PropertyGuru appoints Lu Yao as new Singapore managing director

[SINGAPORE] PropertyGuru Group on Thursday (Sep 4) announced the appointment of Dr Lu Yao as its new managing director for Singapore.

He replaces former managing director and chief executive officer Hari Krishnan, who stepped down earlier this year after a decade in the role. The CEO role was filled in March by Lewis Ng.

Dr Yao will assume his new role on Sep 15 and will be part of the group’s executive leadership team, reporting to Ng. His remit will be to lead the growth of the group’s Singapore marketplace business, PropertyGuru.

Prior to joining PropertyGuru, Dr Yao was the group head of marketplace and Bangladesh chief commercial officer for e-commerce platform Daraz Group, which is a part of Alibaba Group. He also built Shopee Singapore’s retail and last-mile delivery businesses and was a management consultant at McKinsey & Co in China.

“We are excited to have Lu join us as our managing director for Singapore,” said Ng. “Lu’s deep experience in marketplaces and his strength in scaling businesses with the customer at the core are essential for our next growth phase.”

Dr Yao completed his undergraduate studies in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and subsequently completed a PhD in the same discipline at the University of Pennsylvania.

In February, PropertyGuru cut 12 per cent of its workforce after it was acquired by private equity firm EQT Capital. The layoffs had been across PropertyGuru, with three business units shuttering.

The company in July said its revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation grew by double digits between June 2024 and June this year.