Last week, we had MIA 70 Rising Personalities On LinkedIn In Philippines In 2020 You Should Follow published, featuring Filipino LinkedIn users who give value on LinkedIn, but have yet to be acknowledged. Today, we welcome our Malaysian counterparts to the fold. Inspiring and empowering others in their very own way, we present to you MIA’s Rising 70.
Ir. Ts. Dr. Iryani Mohamed Rawi believes in women empowerment as she started as an Electrical Engineer in Tenaga Nasional Berhad 18 years ago, and has developed not less than a great teamwork, enthusiasm, and deep passion in Engineering and Quality (ISO 9001). Her involvement in this ‘men-s world’ encouraged her to be brave, positive and ready for impact at all times. Graduated with a PhD in Electrical Power Engineering specialising in Overhead Transmission Lines and Lightning Protection for high voltage power systems, she is motivated to embrace the knowledge by sharing via her blog [makeitworkphd.wordpress.com] and conducting multiple live sharing – locally and internationally. She is also actively involved in fund raising for the underprivileged including Pertubuhan Kebajikan & Bimbingan At-Taqwa, Puchong and Human Aid Selangor.
Vishen Lakhiani is the Founder of Mindvalley, an award-winning education movement with over 10 million students worldwide. He is a New York Times bestselling author of The Code of the Extraordinary Mind, now translated into 25+ languages. Vishen is also a Founder of A-Fest and Mindvalley University, two major global events in the field of personal transformation, a speaker and an activist working to evolve the core systems that shape lives including education, work, politics, parenting & spirituality.
Dato’ Dr Reza Ibrahim is currently the COO of Maxxima, a manufacturer and distributor of award winning health products and supplements in more than five countries across South East Asia. Started as an entrepreneur seven years ago, Maxxima has grown from a small idea to become a multi-million dollar company. An investor, Reza’s diversified portfolio includes positive investments in real estate, consumer brands, F&B and more; he often speaks at seminars and events, as well as gives advice to many aspiring business owners on entrepreneurship and investments through his social media channels. Reza also advocates for entrepreneurship and lifelong learning, while sharing his experiences and struggles of his journey towards success to inspire many.
Hans Gill started his first restaurant and bar in 2010 with D Legends bar in TTDI, which was sold in September 2015. Hans then went on to open Tiki Taka in Damansara Heights on June 20th 2016, winning multiple awards including the Best New Restaurant at the glamorous Malaysia Tatler T Dining Awards 2018 and 2020 and F&B Personality of the year at the prestigious HAPA (Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards) Malaysia Awards 2018-2020. At the same time, he also started a digital agency called Hans Media, helping brands scale and take their business to the next level.
Faisal Malik is a Chartered Accountant by profession and a passionate business speaker. He began his career with several Fortune 100s and leading consulting group prior to his business venture. He is currently a Principal at Faisal Malik & Co (C.A.). He has 22 years of international entrepreneurial and work experience in Asia Pacific, specializes in financial and corporate advisory, risk management, strategic planning, SME ecosystem development, learning development and wealth management. He is also a council member on several professional bodies and industry adviser to a number of local universities in Malaysia. University of Malaya is one of them. He was named as the MIA 100 most inspirational icons on LinkedIn in Malaysia in 2019 by Marketing In Asia.
Khir Khalid is a certified marketing professional registered with the Institute of Marketing Malaysia. With over 20 years of experience in the marketing field, he is the person to talk to boost your goodwill, brand, and authority.
Greta Kesa is a Lithuanian based in Malaysia with passions in leadership and developing others. A leader with 40 amazing individuals from six continents, Greta loves public speaking. She is also a Zumba instructor and performs Indian dances at events.
Wendy Lee is the founder of Chapter One Asia, an award winning BrandImage™ Consultancy Firm. One of Asia’s most inspiring speakers and the Director of the world’s first BrandImage™ International Institute, Wendy is an appointed Adjunct Professor in a university and is currently pursuing her PhD in International Business. As the current president for the Malaysian Association for Brand & Image Consultants, she has been appointed as the BrandImage Consultant for the state of Sichuan, China and has also won several coveted awards including the prestigious Asian Image Consultant of the Year by The Australian Image Company and the Sin Chew Education Awards 2018/2019. She is also a member of The Association of Image Consultants (AICI), The Federation of Image Consultants (TFIC) and The Association of Colourflair Consultants (MACC).
Aaron Foo, The Digital Fire Starter is an Author, Speaker, Content Creator and Product & Tech Guy who strives to inspire people through technology. He actively produces LinkedIn videos and has recently started a LinkedIn LIVE series – The Takeaway Show, which features inspiring people across Malaysia. Aaron holds a Master’s Degree in Coaching Psychology and has co-authored the book Habitudes: 21 Days To Change Your Life. He is currently the Group Head of Product Strategy at iCar Asia where he strives to innovate the way people Buy, Own and Sell cars within the ASEAN region.
Laura Wong is a Personal Branding Coach and Founder of Our Stories Lab with a mission to empower individuals & brands to define their edge using the power of storytelling. From helping to build the social media and content strategy for PichaEats, she built a reputation for her expertise so much that she was able to set up her own social media agency within a year — managing brands like Taylor’s Education Group, Ace Power Group and FLIP to name a few, and has since handled prominent public profiles like Sam Tsui, Pandelela Rinong, Dhabitah Sabri, and now coaches others on personal branding as well in her new company – Our Stories Lab. To date, she has trained multiple professional individuals from companies such as AIA Insurance, Taylor’s Education Group and Infosyte on personal branding. She has also coached many freelancers, side hustlers and small business owners from the gig economy, which was where her journey began.
Zu Anjalika holds the title of Mrs Singapore Globe 2017 and has been very instrumental in her professional journey as a certified Image Branding & Lifestyle Consultant, helping individuals, corporate figures and organisations on their personal image. Anjalika is also the Editor, News & UGC for Marketing In Asia, content-sharing platform and a columnist at YogaMail, the industry journal of Malaysian Association of Yoga Instructors (MAYI).
Wong Wai Mun is currently based in PJ, Selangor, Malaysia. Being part of the management team, apart from leading and supporting the daily operational needs, he is also actively involved in the business development and client management aspects. Some notable key accounts involve KLCC, Mydin and Ikano. He rejoined Norman Disney & Young Sdn Bhd as Associate Director in April 2012. With more than 19 years in consulting industry, Wong WM has gained extensive design and management experience on a wide variety of projects involving those of residential, commercial and industrial.
Fitri Joroji has dealt with a rogue client threatening to file a police report, but he now actively services high-profile clients from CEOs to investment funds. Fitri had no idea he would find himself running a full-suite website development agency at this scale when he first began. Without having a design or development background, Fitri self-taught himself all the necessary skills and eventually found his way to being listed as a finalist in the 2017 Malaysian Website Awards (MVA 2017). Having served the position of marketing specialist in the world’s largest digital stock agency that had over 22 million monthly active users, it was clear to him that marketing was the answer. After immersing himself with the industry’s best like Russell Brunson, Donald Miller and Seth Godin, he developed a 5-step process that drives actual revenue growth for all his clients. In an industry where clients expect nothing more than a pretty website, Fitri regularly scores home runs for his clients with Website Artisan.
Graig Nunis has been a journalist for over 25 years. He served as executive editor of the nation’s oldest newspaper, The Malay Mail, before joining Twentytwo13.my in 2018. He dabbled in PR for six years, writing over 500 articles for the Badminton World Federation’s website and was its media officer at the 2011 Sudirman Cup in China. He handled the Monsoon Cup media in 2010 and helped Malaysia win the best media organisation for that year’s Match Racing season. A highlight of his career was spending a month in Brazil to cover the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Nordin Abdullah is an Australian businessman living in Asia and is currently the Managing Director of Glenreagh Sdn Bhd. An active member of the business community, Nordin sits on EXCO of the Malaysia Australian Business Council where he chairs the Food, Beverage & Agriculture sub-committee. He was formerly the Vice President of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Vice-President of the Malaysian Cricket Association, and Founding Chairman of the Malaysia Global Business Forum. In 2017, Nordin established the Crisis Management Centre to assist individuals, corporations and governments to better deal with all aspects of crisis. Nordin has been featured in The New York Times, Asia Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Time, BBC, ABC and locally featured in a range of media for his various work. Named as one of the top “50 Expatriates you should know” by “Expatriate Lifestyle” he was awarded the Anak Sarawak Award for his significant contribution to Sarawak’s MICE industry.
Izwan Zakaria is the Managing Partner of Izwan & Partners, a corporate/commercial and technology law firm in Malaysia focusing on advising technology companies, early stage startups, and investors. As a technology and startup specialist lawyer, Izwan regularly represents online and digital businesses like equity crowdfunding, peer to peer lending, ecommerce, and robo advisory platforms and other disruptive technologies especially in their dealings with the regulators. Izwan also advises venture capital and private equity on funds formation to prepare fundraising documents. He is a member of the Fintech Association of Malaysia and active in the Malaysian startup and tech ecosystem, where he regularly mentors early stage startups and speaks at events on legal and fundraising matters. Izwan is currently a mentor at Closing The Gap and Founder Institute.
Nur Farisya Abdul Shukor brings people, ideas, and inspiration together to make the world a better place. She may consider herself to be a rebel of sorts, but her passion lies in women’s empowerment, cultural and social diversity, learning and development, mentoring fresh graduates and job seekers. An enthusiastic Corporate Communications and Public Relation Practitioner, Farisya also transforms and grows companies into beloved brands as the Corporate Communications & Business Development Manager while building the vibrant community Malaysian women want and deserve with Women Empowerment Series podcast on YouTube and LinkedIn.
Andrea Chow is on a mission to inspire one billion people to achieve their financial freedom and realise their full potential. With a Master in International Marketing from Curtin University, she is a Certified Professional Trainer (ITOL), Professional Coaching Certification, Author of Breakthrough With A Coach and Founder of YouTube Channel of Andrea Chow “Entrepreneur Talk Show” to name a few. Passionate with training, coaching and consulting, she too, upgrades and is certified in many different related areas to her profession that includes Virtual Learning Caster, Photoreading, Writing Standard Operating Procedures and Digital Marketing. She also created several signature programmes including “Purpose-Built Victory” to focus on core success factors for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs.
Vanda Chan is a certified trainer for Facebook, Google and Alibaba. Throughout her 20 years tenure with Nestle, she is part of the team that activated household brands like MILO, MAGGI, NESCAFE, KIT KAT, NESPRAY, NESTLE ICE CREAM and PURINA. She regularly speaks at three international platforms and has trained at least 5,000 entrepreneurs on digital marketing. Her hobby includes buying Facebook ads, and the occasional spying on people’s ads when she runs out of ideas. Her nickname is Doraemon as she is an avid lifetime deal collector; collecting all the tools / apps to solve a myriad of social media problems.
Norizan Sharif has served the public and private sector organisations in Malaysia for more than 28 years, in which after he founded Enescorp International LLC, a New Jersey-based North America market exploration firm. Prior to starting his own company, he was a Senior Director of TERAJU and the Chief Executive Officer of INMIND. Besides running a consulting firm, he manages an online learning portal, Skorlah.Online.
Evan Tzivanakis is a serial entrepreneur, business owner and business coach with international experience. He currently owns and runs three businesses: a financial brokerage in Asia, a boutique B&B in Greece and a Business Coaching Enterprise in Asia. He also helps entrepreneurs and new leaders unleash their potential by offering the most innovative, educational and energetic coaching and training programmes.
Nana Khan is a Business Development Strategist with more than 15 years of working and business experiences. A career preparation and development enthusiast ensuring interns and young executives get ready for employment, she is a strong believer in strategic partnership for business growth. Designed her own coaching programme for startups, Nana Khan Startup Business Coaching Program exists to help SMEs implement strategic planning and execution for their businesses. She is also an Inspirational writer for Bahasa Melayu article for Marketing In Asia.
Sinan Ismail loves to make people happy. A leader to a team of 120 allstars at Digital Durian, he and his team create fun and meaningful content for young children including IP Didi & Friends and IP Omar & Hana.
Yandaro Al Amien is one of the founding members of POPCONfest, a company that helps individuals and brands to “POP” online. A certified NLP Master Coach and Barrett Culture Consultant with more than 17 years’ experience in facilitating leadership, team and cultural transformation initiatives across Southeast Asia, he has trained more than 100,000 individuals from all walks of life, before deciding to embark on a journey in developing thought leadership through the LinkedIn platform. Yandaro has also founded several businesses and community engagement activities with a strong background in People and Organisational Development. He is currently the Co-Host of #justlanggar show, and is on a mission to build the first Business Influencer School in Southeast Asia.
Shalini Subramaniam empowers early-stage entrepreneurs to build an authentic Personal Branding on LinkedIn to drive consistent leads in business. A full-time entrepreneur, she was in corporate for seven years before and has yet to unleash her full potential. Today, she has complete control over her life, and the fulfillment she feels doing what she loves is priceless.
Shafiqah Othman first learnt the importance of resonating with audiences and starting conversations through her time as an activist. Forging human connections through words quickly became her passion, she dedicated her time and effort into learning more about its nuances. She started with writing independent blog posts and sharing them on her social media, then went on to be a columnist and sharing her thoughts. One of her most memorable campaigns to date would be the time she volunteered with UNICEF Malaysia and became their content manager during their ‘Saya Sayang Saya’ nationwide tour, a follow-up to the Malaysian chapter of the global UNICEF campaign ‘Reply For All’ in which she made it her duty to raise awareness about child grooming. The ‘Saya Sayang Saya’ campaign finally led to the cabinet approval of the Child Sexual Crimes Bill in 2017.
Ben Ho is the Founder of Talentbank and has conferred the “Mover & Shaker Award” at the same awards gala along with Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah. At Talentbank, he is on a mission to build a comprehensive recruitment ecosystem in order to reduce the unemployment rate in Malaysia. He holds pride in knowing organisations who have partnered with Talentbank have procured top-of-the-line employees through their community of over 100+ Private & Public Universities. His accolades include the Mover & Shaker Award, Malaysia Book of Records, Ten Outstanding Young Malaysian Award, and SME Platinum Business Award. He also owns a Career Discovery Center at Sunway GEO Avenue, a Registered Training Provider by HRDF.
Christy Ng is the CEO of ChristyNg.com.
Homam Alghorani is a serial entrepreneur and has been dubbed as “The Hologram Man,” “Crazy,” “CEO Chief Everything Officer” and “The AI Evangelist.” He was awarded the ITEX2009 GOLD AWARD for Best invention and ITEX2009 SPECIAL AWARD for Corporate Invention and the NTT Com Startup Challenge Finalist. Homam was featured in MIA’s 100 Inspiring LinkedIn Icons In Malaysia In 2019. His recent venture is ROCKSTARS.MEDIA, an online influencer marketing platform/marketplace that connects influencers and brands.
Alan Cheah is currently the CEO of GoCar Malaysia, an on-demand car-sharing platform with over 400 locations in 72 cities across seven states in Malaysia, and recently the CEO at GoEVcharger, an E-Mobility Operator (EMO) to provide and operate the charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EV). During his time as COO from April 2016 to September 2017, Alan paved the way for GoCar to be part of the alternative transportation ecosystem as a first-mile / last-mile solution by working with strategic partners and industry players to expand its location network in Klang Valley including placing GoCars at Shell stations, major airports, LRT and KTMB stations, and, shopping malls. Prior to this, Alan was the Marketing Director at MaGIC where he led and strategised the digital roadmap to create regional awareness and engagement for MaGIC’s brands, programmes, and projects across the ASEAN region.
Datuk Jake Abdullah is a veteran in the media and broadcast industry with over 20 years experience, 10 years in a C-Level role. He has worked extensively in South Asia with the set up of several award winning and market leading radio stations including Gen And JAK FM in Indonesia and AMSI and the Red Group In India, and has served briefly as a board member for Ad Rep in China and was instrumental in Astro Radio being the #1 Radio Broadcaster in Malaysia with over 80% share of Revenue. He has helmed Rocketfuel Entertainment (under Astro) and turned around their Talent Division to make it profitable while managing Malaysia’s biggest entertainment talents including Zizan Razak and Lisa Surihani. He has also conceptualised and developed several award winning media, branding and marketing solutions for many clients in the Malaysian media industry, and often works directly with clients from brainstorm stage to delivery. After over two decades of helming Astro Radio and Rocketfuel Entertainment, he made the transition to the digital and fintech world in August 2019 joining a startup (Fave).
Dini Tajuddin is an experienced marketeer specialising in Branding and e-commerce with go-to-market strategies immediately applicable in the Malaysian market.
Geraldine Ashley David is a Talent Acquisition Leader with 12 years Recruitment & Employer Branding experience; of which six years in the FMCG & Healthcare industry of Mondel?z International, Johnson & Johnson and Unilever, and seven years in Executive Search and Recruitment Process Outsourcing – RPO at KellyOCG and BTI Consultants. She loves to travel, attempt to try new recipes and watch crime documentaries.
Hannah Pearson is the director of Pear Anderson, a boutique consultancy firm specialising in the Southeast Asian travel industry. Originally from the UK, she has lived in the region for over eight years, gaining a deep understanding of the market and a passion for helping travel organisations tap into the fast growth of the region. Her clients include the likes of VisitBritain and the Catalonian tourism board. She is also co-creator and co-host of The South East Asia Travel Show, a podcast dedicated to the Southeast Asian travel industry.
Mei Phing Lim is the founder of Got A Phing and a passionate advocate of youth leadership. Having recognised as a high performer and fast-tracked to senior positions in multiple global multinational companies whilst only in her 20’s, nowadays Mei Phing coaches ambitious professionals to achieve career growth online and offline by creating a professional online presence and sharpening corporate confidence to create sustained success. She is a culture enthusiast and has travelled to 37 countries and counting.
Lim Chia Wei is a Petroleum Engineer at Schlumberger Malaysia and an avid learner of the Oil & Gas Industry. She was earlier working offshore in East Malaysia & on an onshore rig in Oman. Post-intensive field training, she moved to Sales to hone her soft skills as well as strengthen her technical knowledge in the Oil & Gas industry, specifically in Drilling Domain. Coming from the smallest state in Malaysia, Perlis, Chia Wei wants to prove that a ‘Kampung Girl’ can too, live in her dreams. She constantly creates inspirational content to empower all the young engineers and fresh graduates through her newly found platform on Spice Your CV.
Elton Kuah is a Certified B2B Digital Marketer specialising in lead generation and content marketing, design thinker and data analytics. He has achieved USA recognised institution certifications for buyer persona experts, web conversion and growth master online. For content marketing writing, his interests include tech, entrepreneurship and marketing related. He is currently a content contributor for Marketing in Asia with articles featured in Hackernoon, Motley Fool HK, Tech News HK (E-Commerce), E27 and Jumpstart.
Mark Rodrigues has over 20 years of experience working in the media industry. He is now helping brands connect with their consumers via the power of Influencer Marketing.
Rina Baha is a Certified Professional Image & Business Protocol Consultant from Institute of Image Training & Testing, IITTI, Vancouver, Canada, SWET Advancement and APIP Malaysia. She conducts training including in Professional Corporate Grooming, Business & Social Etiquette, Office Management, Secretarial Skills, and Customer Service. A Certified Trainer and an Image Consultant since 2011, her clientele are government agencies, universities, professional associations, and she has worked with major corporate players in the country. Her personal view on a good trainer needs to be motivated, possess a good energy level and be enthusiastic.
Lai Chee Seng is an independent writer, content strategist, and authority builder. He is also a passionate teacher who has coached over a thousand students with his proudest moment being his 9-year-old student receiving the award for successfully completing Pre-U level English literature. As a writer, almost half his original digital content has gone viral and he has ghostwritten several well-praised books. As an authority builder, he has helped senior government leaders and C-suites develop compelling thought leadership content with his own thought leadership content, and has received strong praise from industry experts in Malaysia and around the world. Chee Seng is a believer that Malaysia has a massive potential that can be unlocked when there are enough world-class Malaysian hero stories that inspire fellow Malaysians to take on the world.
Wayne Liew is the Head of Advertising at Mindvalley, an education technology company focused on unleashing the fullest potential of your mind, body, and spirit. His role is to help Mindvalley scale to a 9-figure revenue through profitable ad campaigns with a team of media buyers, creatives, and agency managers whose work has been featured by Google and Facebook. On the side, he writes about career growth, productivity and personal development on LinkedIn and his personal website, WayneLiew.com.
Ediola Pashollari is the Secretary General of the World Assembly of Youth (WAY), an international coordinating body of national youth councils and organisations. Instrumental in assisting and supporting various youth initiatives locally, regionally and internationally, Ediola’s heart desire is to see the youths around the world be prepared to face the many changing challenges that are occurring globally, and educating them for achieving a sustainable future.
Sang Hoe Chow or Chow, as he is known, is a Partner at EY Malaysia and has more than 32 years of experience in consulting. Currently the Managing Partner of Consulting for both EY ASEAN and EY Malaysia, Chow’s core skills and experience include strategy and transformation consulting. He is also a key influencer in the ASEAN consulting industry, having worked with clients across the Asia Pacific, including leading banks and financial institutions, government organisations and private enterprises in various industries on the execution of their Strategic Transformation initiatives, corporate strategies, business models, and large scale change.
Melissa Chan is the founder and PR Advisor of EA Creative Media Relation. Throughout her years in the Public Relation industry, she has built a strong relationship with the media, and many of these connections have turned to friends. She is actively creating educational, PR related content on her LinkedIn page. With that, she was named as one of the Top 100 LinkedIn Icons in Malaysia for 2019. Melissa is also a writer and has written many articles on a few established websites. With her experiences and knowledge in the local PR and media industry, Melissa founded Lisaffair.com a few years back as a new venture by offering small businesses and entrepreneurs a chance to create awareness for their brands through content marketing.
Kid Chan was listed as “100 People You Must Know in Asia at age 26” by Asia Regional & Malaysia Tatler and “30 Successful Under 40 self made Malaysians” by Malaysian Business. For almost 20 years, he has been behind-the-scenes for the personal branding and positioning needs of many regional Uber High Profile Personalities including Jackie Chan, Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh, Tan Sri Dr. Francis Yeoh, Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Dato’ Jimmy Choo. His photography work is often published on many prestigious publications including covers such as The Star, New Straits Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Prestige, Tatler, Millionaireasia & many more. In 2013, he authored the #1 Best Selling KID Chan Guide’s To The Business Of Photography. He is one of the inaugural TEDxKL Speakers and is currently teaching the art of personal branding and networking .
Karunjit Kumar Dhir is the Co-Founder of SCIKEY, a global Talent Commerce Platform that enables access to the most reliable and cost-effective workforce solutions in a click. He was invited in 2018 by the board of SRKAY, the private equity arm of multi-billion-dollar SRK Exports; as a Co-Founder to define the business strategy and lead the global business for SCIKEY. He is also a member of the Seed & Early-Stage Investments committee at SRKAY. Before SCIKEY, he has spent more than 15 years in the technology consulting space, helping fortune 500 customers across industries & geographies. Driven by extreme innate passion and respect for people as a core value, he is an established business leader with hands-on experience building and growing stellar teams and multi-million dollar ARR from scratch in various global markets, with customers across India, Asia, and the US.
Megat Fazrul Azlin Megat Abdul Aziz is an integral figure within the Graduate and Emerging Talent, TalentCorp Malaysia sphere with experience in working closely with the industry players, ministries, government agencies, universities and institutes of higher learning to enhance Malaysia’s talent pipeline and future-proof the workforce. He spent his work hours and passion focusing on enhancing and motivating the employability of young graduates and building a sustainable pipeline of work-ready talent for the workforce in collaboration with priority stakeholders.
Jon Cohen fell into HR and Talent Acquisition by accident back in 2008. Having been based in Malaysia since 2010 leading Talent, Culture and People teams in the tech and e-commerce industry and winning various awards in the HR space, Jon now focuses on helping other companies digitalise and automate their HR processes and advising job seekers on job hunting in the digital era. His philosophy is simplifying HR processes so that employees, HR teams and management can get right to business with peace of mind, and has produced significant results for companies across various industries.
Datuk Norhalim Yunus is the Chief Executive Officer of Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional, the investment arm of the Malaysian Government. He has extensive experience in the commercialisation of public sector universities’ research results, early stage technology ventures, innovation policy development and fund management. He is one of the pioneers in the public universities/research institutes R&D results commercialisation in Malaysia, and has played many roles related to the overall development of the Malaysian technology commercialisation ecosystem. He joined MTDC a few months after its formation in 1993 and has had the opportunity to be deeply involved in the Malaysian innovation ecosystem development.
Patrick Tan Peng Jun is the founder of DR Resume Services, an organisation that aims to provide high quality resume related services to all university students in Malaysia at an affordable rate. DR Resume Services provides various types of services like Resume-related services, LinkedIn profile coaching, Career Consultation and Individual Development.
Zacharias Rajagopal is currently heading the human resources generalist portfolio for the FPSO segment for Malaysia, Indonesia, Angola, UK and Malta. Prior to that, he was a human resources generalist, experienced in the Hospitality, FMCG, Banking and Aviation Industry. A driven man, he leads Human Resources to be a Strategic Business Partner, continuously Adding Value to the Business whilst Putting People First.
Zahin Syahiran is the Managing Partner of Designloka, which focuses primarily on helping professionals as well as businesses to produce high-volume Graphic Design for their social media post to achieve their brand awareness and marketing goals only for one-flat monthly fee; Unlimited Design request. As a working student, he has passion in User Interface (UI) design. Currently pursuing his career in FixColab, Malaysia’s #1 Website and App Developer as a UI/UX Trainee.
Azmi Said is an experienced Director with a demonstrated history of working in the entrepreneur and SME development; start-up and commercialisation; innovation and technology management; venture capital and private equity industry. He is skilled in Business Planning, International Business, Business Turnaround, Market Research, Management, Financial Modelling, Business Modelling and Mergers & Acquisitions. Azmi is a strong professional with a Certificate focused in PROSCI Change Management, TRIZ Innovation Steps and Certified Business Coach.
Husna Nisa Mohd Nizam is passionate about storytelling by either penning down words to paper or engaging with a live audience from the stage. She believes that stories have the power to capture the hearts of people and help build meaningful relationships. In 2020 she took up the role of the Partnership Coordinator & Copywriting in a company focusing on youth development; Monsta Asia. At the same time, she loves contributing to intellectual discussions and has a natural talent for engaging together with people for any occasion. Husna co-founded Speaquer as her freelance gig, offering services to moderate/host/emcee events. She is trained for not only physical events but also virtual events as she has experience in moderating online classes and sessions.
Ravindran Raman Kutty is a General Manager of Strategic Communications at MRCB George Kent Sdn Bhd (MRCBGK) with professional experience in communication. He believes that communicating without knowing your audience will bring zero ROI and ROO, thus why it is imperative that one should know about their audience first and then understand their gaps or issues that are preventing an organisation from conducting its business in the most profitable and sustainable manner. That is his main strength.
Sarah-Ann Yong is a Customer Success Account Manager (previously known as Technical Account Manager) at Microsoft. A lawyer turned technology enthusiast, she is her customers’ trusted business and technology advisor for technology adoption and cloud transformation through Microsoft’s cutting-edge technology, solution and products. She is passionate about using strategic storytelling skills and design thinking to drive business impact. She is also a self-professed adrenaline junkie, a travel aficionado and a firm believer of lifelong learning and having a growth mindset. She enjoys advocating for early-in-career talents on LinkedIn and having conversations about organisational culture and strategy, management and leadership principles, personal finance, productivity and professional development.
Eric Siew is a web designer, as well as a doctor. He has designed captivating experiences and helped businesses grow creatively. He enjoys getting people healthy (and knowledgeable) too, and helping future potential doctors succeed him.
Fatihah Shafie is both a legal professional and entrepreneur at the age of 28. She is also a lifelong learner and a firm believer that every person you meet is an opportunity to enrich one’s life. Her involvement with Linkedin and MYLexcheck aims to share her expertise and in-field experiences to serve different needs of organisations and individuals, especially as a legal professional, writer and digital marketer. To date, MYLexcheck has become a great partner in supporting editorial works to a broad range of clients, ranging from big corporations to mid-size boutique firms and solo practitioners.
Norlida (Oli) Azmi is the Chief People & Culture Officer at Permodalan Nasional Berhad who drives change, unleashes potential and sustains balance.
Puteri Sofia is currently a Senior Law Lecturer and a Programme Director for Master of Laws programmes at Taylor’s University. Throughout 8 years of teaching, she was conferred with numerous awards for revolutionising teaching and learning techniques to teach law using Augmented Reality. In 2017, she was awarded with ‘Exemplary Meritorious Award Staff’ (EMAS), being the first law lecturer in 25 years to be awarded with such award. In 2018, she was awarded with a Gold Award and Most Innovative Award from University of Malaya for redesigning the formative assessment for English Land Law. In 2019, she was a recipient of Gold Award for teaching law using Augmented Reality, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and also Gamification. Puteri Sofia Amirnuddin was also awarded with “President’s Award for Transformative Teaching and Learning” being the highest award conferred by the President of Taylor’s University. She is the pioneer in teaching law using Augmented Reality in Malaysia.
Marisa Cubinar is the founder and the remarkable leader of LifeWise, her newly branded insurance agency. She has made a name for herself as one of the most capable insurance agents in BUSS Malaysia. A mother of 3, her passion and determination in helping people won her the Centurion award. Marisa was also part of the Johor Empowerment Of Intellectual Women’s Association (JEIWA) since 2015, with a focus on helping single mothers and ladies who have been abused mentally, physically, emotionally and financially ruined, to be independent. Marisa was the Soulmate Partnership programme head, collecting donations and fostering strategic partnerships to provide jobs and benefits for struggling single mothers. All these achievements were done amidst a recent cancer scare. Marisa’s determination to keep going and her continued passion for helping others is the key in her achieving greater heights in life. She now actively helps those who are struggling with the same condition.
Dean MJ is a Quantity Surveyor at a construction company involved in civil works. He has a wide knowledge of IT due to experience as an IT executive for more than 10 years where he managed a special construction management system for Putrajaya Development. He also has a wide knowledge in managing and maintaining car parks. With a Diploma in Quantity Surveying, Dean was trained to handle costs and contracts, and have a reasonable understanding of the civil law.
Haresh Deol is a multi-award winning journalist, co-producer/co-host of BFM’s ‘Bar None’ and co-founder of content creation agency, Professional Storytellers.
Ir Ammar Mohd Rashid is a professional engineer, entrepreneur, environmental consultant, TEDx Speaker, and motivator.
Azad Jasmi is a man of many talents, having dabbled in business development, corporate training, and marketing and communications just to name a few. Throughout his 20 years experience, he has found himself in many locations around the world from Copenhagen to London, and even Thailand.
Pete Pereira is the Director of Leadership and Organisational Culture at Aspire Consulting Sdn Bhd. Together with his co-partner, Helen Langhammer, they specialise in custom-designed leadership development solutions and leadership assessments. Pete writes extensively on leadership, trust and virtual facilitation on LinkedIn.
Teck Hooi Gan is the founder of ICFO and iCOMMUNITY, a Consulting Firm and Business Coaching Platform. As a Chartered Accountant, Gan has served in various public listed companies before starting his own business. Also known as Captain AmeriGan, he has been a keynote speaker in many SME forums. He is the organiser of SME Accelerator Series since 2016. In 2018, he co-founded Komuniti Tukang Jahit (“KTJ”), a Social Enterprise that helps B40 women in Malaysia to generate side-income for the betterment of their households via sewing of corporate gifts. KTJ is now accredited under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives. Gan is currently an Independent Director and Audit Committee Chairman of Solarvest Holdings Berhad, a company listed in Bursa Malaysia. He is now the President for International Council for SMEs and Entrepreneurship, Malaysia for the year 2020-2021.
Siti Mariam Samin is a serial entrepreneur with a foundation in Physics and Engineering. She founded MERAKI CONSULTATION, a Branding, Marketing and Event Management Company. From here she cultivated her experiences and honed her skills. Her passion for helping others and making a social impact led her to founding the ‘Sister Of Success’ and currently sits as a committee member of the Tulips Movement (A Women Empowerment Organisation) and Malaysian Online Influencer Association. While co-managing her family business and the expansion of its franchise market within Kuala Lumpur and planning on expanding to the surrounding region, Siti also consults on several marketplace platforms and is a Partnership Ambassador for Humanitarian Investing under the United Impact Finance Initiative.
Zamer Rizal Osman is a passionate Human Resources Practitioner with over 25 years of working experience in Government Sectors, PLCs, and GLCs with exposure in the total HR Ecosystem. A people-oriented person with his “Quick Wins HR Initiatives” image and branding, he is self-driven, high influencing and compliance, loves talking with full colour of analogies, and is a passionate writer via Social Media to translate his belief system and self-principles about human and organisational development. A Certified Trainer and Facilitator for Performance Management Practices and Corporate Values, his tagline is “MyDNA-MyBrand, MyForte, MyPassion.”
Anna Mustaffa is a Specialist who has come from diverse exposure in Recruitment. She has been in reputable Agencies, RPOs and Multinationals handling end to end Recruitment individually or with a team. She is recognised as someone who possesses a great understanding of organisations’ and peoples’ needs. She advocates forward thinking in Recruitment process and strategies while not losing the human touch. She exudes passion and enthusiasm in her work in every engagement, expecting only the best in herself and wanting the best for others. A confident advocate of ethical, diverse and inclusive practice, you will find Anna sharing her thoughts regularly on LinkedIn. To those in her network, she is a friend, mentor and generous advisor.
