Maybank is pleased to announce today the following appointments and redesignation of its senior management executives to reinforce current strengths and future growth strategy as the Group embarks on a transformation plan to position Maybank as a leading regional financial services group by 2015.
Dato’ Aminuddin Md Desa, 46, the Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of Maybank, will effective 1 November, 2008 helm the Group’s insurance arm, Mayban Fortis Holdings as Chief Executive Officer, a position he held previously. Dato’ Aminuddin was instrumental in the merger and consolidation of Maybank’s insurance group and the launch of the Etiqa brand in 2007. His leadership in the insurance business has seen Etiqa strengthen its market position and grow to become the second largest insurance group in the country with profit before tax totaling RM355 million currently. Given increasing competition and market challenges, Dato’ Aminuddin’s wide experience and solid performance record in the insurance sector for over 20 years are much needed at the insurance group to accelerate efforts by Etiqa to achieve its vision to become the national insurance champion by 2015.
As announced previously, Rashdan Yusof, 38, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer at Aseambankers replacing Surachet Chaipatamanont, who left Aseambankers on 30 September, 2008. Prior to joining Aseambankers, Rashdan was a co-founder and Managing Director of BinaFikir and has extensive investment banking experience.
He was Executive Director of PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) from 1998 to 2001 and has 10 years of audit and consulting experience with PwC London and Kuala Lumpur. Rashdan is a specialist in advanced financial modeling and financial engineering, derivatives and risk consulting including market and credit risks of Basel II.
Lim Hong Tat, 49, the Senior Executive Vice President and Head of International Operations, has been re-designated as Head of Consumer Banking, taking over from Spencer Lee, 57, who has been appointed as Adviser to the President. Hong Tat was Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer for Maybank Philippines from 2000-2006 where he played a key role in the restructuring of the bank’s operations there. He has also extensive retail banking experience having served Maybank as Manager of the Credit Card Centre from 1997-2000 and as Regional Manager, Retail Financial Services from 1995-1996.
Tracy Ong Guat Kee, 47, the Chief Commercial Officer at Aseambankers has taken on the newly created role of Head of Corporate Banking at Maybank. The new position is carved out from Aseambankers and Business Banking and is a dedicated sector to focus on corporate customer relationship management and services. Tracy was formerly Head of Debt Markets in Aseambankers from 2002-2004 and Head, Malaysian Business, Enterprise Financial Services of Maybank from 2002-2004.
Rozidin Masari, 49, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Business Banking remains in his current portfolio. He will continue to head the business banking sector with added responsibilities of undertaking Leap 30-Enterprise initiatives as part of the Group’s performance improvement programme. Amiruddin Abdul Halim, 49, has been appointed as Deputy Head, Business Banking and will be responsible for SME and Commercial banking, trade finance, Bumiputera business and factoring.
Ibrahim Hassan, 52, currently Acting Chief Executive Officer of Maybank Islamic, continues in this position. He was previously Head of International Banking from 2001-2006 and had served in Maybank’s international offices in London and New York.
Ariffin Morad, 54, currently Chief Risk Officer, will retire in December 2008, and thereafter will be appointed Project Director, Basel II to drive the implementation of Basel II for Credit Risk, Market Risk and Operational Risk. He was previously Head, Operational Risk Management from 2002-2005.
Jacob Abraham, 40, has been appointed Chief Risk Officer. He has extensive experience in market risk management and has served as Head, Market Risk Management in Maybank since 1999.
All other senior management appointments in the Group remain unchanged.
Meanwhile, the Group is pleased to announce the following new appointments:
The Group has appointed Khairussaleh Ramli, 41, as Chief Financial Officer effective 1 November, 2008. He has 18 years of experience primarily in financial services and the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining the Group, he was Group Chief Strategy Officer at Telekom Malaysia Berhad where he was responsible for the overall group strategy, business development and corporate finance, strategic and financial management of a portfolio of subsidiaries.
His wide experience in the corporate sector includes positions as Chief Executive Officer of TM Ventures, Head, Strategy & Corporate Finance at Bursa Malaysia Berhad before being appointed as Chief Financial Officer where he oversaw the portfolio of Financial and Management Accounting, Planning and Corporate Performance Management, Corporate Finance, Project Management Office, Treasury and Investment, Investor Relations and Research & External Affairs. Prior to his stint at Bursa Malaysia, Khairussaleh had previously served the Public Bank Group for 8 years mostly in the Corporate Banking division. His last position was as Executive Director of PB Futures".
Nora Abdul Manaf, 44, has been appointed Head, Group Human Capital. Nora has extensive experience in strong People practices and governance as well as M&A and integration projects in diverse industries including Finance & Banking, Telecommunications, Semiconductor, Training & Consulting as well as academia.
Prior to joining Maybank, Nora was with the Standard Chartered Group for over 9 years where her last position in the Group was the Head of Human Resources, Scope International. Scope is a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank UK Plc. Prior to that she was Executive Vice President, Head Strategic Initiatives, PT Bank Permata in Indonesia. Her other roles within the Group includes assignments in the Bank in Malaysia as well as Hong Kong, the Philippines and London. Nora was with Maxis between 1995 and 1999. Other organisations Nora had worked with previously include the Raffles Group, Intel and Touche Ross.
Comments from Maybank Chairman Tan Sri Mohamed Basir Ahmad
“We have committed ourselves to this journey of change to achieve our aspiration to become a leading regional financial services group. The leadership team will be pivotal in mobilizing resources across the group for optimum growth and future success. We are confident that we have in place the right team to take us through this journey and to meet the ever increasing challenges of competition, the business and economic environment both in the country and the region.”
Comments from Maybank President and Chief Executive Officer, Dato Sri’ Abdul Wahid Omar
“Our new management team and structure reflects an optimal placement of talent in the right roles to support our 2015 Group aspiration. It clearly demonstrates our focus on diversity and top talent. As we move into the execution phase of Leap 30, our performance improvement programme, it is critical that we set the right foundation and have in place a structure that best supports our vision to grow our leadership and bring change to the way we do business as the country’s leading financial services group.
The road ahead is exciting and we move into the future with courage and confidence, acknowledging our strengths and recognizing areas of improvement and change that must happen, to support our strategic thrust of securing our domestic leadership, strengthening regional presence and to become a talent and execution-focused company.”