Bernard Lim quits as LifeBrandz CEO

Nightlife honcho Bernard Lim will be stepping down as chief executive officer of entertainment group LifeBrandz at the end of this month, after six years with the public- listed group.

The former veteran radio DJ will be returning to MediaCorp - the company that gave him his start in the entertainment industry - as its new managing director for television.

Taking his place at LifeBrandz is Mr Cedric Chong, 33, who has been executive director of Lifebrandz since May. He will head the company from Dec 1.

Mr Lim, 45, tells Life!: "It's been a memorable six years. I've met a lot of people and got to really know the food and beverage business, but when this new offer came I thought it was challenging enough for me to take it on."

In his new role at MediaCorp, he says he will be responsible for content and programming for its television channels, and develop strategies to widen audience reach.

He got his start as a radio DJ at Perfect 10 in 1992, eventually moving up to the position of general manager of English programming in 2003. He became vice-president of integrated media planning in 2006, a position he held until he joined LifeBrandz in 2007.

From 2008 to last year, LifeBrandz underwent a fair bit of shake-up, closing down megaclub Ministry of Sound, brand-name beach club Cafe Del Mar, live music venue Yello Jello, commercial dance club Zirca and East-meets-West nightclub Coco.

In March, LifeBrandz took over the operations of Mink and Royal Room in a deal that saw lifestyle and marketing agency Massive Collective becoming a major shareholder in LifeBrandz. The deal also allowed Massive to play a bigger consultancy role in the operations of LifeBrandz's stable of nightspots in Clarke Quay.

Mr Lim says LifeBrandz, which had posted a loss of $2.5 million in 2011 and a loss of $4.4 million last year, has "turned a corner" in the past year, acknowledging that the deal with Massive played a part in the change in fortune.

Massive and LifeBrandz have launched two successful nightclubs, club lounge Fenix Room and commercial nightclub Dream, which attracts a full-house crowd nearly every weekend.

For the 2013 financial year, the company posted a profit of $202,000.

Mr Lim will remain on the board of LifeBrandz as a non-executive director, the company said in a statement released on the Singapore Exchange on Tuesday.

Mr Chong, the new LifeBrandz CEO, was formerly managing director of Massive Collective, which operates several clubs in Singapore and Malaysia, including upscale nightspots Mink and Royal Room at Pan Pacific Singapore and Kuala Lumpur nightclub Providence.

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