Newsman in the news

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Ho Kay Tat (pic), who earlier today released a statement on why The Edge Media Group could not walk away from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, is a newsman of 32 years standing.

He began his career reporting for The Malay Mail and The New Straits Times in 1983.

The 56-year-old publisher and group CEO of the Edge Media Group, had also worked at the Reuters News Agency in its Kuala Lumpur bureau and was later the Kuala Lumpur correspondent for the Singapore Business Times, between 1990 and 1994.

In August 1996, Ho joined the two-year-old The Edge as its editor at the invitation of Tong Kooi Ong, a banker and stockbroker who started the business weekly with other shareholders at the time, like Tan Sri Azmi Wan Hamzah and Tan Sri Effendi Norwawi.

Under Ho's stewardship, The Edge grew to be the authoritative financial news media in Malaysia.

Ho was also instrumental in launching Malaysia's first free daily via a collaboration with Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun in 2002.

The loss-making The Sun newspaper was turned around after it adopted the free model.

That partnership ended in 2008 when Tan took back the newspaper.

In July, 2010, Ho surprised the industry when he joined Star Publications as chief operating officer and then its chief executive. He returned to The Edge in January, 2013.

Ho did a major-minor in political science and mass communications at Universiti Sains Malaysia, graduating in 1983.

He was a student of St John's Institution from 1966 to 1976 and the motto of the school "fide et labore" (faith and zeal) was said to have left a lifelong impression on him.

- TMI