient volumes, including elective surgeries, started to improve from Q3 2020 even as the pandemic wore on. At the same time, IHH was able to leverage its international scale to prioritise returns by driving operating synergies, economies of scale and capital efficiency. 

The plan to double IHH’s Return on Equity (ROE) over five years materialised ahead of schedule, as seen from IHH’s latest Q3 2021 financial results. The Group reported a firm rebound in performance beyond pre-pandemic levels with a net profit of RM550 million, 77% higher than the average pre-pandemic quarterly profit of 2019. 

Between Q4 2019 to Q3 2021, IHH’s ROE also improved from 2.5% to 8.2% whilst IHH’s share price year to date has increased by about 22%.

IHH looks poised for sustainable growth ahead, guided by its purpose to touch lives and transform care.