Grab Holdings Limited,  announced that Alex Hungate has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer (“COO”), reporting to Group CEO Anthony Tan.

Based in Singapore, Hungate will oversee Grab’s mobility, deliveries and financial services businesses, as well as Grab’s marketing and user support functions. He brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in the financial services, logistics and food services industries to drive the execution of Grab’s superapp strategy. Hungate will play a crucial role in creating and strengthening ecosystem synergies across the company’s core business segments, while ensuring operational excellence as Grab continues to scale rapidly across Southeast Asia.

“Grab’s business has been resilient to the uncertainties caused by COVID-19 and its variants, because our superapp strategy has enabled us to diversify our services and increase user engagement. Alex is well placed to create greater ecosystem synergies across Grab, and drive further growth, engagement and monetization across our core businesses, as he is a proven operator in our industries and has managed global public companies in Southeast Asia,” said Anthony Tan, Group CEO & Co-Founder, Grab.

Prior to Grab, Hungate served for eight years as the President and CEO of SATS, a leading food solutions and logistics company that is listed on the Singapore stock exchange.Alex successfully led SATS through a business and cultural transformation by embracing innovation, technology and new ways of working, while expanding into new business lines and geographies. During his tenure, shareholder returns were consistently at the top of The Straits Times Index (STI), a market capitalisation weighted index that tracks the performance of the top 30 companies listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), resulting in him being recognised as the Best CEO in the large capitalisation category at the 2018 Singapore Corporate Awards.

Before that, Alex was Group Managing Director for Personal Financial Services for HSBC Group, and then the CEO of HSBC Singapore. He also served as Managing Director, Asia Pacific for Reuters as well as Co-CEO, Americas and Global Chief Marketing Officer for Reuters. Hungate also serves on the board of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and was a non-executive director of UOB Group for four years before he joined Grab.

“I am truly impressed by the talent and entrepreneurial drive of everyone that I’ve met at Grab. Just like them, I am inspired by the opportunity to help millions of Southeast Asians access the benefits of the digital economy, as we transform the Southeast Asian technology landscape together. Grab’s ability to innovate with our customers and partners in local markets, while building on our scale advantage as the regional superapp leader, positions us well to realise the significant market opportunity ahead,” said Alex Hungate, COO, Grab