New Delhi. 18 August 2022: Malaysia Aviation Group (“MAG” or the “Group”) has announced the appointment of two new Non-Executive Directors, Tan Sri Dr. Zulhasnan Rafique and Faridah Bakar Ali, to the MAG and Malaysia Airlines Berhad’s (MAB) Board of Directors (the “Board”) with effect from 14 July 2022.
Commenting on the new appointments, Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin, Group Chairman of MAG said, “We are delighted to welcome Tan Sri Dr. Zulhasnan and Faridah as members of the Board, especially with their strong career background, business acumen, and robust experiences within domestic and international markets which will be of tremendous value to the organisation in realising our aspirations of becoming Asia’s Leading Travel and Aviation Services Group. We remain focused on futureproofing ourselves to be a sustainable, progressive and resilient business that is relevant to the needs of our stakeholders and the global communities we serve in line with our Long-Term Business Plan 2.0.”
Tan Sri Dr. Zulhasnan is an experienced entrepreneur, diplomat and businessman who began his career as a Commissioned Officer and Fighter Pilot at the Royal Malaysian Air Force and retired with the rank of Major (Air) in 1985. He has more than 25 years of business experience in various industries including aviation, civil/building construction, industrial petroleum and gas trading, and property investment and development. He also served on several boards in Malaysian public listed companies, namely Island & Peninsular, Aircraft Inspection Repair & Overhaul Depot, and Kuantan Flour Mills Berhad.
Tan Sri Dr. Zulhasnan served in the Malaysian Cabinet for five (5) years as the Federal Territories Minister and Deputy Federal Territories Minister from 2004 to 2009. He was appointed as the Malaysian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary with Ministerial status to the United States of America from 2017 to 2018.
Meanwhile, Faridah is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Khazanah Nasional Berhad having joined the organisation in 2006 after building a career in accountancy and finance with PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia and BP Malaysia. At BP Malaysia, she worked on a Japanese entity, restructuring the reporting process as well in the selloff of a major segment of BP to a Shanghai entity. At Khazanah, Faridah delivered several notable Islamic Finance transactions, including the world’s first Exchangeable Sukuk of USD750 million into Telekom Malaysia Berhad shares in 2006 and the world’s first negative yield sukuk into Parkson shares in 2012.
She graduated from Lancaster University in Account and Finance and is a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
Other Board members include Group CEO Captain Izham Ismail, Tan Sri Krishnan Tan, Tan Sri Shahril Ridza Ridzuan, David Lau Nai Pek, Cheryl Goh Ching Ling, Wong Shu Hsien, Tunku Alizakri Raja Muhammad Alias and Dato Zaiviji Ismail Abdullah.
