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Speaker profiles
YBHG TAN SRI DATO' AZMAN HJ MOKHTAR
Managing Director
Khazanah Nasional Berhad
Tan Sri Dato' Azman Mokhtar is the managing director of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the strategic investment arm of the Government of Malaysia. He is also the Chairman of Iskandar Investment Berhad and Axiata Group Berhad, and holds various board memberships including Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), Yayasan Khazanah and Jadwa Investment of Saudi Arabia. He serves on various public service bodies including Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU), executive committee of Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC), Bumiputera Agenda Action Council and Governance Council of Malaysian Innovation Agency. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Asia Business Council, the INSEAD East Asia Council and the Global Agenda Council on the Role of Business for the 2011 World Economic Forum.
Formerly, he was the managing director and co-founder of BinaFikir Sdn Bhd, a financial consultancy firm; director, head of country research with Salomon Smith Barney Malaysia; and director, head of research, Union Bank of Switzerland in Malaysia. He also served in various capacities with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and National Electricity Board (LLN), as it was formerly known. He obtained his M.Phil in Development Studies from Darwin College, University of Cambridge and a postgraduate diploma in Islamic Studies from the International Islamic University Malaysia. He is a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA) and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
ROWENA MORAIS
Editor
HR Matters Magazine
Rowena Morais is the editor of HR Matters Magazine, a quarterly print publication aimed at Human Resource professionals. Founded in 2007, the magazine has steadily gained a following in the HR community both locally and internationally.
Rowena is also the programme director at Flipside, a business services company providing professional certification training. Here, she provides strategic direction as well as oversight on client training and corporate functional areas.
Her background is legal, having read law at Prifysgol Morgannwg (University of Glamorgan), Wales which culminated in legal practice for a couple of years in Kuala Lumpur. Leaving practice for a more entrepreneurial role, she then co-founded a training and educational services company, based in Sydney, Australia. It was in this start-up environment that Rowena explored many different roles including project management, legal, operational and client/partner negotiation. However, she also then developed a taste for technology, in terms of web design and development.
Moving back to Kuala Lumpur in 2004, Rowena co-founded Flipside with offices in Malaysia and Singapore. Rowena also blogs about personal development. Her philosophy is to try new things and push the boundary at every level. Her goal is to use these adventures as a learning tool and to share the things learnt with those who may find value in it.
DEAN WESTCOTT
ACCA President
Dean Westcott has held a number of senior finance positions in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK and has worked within the acute, primary care and health authority sectors. He is currently finance director at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Cambridgeshire.
He is a past chairman of ACCA's Health Network Panel, representing over 3,000 members working in UK healthcare. Dean has worked on a number of international healthcare projects for ACCA in mainland Europe, Australia, the USA, China, New Zealand and Singapore, as well as presenting at the European parliament on healthcare issues.
He was instrumental in the creation of ACCA's UK health manifesto - Accounting for the Nation's Health. This manifesto was supported by the UK Department of Health and was launched in Parliament in December 2006.
Dean is also a past chairman of both ACCA's Audit and Finance Committees and the International Public Sector Technical Committee.
Sridharan Nair
Managing Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Sridharan Nair is PwC Malaysia's managing partner and CEO of PwC SEAPEN Region. The PwC SEAPEN Region comprises Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and employs more than 3,000 people. He has 23 years' experience in audit and business advisory services, having worked with a wide range of clients in the UK and Malaysia. Sri is an alumnus of Universiti Malaya and trained as a Chartered Accountant with Touche Ross & Co in London, where he qualified as a member of the ICAEW.
Over the years, he has led a portfolio of large listed client engagements across various industries and a number of cross border financial due diligence assignments. He is a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.
Mahadevan Natarajan
Sr Director, EPMBI Sales Consulting APAC
Oracle
Mahadevan Natarajan, Sr Director, EPMBI Sales Consulting APAC, Oracle Applications, is an associate member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India with about 20 years of experience in the accounting, reporting and financial software space. He has been a finance manager, functional consultant and a trusted advisor to the business heads in improving ways to streamline reporting & monitoring process through the use of technology, so as to reduce cycle time, improve accuracy and in improving the performance of an organization. He is currently the Asia Pacific Sales Consulting leader for Enterprise Performance Management and Business Intelligence in Oracle.
Patrizio (Pat) Calitri
Business Unit Executive, Financial Close Management
IBM Business Analytics
Patrizio (Pat) Calitri, CA, Business Unit Executive, Financial Close Management, IBM Business Analytics is a Canadian Chartered Accountant, a seasoned finance person that came to IBM through the Clarity acquisition in October 2010. During his nearly 8 year tenure with IBM (Clarity) which started in January 2005, Pat has held many positions and has gained a wide spectrum of experience. These positions included roles in Clarity Lab Services ranging from Project Implementation Lead to Client Services Manager and finally to Director of Financial Close Management. Pat held a product management role for the Clarity consolidation product for a term of one year while also building the Clarity Lab Services team for consolidation implementations within the organization. Pat then moved onto Sales where he held the role of CTP/presales for all consolidation opportunities inside the Clarity sales pipeline. Post acquisition, Pat continued his CTP/presales role focussing on CCRF including FSR and Controller. Pat's finance experience is extensive and includes a 6 month stint as Clarity's corporate controller, roles at Grand & Toy (OfficeMax's Canadian subsidiary) as Retail Controller and Corporate Controller.
P Gunasegaram
Managing Director
Question Time Sdn Bhd
P Gunasegaram is the managing director of Question Time Sdn Bhd, an independent consultancy on stakeholder engagement and value creation. He writes the popular ‘Question Time' and ‘A Question of Business' columns on current and corporate issues respectively, which appear in The Star, the largest English newspaper in Malaysia. He also runs training programmes on understanding business and writing. He has worked as a journalist and analyst for over 30 years, covering economics, banking and companies. He has headed both local and foreign equity research firms and spearheaded the revamp and reorganisation of business coverage of leading English newspapers and magazines in Malaysia, including The Star, The Edge and Malaysian Business.
A firm believer in continuing education, he holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation issued by CFA Inc of the US, an MBA from the Cranfield Institute of Technology, UK, a Certificate in Economic and Business Journalism from Columbia University, New York and a degree in science and diploma in education from Universiti Malaya, Malaysia.
Dr Yeah Kim Leng
Senior General Manager / Group Chief Economist
RAM Holdings Bhd
Dr Yeah Kim Leng is the group chief economist of RAM Holdings Berhad, Malaysia's first credit rating agency that was established in 1990. He joined the company in 1994 (then known as Rating Agency Malaysia Berhad or RAM) where he headed the Economics & Market Research Department for the first 6 years, followed by 7 years as the Managing Director and Chief Economist of the wholly-owned subsidiary, RAM Consultancy Services Sdn Bhd. In March 2007, he assumed the present position following the company's restructuring. Before joining RAM, he had been a senior analyst at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia and a forest planning officer at Peninsular Malaysia Forestry Department and Sabah Foundation. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Forestry) from Universiti Putra Malaysia in 1978 and obtained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) (1988) and a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics (1992) from the University of Hawaii under the East-West Centre degree-participant programme.
Dr Zakariah Abdul Rashid
Executive Director
Malaysian Institute of Economic Research
Dr Zakariah Abdul Rashid is currently the executive director of Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER). He was formerly the deputy dean with the School of Postgraduate Studies at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), where he was also a professor in economics. He was the Head of Economics Department of the University before being promoted to the position as the deputy dean. In addition to teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels, he published numerous articles and spoke at seminars and conferences. He also edited many academic journals and he was the principal investigator to many research projects.
Dr Zakariah is a member of National Consultative Wage Council, deputy chairman of National Consultative Wage Technical Committee, a member of Programme Advisory Committee of Malaysia Palm Oil Board, editorial member of International Journal of Management Studies, and committee member of Experts in Reviewing, Analysing and Proposing Transformation of Financial Support in National Higher Education.
His areas of specialisation cover development economics, input-output economics, international economics, technological obsolescence and change, structural change, Malaysian industrialisation, manpower planning, ASEAN Free Trade Area comparative advantage, textile industry, pharmaceutical industry, chemical industry, Islamic economics, regional economics, social accounting matrix, income distribution, subsidy and GST reforms, and minimum wage.
Dr Mohammed Emir Mavani Abdullah
Director, Oil, Gas & Energy and Financial Services - Economic Transformation Programme
PEMANDU
Dr Mohammed Emir Mavani Abdullah is currently the director of Oil, Gas & Energy and Financial Services in Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU). He is also the current board director of the Malaysian Petroleum Resources Corporation (MPRC) and Malaysia Nuclear Power Corporation (MNPC).
He graduated with a Chemistry degree from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 1987 and in 2000 obtained his Master in Engineering Management from Warwick University, United Kingdom. He further obtained his Doctorate in Government Reforms from Wanborough University, United Kingdom in 2008. He had also completed various executive education programmes in institutions such as Harvard and Yale in 2002 and 2003.
His last post prior to joining PEMANDU was the advisor on policy and strategy for the Abu Dhabi government, where he was involved in the development of the long-term strategic plan for the government known as the Abu Dhabi Policy Agenda 2030. Previously, Dr Emir served as the advisor to the UAE Ministry of Finance for five years as a policy advisor to the Minister of Finance on fiscal and budget policies.
Dr Emir has a long list of involvement in policy and economic areas in other countries in the Middle East and Malaysia as well as international engagements with key world bodies such as OECD, World Bank, the United Nations and Ivy League institutions focusing on public policy such as Harvard School of Government, Yale School of Management and Berkeley's Hass School of Management.
A list of the key stakeholders at the Summit will be enclosed in the briefing kit upon check-in to the hotel room.