Tan Sri Muhammad was appointed to our Board on 3 January 2023. He graduated with Masters of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School, USA and Masters of Islamic Finance from International Islamic University Malaysia. He also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from University of Malaya.
Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim began his career in Bank Negara Malaysia (“Bank Negara”) in 1984 and has served in the areas of bank regulation and supervision, strategic planning, payment systems, insurance, offshore banking and treasury as well as financial markets. Tan Sri Muhammad also sat on Bank Negara's Monetary Policy Committee as well as the Financial Stability Committee.
Tan Sri Muhammad was appointed Assistant Governor of Bank Negara on 1 December 2004 and was responsible for the supervision of the Investment Operations and Capital Markets Department, the Finance Department and the Foreign Exchange Administration Department of Bank Negara.
On 16 June 2010, Tan Sri Muhammad was appointed Deputy Governor of Bank Negara for a term of three years and was re -appointed as Deputy Governor of Bank Negara on the expiry of his first term until 15 June 2016. During his tenure as Deputy Governor, Tan Sri Muhammad was responsible for the management of international reserves, money markets and foreign exchange operations as well as the regulation and development of the financial sector including payment systems where he introduced the e-Payment system to reduce the use of cash and cheques in the Malaysian financial system.
Tan Sri Muhammad was appointed the 8th Governor of Bank Negara in May 2016, a position he held until June 2018.
Tan Sri Muhammad has also held the position of chairman and member of numerous international, regional and local committees, agencies, councils and corporations overseeing issues such as central banking, economics and finance.
Tan Sri Muhammad was bestowed the Malaysian Federal Award Panglima Setia Mahkota by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in 2017.
Dato’ Ong Choo Meng was appointed to our Board on 3 January 2023. He graduated with Degree in Economics & Finance from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia.
Dato’ Ong Choo Meng is a visionary leader and has been directly involved in directing the business growth as well as investment and expansion strategies of the Hextar group of companies over the past 18 years as the Group Chief Executive Officer.
Under Dato’ Ong’s leadership, the Hextar group now has substantial stakes in 9 listed companies with a combine market capitalisation of over RM8bn. The Hextar group is involved in a diverse spectrum of industries ranging from manufacturing and distribution of chemicals (ie agrochemicals, industrial chemicals, oilfield chemicals etc), fertilizers, rubber gloves and medical test kits, plasticware, furniture and wooden products, to the provision of ICT solutions and services, telecommunication solutions and services, renewable energy, logistics as well as real estate investment trust.
Dato’ Ong was previously the Executive Director of Hextar Global Berhad as well as the non-independent non-executive director of Hextar Industries Berhad and Hextar Healthcare Berhad (formerly known as Rubberex Corporation (M) Berhad).
Mr Choo Joon Keong was appointed to our Board on 3 January 2023. He graduated from RMIT University, Australia with Degree in Accounting.
Mr Choo Joon Keong started his career in banking and finance as a Management Trainee in 1993 with an international bank. He subsequently joined a Singapore based regional bank in 2000 where he was based in Malaysia before assuming a senior position in their China subsidiary from 2004 until 2008. Mr Choo then returned to Malaysia and joined a local bank in 2008 before leaving in 2012 as Head of Wholesale Banking. He then joined the leadership team of a Thailand based regional bank as Head of Business Banking and was subsequently appointed as Chief Executive Officer for its Malaysian subsidiary in 2018. He then assumed an advisory role from November 2021 to April 2022 to facilitate a leadership transition.
Mr Choo has vast experience and knowledge of various industries and established business network having served in a broad spectrum of managerial and leadership positions in regional banks for over 30 years. During this time, he was responsible for, inter alia, strategic planning, harnessing and galvanising synergies for sustainable growth, identifying and developing talents for organizational growth and robust succession planning.
Mr Ronald was appointed to our Board on 15 June 2021. He is a Fellow member in The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK) ("FCCA").
Mr Ronald started his career in one of the Big 4 accounting firms upon graduating in 1994. He subsequently joined the Corporate Advisory department of Malaysian International Merchant Bankers Berhad in 1996.
In 2001, he joined Deloitte & Touche Corporate Advisory Services Sdn Bhd for a short stint before moving to AmInvestment Bank Berhad in 2002, first in the Corporate Finance department, then with the Equity Capital Markets team. He left AmInvestment Bank Berhad in 2012 and joined Maybank Investment Bank Berhad as a Director in the Equity Capital Markets department. He assumed the position of Group Chief Corporate Officer of the Hextar Group of Companies in 2021.
Dato' Ong Chong Yi was appointed to our Board on 16 November 2020. He graduated from the University of Malaya with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor of Arts (Hon) in International & Strategic Studies. He also obtained an Executive Diploma in Public Administration from Institute of Public Administration (INTAN), Kuala Lumpur.
Dato' Ong is a Senior Government Executive turned Professional Manager with extensive experience in managing large-scale government projects as well as handling high level government interaction which require deep understanding of governmental structures, business markets and industries in Malaysia and China.
Mr Yeoh Chin Hoe was appointed to the Board on 16 March 2021. He graduated with Master in Business Administration from University Putra Malaysia. He also obtained several professional qualifications which includes Chartered Accountant from Malaysian Institute of Accountants, Fellow Member of Association of Chartered Accountants, UK, ACIS from Institute of Chartered Secretary and Administrators, UK and a Member of Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
He started his professional career in audit in Spicer & Pegler (now known as Deloitte) in London, UK in 1973. In 1978, he advanced as an assistant manager in Coopers & Lybrand, an audit firm in Kuala Lumpur. He then joined Harrisons Trading (Peninsular) Sdn Bhd and held few leadership roles firstly as the Group Internal Auditor, Finance Director and subsequently promoted and served as the Managing Director until his retirement in 2006.
Madam Sujatha Sekhar was appointed to our Board on 23 May 2023. Sujatha obtained her LLB (Hons) Degree from the University of London and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1989 and re-qualified with the Law Society of England and Wales as a Solicitor in 1990. She was called to the Malaysian Bar in 1998 and is an accredited mediator and certified trainer and coach of the Bar Council’s Malaysian Mediation Centre.
Sujatha is a senior capital markets professional whose experience encompasses policy and strategy development, governance, compliance, and dispute resolution. With over 30 years of experience in legal and capital market work, she brings a depth of experience and a practical and holistic understanding of financial markets and regulatory framework, together with insight into investor concerns and challenges.
In October 2021, she took on the mantle of Chief Governance Officer & Group General Counsel of Smart Glove Holdings Bhd, bringing her experience in governance and compliance work to the manufacturing sector. Prior to this she ran her own consultancy, and was part of the founding team of Kapital DX Sdn Bhd, a fintech start up and approved digital asset platform, responsible for developing the risk and compliance framework for the platform.
She served as CEO of the Securities Industry Dispute Resolution Center (SIDREC) from 2013 to 2019. As CEO, she helped steer SIDRECs strategic direction to ensure its dispute resolution service continued to be in step with international best practice and the needs of a developing capital market.
Her prior work as a regulator at the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), included advisory and reform work in both the General Counsels Office and the Corporate Finance and Investments Business Group. She was also responsible for the development and implementation of the SCs investor education strategy and management of complaints relating to market misconduct. She remains involved in policy work in the capital market and is currently a member of the SC's Corporate Governance Council.
She is currently the Chairperson and board member of the Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance (MICG) and also sits on the Board of The Financial Services Ombudsman (OFS) and Metrod Holdings Berhad.