The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in Hong Kong has pushed out its CEO, nine months before his contract was up. The vast real estate and arts project, which stretches 40 hectares of reclaimed waterfront land, has been dogged by delays, setbacks and overspend.
Duncan Pescod, a former Hong Kong civil servant has been heading the company for five years, but has been asked to leave the HK$5 million-a-year job the South China Morning Post reports. Pescod replaced Michael Lynch, former chief executive of London’s Southbank Centre who left in 2015 citing family reasons.
The district is to include 17 arts and cultural venues, including M+, a museum for contemporary art. M+ was supposed to have opened in 2017, which was then pushed back to 2020. The latest estimation is 2021. These delays, as well as other problems have resulted in a rumoured almost HK$50 billion (£5bn) overspend.
One local politician and board member criticised Pescod for failing to deal with various crises, including flooding and the appearance of a sinkhole, properly. Chris Ip Ngo-tung told the Post: ‘The biggest problem is that the mutual trust between board members and him is no longer there.’
