Esprit CEO Mark Daley steps down after less than a year

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 28, 2021

Esprit announced on Wednesday that its CEO Mark Daley has resigned from the firm as of this week "due to his personal family matters".

Daley, who was also company president, confirmed that “he has no disagreement with the board and there are no matters in relation to his resignation that need to be brought to the attention of the shareholders of the company”.

Daley only took over from his predecessor Anders Kristiansen on January 1 this year.

As with any surprise resignation, there’s no new CEO waiting in the wings so for now, Pak William Eui Won, who’s executive director and COO of the company, will assume the role of interim CEO. 

He was only appointed to his original role back in September and the close proximity of the two announcements is clearly part of the reason for the firm being at pains to stress that there have been no disagreements. 

The new interim CEO is a New York attorney with “over a decade of a successful career in leading companies in the financial services and fund management industry. His industry expertise also includes technology, alternative energy, mining and real estate”. He’s married to Esprit’s executive director and chair Chiu Christin Su Yi.

The company also said it “would like to take this opportunity to express its sincere gratitude to Mr Daley for his contribution to the company during his tenure of office”.

Esprit has faced major challenges in recent years but in April it reported that it had stemmed its losses, despite the pandemic, as management put a major restructuring programme in place. But meaningful growth remains some way off.