New Members of the Board of Khazanah Nasional Announced

Dr M, Azmin on Khazanah board





PETALING JAYA: Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali will join Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the board of Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

The others appointed to the board are former Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) president and chief executive Tan Sri Hassan Marican, former Bank Negara deputy governor Sukhdave Singh and former Securities Commission (SC) executive director Goh Ching Yin.


According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, the appointment of the managing director of Khazanah will be made at a later date.

Last Tuesday, nine directors on Khazanah’s board, including MD Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, gave their undated resignation letters to the government, ending 11 weeks of impasse on the future direction of the sovereign wealth fund.


The strongest signal that the new government wanted to see a change in Khazanah came after Dr Mahathir criticised the sovereign wealth fund for deviating from its original objectives.

After failing to see Dr Mahathir, Azman and the board handed in their undated resignation letters last Tuesday. It is learnt that the resignations were accepted and dated as of July 28.

It is believed that Azman will meet Dr Mahathir today.

A new MD is to be named in the next two days to replace Azman. At least four people have been identified and leading the pack is Datuk Yusof Annuar Yaacob, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank Malaysia.

The others are Datuk Charon Mokhzani, the group MD of Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd, and Datuk Mohd Zafer Mohd Hashim, who was formerly the chief executive of Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd.

The fourth is Raja Shahreen Raja Othman, who is currently the chief executive officer of Selangor’s Menteri Besar Inc. He has served the state since 2014.

The appointment of Azmin to the Khazanah board underlines the carving out of the sovereign wealth fund from the Finance Ministry. Previously, Khazanah was under the Finance Ministry, but under the new government, it is expected to be under the Prime Minister’s Office.

Hassan is a member of the Council of Eminent Persons and serves several oil and gas and energy companies in Singapore that are majority-owned by Temasek Holdings. Since leaving Petronas in 2010, the only notable Malaysian company that he was a director in was Sarawak Energy Bhd.

Dr Sukhdave resigned from Bank Negara in November last year, ahead of the expiry of his term as deputy governor in April 2019. He had served the central bank for 31 years.

Speculation was rife that he left after not being able to work with former Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim, who has since resigned.

Goh is an investment banker and was appointed as executive director of the SC in 2007. He left the SC in 2016 and is now on the boards of Maybank Investment Bank and other companies such as Shangri-la Hotels (M) Bhd

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Raja Shahreen Raja Othman, who is currently the CEO of Selangor’s Menteri Besar Inc, believed to be among the three who could be the next MD.



PETALING JAYA: Two more names have emerged as possible successors to Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar as the managing director of Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

The most recent one is said to be Raja Shahreen Raja Othman, who is currently the chief executive officer of Selangor’s Menteri Besar Inc (MBI).


The other candidate is Datuk Yusof Annuar Yaacob, who is the chief executive of Deutsche Bank (Malaysia).

The other two being considered are Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd (MIDF) group MD Datuk Charon Mokhzani and former Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd chief executive Datuk Mohd Zafer Mohd Hashim.


“Most of the candidates are already earning a substantial package and would need to take a pay cut if they were to accept the job,” said sources.

Previously, it was reported that the new government felt that the success of government-linked companies was in some parts due to the government and hence the head honchos should not earn a high salary.

Nevertheless, a new MD to replace Azman is expected to be named in the next few days. This comes after a new board of directors was appointed to Khazanah yesterday.

In a statement yesterday, it was announced that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad would be the chairman of Khazanah. Also appointed is the Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.

The other three are former Petronas president and chief executive Tan Sri Mohd Hassan Marican, former Bank Negara deputy governor Sukhdave Singh and former Securities Commission director Goh Ching Yin.

The new appointments come hot on the heels of the resignation of the nine members of the Khazanah board last week. All nine gave their undated resignation letters last Tuesday. It is believed that it was accepted on Saturday.

Since the changes to the board, speculation is rife on the appointment of the MD of Khazanah that has assets of RM115bil under its belt.

Raja Shahreen, 51, is also the chairman of Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor Bhd

image: https://cdn.thestar.com.my/Themes/img/chart.png and has helmed MBSI since 2014.



Prior to his role in MBI, he was the CEO of an oil and gas company as well as Pos Malaysia Bhd

image: https://cdn.thestar.com.my/Themes/img/chart.png’s subsidiary. He started his career with Ernst & Young.



Meanwhile, Yusof, 53, has been with Deutsche Bank since 2014 and is a chartered accountant by profession.

Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, he was the MD and chairman of the corporate finance division of Goldman Sachs Malaysia, between 2010 and 2014.

Prior to joing Goldman Sachs, Yusof was the chief financial officer of telecommunications firm Axiata Group Bhd

image: https://cdn.thestar.com.my/Themes/img/chart.png before its demerger with Telekom Malaysia Bhd

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Charon was appointed as the new group MD of MIDF earlier this month.

He is no stranger to Khazanah, having served as the MD of Khazanah Research Institute. Prior to his role in Khazanah, he was a deputy chief executive of CIMB Group

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The other candidate is Mohd Zafer, who is an accountant by training and banker by profession.

A graduate from the London School of Economics, he was previously the president and group MD of Bank Pembangunan and had a stint in Maybank Investment as the chief financial officer.

Mohd Zafer, 48, was also a board member of Felda Global Investment Bhd when the company was going through changes after the departure of Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad in June 2017.

Azman’s term as MD, a position he had held since 2004, was supposed to conclude at the end of the first quarter of next year.

Earlier, Khazanah had said that there were two internal candidates to replace Azman. They are Datuk Seri Azmil Zahruddin Raja Abdul Aziz and Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn.






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