The fledgling West Kowloon Cultural District Authority has been rocked by the dramatic resignation of its most senior official - just nine days after he started the job.Executive director Angus Cheng Siu- chuen is stepping down for "personal reasons," the government announced late last night.
Former high-flying Disney executive Cheng handed in his letter of resignation on Tuesday evening.
"I am very honored to have had the opportunity to work for the WKCDA. However, I regret that because of personal reasons, I have tendered my resignation," he said in a statement.
The authority thanked him for his participation in the development of the project.
Now the project, which has been plagued by controversy since the outset, will have to begin a new recruitment exercise which could take up to six months.
Project director Augustine Ng Wah- keung will take over until a new executive director is found.
Cheng's appointment was announced on June 3 and he took office last Monday.
He beat 67 candidates from the arts, engineering and architecture sectors to land the HK$1.5 million-a-year job.
Cheng was the first senior official to be recruited by the authority. It is currently recruiting a chief executive who will supervise six executive directors, including the position Cheng held.
The resignation was greeted with shock last night.
Cheng held a meeting with the committee last Friday and it was the only occasion they had met, one of the members told The Stan
dard. "Cheng did not say anything at the meeting. I only had a chance to shake hands with him," the member said.
Cheng holds a business administration degree and earned a master's in urban design in the United States.
He worked for eight years with construction company Dragages, which handled infrastructure projects in Hong Kong, and then for Sino Land and the MTR Corporation.
He later joined Disneyland to lead its master planning, development, design and engineering.
The Civic Party's Alan Leong Ka- kit said it is difficult to guess why Cheng resigned.
"Perhaps he did not understand the nature of the job before he joined," Leong said.
Ada Wong Ying-kay of the People's Panel on West Kowloon criticized the authority for not recruiting someone with an artistic background: "Cheng may have found he could not bring his knowledge and skill into full play," Wong said.
WKCDA Remuneration Committee chairman Sin Chung-kai said it would not affect the authority's ability to attract top quality people.
