Independent Non-Executive Director
Date of appointment: 22 July 2022
Board committees membership(s): Audit Committee (Chairman), Risk Committee (Chairman) and Nomination Committee
Qualification
Mr. Lionel Yong is a Certified Internal Auditor (USA), a Chartered Accountant (Malaysia), a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and a Fellow Member of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (UK).
Working Experience
Mr Lionel Yong is an internal audit practitioner with more than 20 years’ experience in accounting, finance, and internal audit. His specialties include the provision of independent and objective assessments of systems of internal control as implemented by the Management to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance. He is also familiar with the requirements of carrying out investigations into corporate fraud activities and with the requirements of the governance and audit of Information Technology systems based on the COBIT Framework.
His broad range of experience and knowledge of internal controls was obtained from his time working, both locally in Malaysia and overseas, in the following industries: banking & finance, trading, printing, and packaging, plantations, real estate, construction, engineering and various manufacturing operations. He has carried out risk assessment exercises for numerous companies, has been involved in the system development life cycle process in the implementation of several IT applications during his career, and has led investigations into several corporate fraud activities.
Mr. Lionel Yong is currently the CFO of the Nova Wellness Group as well as the Director of Corporate Governance, Risk Management, and Internal Audit with OAC Consulting Sdn Bhd. He is also an Independent Non-Executive Director of XOX Networks Berhad.
Executive Director
Date of Appointment: 14 January 2022
Board committees membership(s): None
Qualification
Degree in Accounting and Finance (Distinction) from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. Member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and a member of the Certified Practising Accountants Australia.
Working Experience
Mr Kenny Khow has more than 13 years of experience as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia, including a two-year secondment to PricewaterhouseCoopers London, UK. He has extensive experience in the area of corporate exercises covering initial public offering, demerger of a listed entity, management, and integration of two major companies in Malaysia, privatisation of a major listed entity, rights issue, issuance of debt securities, as well as the sale and leaseback of key assets.
His other work experience includes financial due diligence, advisory, and numerous cross-border securities offering. He also sits on the Board of Directors of MMAG Holdings Berhad and CSH Alliance Berhad as an Executive Director.
As the Executive Director of the companies, in addition to overseeing the groups’ financial affairs including accounting, finance, tax and treasury, he also oversees human resources-related matters and other administrative duties.
Independent Non-Executive Director
Date of appointment: 7 July 2023
Board committees membership(s): Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee
Qualification
Mohd Azhar holds a Master of Business Administration degree from University Malaya and Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons.) Finance degree from Universiti Teknologi MARA.
Working Experience
Mohd Azhar has more than 20 years of experience in the field of capital markets and corporate finance where he was involved in fundraising exercise via equity and debt capital market, debt recovery, corporate restructuring and turn-around, valuation, financial modelling, financial due diligence and merger and acquisitions (M&A). He is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia.
Mohd Azhar was previously the Chief Corporate Officer of Dagang NeXchange Berhad, a Main Market listed company on Bursa Malaysia. He joined the company as an Independent Non-Executive Director in August 2019 and was redesignated as Executive Director in February 2020 until March 2022. He subsequently served the company as Chief Corporate Officer until November 2022.
Prior to that, he was attached to Small Medium Enterprise Development Bank Malaysia Berhad (SME Bank) in August 2014 as Assistant Vice President and Head of Business Banking Department where he was responsible to develop and oversee the Corporate Finance Unit that deals with financing for Bumiputera SMEs to undertake M&A exercise and Commercial Financing Unit that deals in a range of commercial financing products. He had also served as Senior Manager, Issuers Restructuring at Bursa Malaysia Berhad’s Listing Division in 2010 where he was responsible in monitoring, evaluating, and making recommendation on restructuring of PN17 and GN3 public listed companies before he joined Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad in 2013 as Senior Manager, Corporate Finance under the Group Strategy Division.
He was as Senior Analyst in the Merger and Acquisition Department under the Corporate Planning and Development Division of Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) in 2010 where he was responsible for appraising M&A and business development opportunities for the entity. Prior to that, he served as Manager, Corporate Finance in BDO Capital Consultants Sdn Bhd, a corporate finance advisory arm of BDO Malaysia licensed by the Securities Commission, from June2007 to October 2009.
Mohd Azhar started his career as an auditor with Ernst & Young in February 2000 before he joined the Securities Commission in 2004 until 2007.
