Faculty

Our faculty members are from a constantly growing pool of subject-matter experts who have vast learning delivery experience for board-level participants.

Vincent Loh, ICDM

Vincent has over 40 years of knowledge, exposure and experience in auditing, financial & business management, consulting and training. His experiences cover numerous business segments, ranging from auditing and consultancy to the technology, manufacturing and retail sectors, working for international organisations, listed companies and local multinationals.

He has also worked and lived in several countries including the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Cambodia, providing him with deep understanding of the various cultural environments and business regimes, dealing with all levels from corporate leadership to the shop-floor.

Vincent is qualified as a chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and was made a Fellow (FCA) in 1977. He joined the PA Consulting Group (UK-based international management consultants), initially located in Singapore for 6 years and later back in London. He was responsible for PA’s financial, HR and administrative management of the Asian and later, the UK group whilst gaining experience as a management consultant. Vincent was subsequently promoted as commercial director of PA Technology (which provides technology consultancy) in Cambridge, England handling financial management, commercial negotiations and intellectual properties rights, in addition to managing the state-of-the-art laboratory.

In 1994, he was headhunted and appointed Chief Financial Officer of FACB Berhad, a main board public-listed conglomerate based in Kuala Lumpur. In 1996, he was appointed general manager of corporate services for Royal Selangor Group, the world’s largest manufacturer and retailer of pewter with subsidiaries worldwide and was subsequently promoted to group general manager with top and bottom-line responsibilities.

He left in 2000 to start his own business and management consultancy practice, providing consulting services to clients in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Vincent is also a certified professional trainer and conducts training on financial and strategic management topics for his clients. He is a member of and faculty facilitator for the Institute of Corporate Directors of Malaysia (ICDM), conducting training for directors and assisting the Institute to assess board and director effectiveness, particularly for those from public-listed companies.

In 2010, he was appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director in a public-listed technology company and subsequently made Chairman in March 2015. He is also Chairman of the Nomination and Remuneration Committees and member of the Audit Committee.

Wee Hock Kee, ICDM(F)

Wee Hock Kee (Wee) is a Faculty Member and Fellow of ICDM. He specialises on subjects relating to corporate governance, risk management and internal control for PLCs. He has facilitated a series of courses under ICDM public and bespoke programmes.

He was the past President of IIA Malaysia and Asian Confederation of Institute of Internal Auditors, former board member of IIA Global, member of ACCA Malaysia’s Advisory and past Chairman of the Internal Audit Working Group of MIA. He won the prestigious Malaysian Internal Auditor of the Year Award for 2001, was a speaker and chaired numerous international, regional and national conferences organised by professional bodies throughout the span of his career in internal audit. Wee was the Chairman of the 2011 IIA International Conference in KL. He has worked in a number of multinational companies as Chief Audit Executive. His last position was with AstraZeneca (UK) as the Regional Audit Director of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

Wee has extensive experience in conducting board evaluations for major companies with market capitalization ranging from RM500 million to RM30 billion, covering a wide range of industries including insurance, plantation, manufacturing and shipping. He has been a regular speaker at numerous international, regional and national conferences, speaking on Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC). He was previously engaged by BURSA from 2013 to 2016 to conduct awareness and education for Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), Audit Committee (AC) and board members on risk management and internal control assurance framework and was involved in the NIEW women directors’ training programme from 2013-2014. He was a Research Fellow in HELP University ELM Faculty.

Wee has sat on a number of public listed companies. In his capacity as a board member of these PLCs, he also chaired the Audit and Risk Management Board Committees.

Currently, Wee is a board member and Audit and Risk Management Chair of MIMOS Berhad and a board member and chairs the Audit Committee of Pertubuhan Keselamatan Sosial (Perkeso). He is also a Member of the Licensing and Air Traffic Rights Committee of the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM). MAVCOM is the national aviation regulatory body under the Malaysian Aviation Commission Act 2015 to regulate economic and commercial matters relating to civil aviation.

Erik Vermeulen, ICDM

Erik P.M. Vermeulen is a Faculty Member of ICDM. He is a Senior Legal Counsel at Signify (f.k.a Phillips Lighting), an Innovation Advisor at a law firm in the Hague and a board/advisory member of several organisations, including a healthcare provider in The Netherlands and several startups. He is also a Professor of Business and Financial Law at Tilburg University and teaches international business law regularly at universities in Europe, the United States, Colombia and Japan. He has appeared at numerous conferences as a featured or keynote speaker. Erik is also a co-owner of a Michelin star restaurant.

Erik can best be described as an innovator and has a blog where he shares insights and ideas about how the digital world is changing the way we live, work and learn. He has a particular interest in how artificial intelligence, sensors, data analytics and blockchain are amplifying and accelerating each other, thereby creating new opportunities across all areas of the economy and society.

Erik's thought-provoking and innovative views on business, leadership, governance, regulation and education have attracted international attention. He regularly serves as an expert advisor to international organisations, such as the European Commission, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations, the World Bank, and national and local governments around the world.

Erik has conducted leadership talks at Bursa Malaysia Thought Leadership Series organised by ICDM, as well as at ICDM's signature PowerTalk series in June 2019. In the second half of 2019, he conducted the "Digital Upskilling for Boards", "Why Governance Matters for Startups", "Stakeholder Voice in the Boardroom" plus a few bespoke talks for our government and corporate clients. Erik was also one of the keynote speakers at ICDM's inaugural International Directors Summit (IDS) in 2019.

Cheryl Khor, ICDM

Cheryl Khor is a Faculty Member of ICDM and specialises on subjects relating to corporate governance, risk management and internal control for board effectiveness. She has facilitated a series of courses mainly on corporate governance and board effectiveness. Cheryl currently is the lead facilitator for several ongoing board evaluation projects for ICDM.

Cheryl has more than 20 years of experience covering financial, operational and internal audits as well as governance, controls and risk assessments for clients across a broad range of industries. Specifically, she has been involved in numerous process improvements, and controls transformation projects. An active media contributor and with a number of published papers, Cheryl is a familiar face in numerous panels, seminars, workshops and talks on good governance, and sustainability among others. 

She has served large companies in a broad range of industry sectors including infrastructure, healthcare, construction, property development, asset management and consumer business. She also led and project managed various engagements in Internal audit, Corporate Governance, Board effectiveness and succession, Operational audits, IPOs, Due Diligence, Enterprise risk management, SOX 404 implementation, Business process review, controls transformation and review of policies.

Azman Sulaiman, ICDM (F)

Azman is a Faculty Member and Fellow of ICDM. He is also an International Coach Federation (ICF) certified coach. He is credentialed at coach mastery level (CMC). He established icoachKL as a private coaching practice focusing on C-Suiite executive coaching to CEOs as well as aspiring young leaders moving up the corporate ladder.

As a coach, Azman is able to leverage off his past CEO experiences as well as C-suite engagement at senior executive and board level; helping facilitate career growth for individuals and business growth & transformation for corporations.

Prior to establishing icoachKL, Azman served as Senior Partner in the KL office of Korn Ferry International. He advised local corporates and multinationals on C-Suite executive & board placement as well as leadership succession & development. His experience extends to facilitating business & strategic direction for companies going through change, utilising his coaching experience and business development expertise.

Prior to Korn Ferry, Azman served in the UEM Group Malaysia for close to 20 years. In his time with UEM, he rose to assume various senior roles among others, Group Director of Business Development, CEO Rocpoint South Africa, UEM Foundation & MAVTRAC. His experience extends to board level where he currently serves on the board of Takaful Keluarga Malaysia Berhad, formerly Costain Group Plc UK as well as the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technologies (MiGHT).

Azman holds a BSc from the University of Malaya, an MSc from Strathclyde University, UK as well as an MBA from the Australian National University. He is an alumni member of the Harvard Senior Management Development Program as well as Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia.

Munir Abdul Aziz, ICDM

Munir Abdul Aziz is a partner in the Corporate & Commercial practice of Wong & Partners. He has been in practice since 1998 in mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganisations, capital markets work, venture capital and private equity, joint ventures and general commercial transactions. As a member of ICDM Faculty, Munir has conducted bespoke programmes for ICDM such as Board Leadership and Governance.

Munir has represented a number of corporations based in Malaysia, the US, Japan and Europe in takeovers, acquisitions, disposals of shares and assets of Malaysian and European companies. He has also worked on corporate reorganisations and de-mergers involving leading publicly listed Malaysian companies and been involved in domestic and international securities transactions including bond offerings and IPOs. He has worked in the London and Melbourne offices of Baker & McKenzie International.

Munir was recognised in Chambers Global and Chambers Asia Pacific, publications which rank leading business lawyers globally. In its 2015 edition, Chambers Asia Pacific noted that Munir “comes highly recommended by clients”​ and that he is “quick in grasping the situation and issues, knows how to protect the client’s interests, and is also commercial enough to be able to close the transaction”​. He has also been recognised as “highly respected”​ and “earns plaudits from the market for his contribution to the corporate field”​ with “an emphasis on private equity transactions, M&A, takeovers, demergers and corporate reorganisation”​ by Chambers Asia Pacific 2013.

Munir has also been named by IFLR1000 as “Leading Lawyer” for Capital Markets since 2013 and for M&A since 2012. He is recommended by PLC Which Lawyer? in Corporate and M&A for 3 successive years (2010 – 2012). He is recognised as a distinguished practitioner by leading legal directories such as Chambers & Partners, Legal 500 and IFLR1000 and was named “Dealmaker of the Year” by the Asian Legal Business Law Awards in 2017.

Paul Vorbach, ICDM

Paul has developed the curriculum and conducted industry-level programmes for the banking, management consulting, insolvency and turnaround profession since 2009. A company director of 20 years’ experience across large and small firms, Paul is Fellow, Corporate Governance Institute, Fellow, Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and Fellow, Governance Institute of Australia. He is also Member, American Bankruptcy Institute, Member, INSOL International, Member, Turnaround Management Association, Academic Member of the Australian Restructuring, Insolvency and Turnaround Association. He holds degrees from UNSW, the University of Sydney and University of Technology Sydney. As a member of ICDM Faculty, Paul has previously facilitated ICDM’s bespoke and public programmes on the topic of Corporate Restructuring and Turnaround Management and Company Secretary.

 

Experience in Developing and Delivering Restructuring and Turnaround Executive Programmes

  • From 2009-2019, developed and delivered Turnaround Management Certified Practitioner Course
  • Since 2016, developed and delivered the restructuring and turnaround subject for the University of Technology Sydney (Law) and Australian Restructuring, Insolvency and Turnaround Association Advanced Certification qualification
  • In 2020, developed and delivered the University of Technology Sydney Executive Certificate in Corporate Turnaround Management Practice

 

International Experience

  • From 2004-2016, Paul developed and delivered senior executive programs in finance, credit risk management, leadership, enterprise risk management across South-East Asia, Middle East, Europe and North America.
Ed Gillespie, ICDM

Ed Gillespie is a keynote speaker, writer, communications specialist, serial entrepreneur and futurist. He is the author of “Only Planet – a flight-free adventure around the world”, a book about his circumnavigation of the globe without getting on a plane, which the Independent said “Allow[s] the world’s flaws and beauty to seep into your soul”. Ed’s core talent is to take the complex, interconnected, interdependent nature of the many urgent challenges the world faces, from climate change to disruptive competition, and make common sense of them for non-specialist audiences.

He often works at C-suite level to help Boards understand big business’s role in ‘selfdisruption’ of their own business models, and creating entrepreneurial ‘lifeboats’ of lean innovation. Ed is a seriously credible and experienced voice on a range of key future-focused issues; from ‘Big Data’, through the future of work and the impact of AI, robots and technology, to how climate action can and must be reframed as seismic opportunity, not just catastrophic threat. Ed is the co-founder of the Global Goals Accelerator, a business programme aimed at delivering the Sustainable Development Goals, the first two businesses supported were Panda Packaging (bamboo and coconut based plastic alternatives) and Agronomex (tackling food waste at the farm gate). He is actively involved in a number of other pioneering ethical businesses as a Director or Investor, from Growing Underground, a renewable energy powered, LED- lit, hydroponic farm in a disused underground tunnel in South London, to Demand logic – a ‘Fitbit’ for buildings. Others include Common Objective (ethical fashion), Engaged Tracking (carbon indices), Poplar (communication platform for frontline staff), Small Robot Company (farming as a service) and Bennaman (alternative fuels). Ed was the co-founder of Futerra, a change agency that specialises in business transformation and creative communications and campaigns. For almost eighteen years, Futerra has become internationally renowned for its influential and awardwinning work on some of the biggest corporate sustainability initiatives. Ed left the business in 2019 to pursue other opportunities. Ed also designs and hosts bespoke workshops for clients on future-focused sustainability challenges, most recently for Sainsbury’s on carbon and climate change, Unilever on circular economy and a Norwegian business ‘cluster’ on rapidly prototyping new purpose-driven sustainable business models.

As a member of ICDM Faculty, Ed Gillespie was also one of ICDM’s speakers for the Bursa Breakfast Talk Series in 2019 and has facilitated bespoke programme on the topic of Board Governance and Sustainability.

Stephen Langton, ICDM

Stephen leads the firm’s Board and CEO Advisory Practice in Asia Pacific as well as the development of Board and Chairman succession and development capabilities. Based in Singapore, Stephen has designed and successfully delivered unique evaluation, succession and development programs for the Boards of many of the world’s market leading international corporations.

Prior to establishing his own advisory firm, Stephen was a Global Partner at Deloitte in the US and UK and led Deloitte’s collective leadership consulting offerings worldwide. He was also Managing Director of the Deloitte Centre for Collective Leadership based in London. He has personally supported the Boards and CEOs of some of the firm’s largest clients internationally.

He was previously the Global Managing Partner of the Board consulting and CEO succession division of Heidrick & Struggles. In this UK-based role he was accountable for the design, development and delivery of all Board Advisory services. Stephen was appointed to this global role having been Regional Managing Partner for Board Consulting in Asia Pacific.

Stephen has been a regular contributor to the World Economic Forum regionally, and at Davos, where he has taught on the prestigious Global Fellows leadership program. He has been proud to serve as adjunct faculty in Leadership at Cranfield School of Management in the UK, and is a regular guest lecturer at business schools and international business forums internationally. He co-authored the book Redefining Leader-ship, looking at western leadership experiences faced in Asian markets.

Until 1995, Stephen served 10 years as an officer and pilot in the British and Australian Armies. Graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK, he served internationally culminating in his command of an armed helicopter unit supporting United Nations and NATO operations. He has a MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

As a member of ICDM Faculty, Stephen has conducted a talk on “Future Fluent: How Board Can Master the Language of the Future” and a Masterclass on “The Board Chair: The First Among Equals’ for ICDM. Russell Reynolds Associates is a partner to ICDM on our services including public & bespoke programmes, board evaluation and research projects, the most recent entitled ‘Survey on the Director Nomination & Board Evaluation Processes.

Anne Abraham, ICDM

Anne  Abraham  is  the Chairperson  &  Founder of  LeadWomen,  a  leadership  development  and consulting company, focused on developing and advancing women leaders in Asia. With over 25 years of corporate experience in leadership positions across multi-functional units, she started as a technical trainer, and over the years has trained and coached her management and leadership teams. She has mentored many executives in the course of her career and continues this in her current capacity.

As  a  member  of  ICDM  Faculty,  she  is  currently  the  lead  facilitator  for  the  people  skills  modules (Boardroom Dynamics, Board Presence/Communication and Board Simulation) that are delivered on the Malaysian Women Directors Programme, a government initiative to increase women representation on  boards  of  Malaysian  PLCs.  She  is also  the  Programme  lead  for  the  workshop  design  and development for the ICAEW Women in Leadership MY (started in 2014). Her specialisation is in bringing the best of the woman leader forward and leading with values. Prior to LeadWomen, she was the CEO of  SAP  Malaysia  and  Cisco  Malaysia.  She  was  successful  at  building  high-performance  executive teams and leading technology and service organisations with P&L responsibility.

A strong advocate and supporter for women leadership development, she is a frequent guest speaker and moderator in Women conferences and summits. Anne serves on the Board of KPJ Healthcare Berhad  &  Metrod  Holdings  Berhad as  an  Independent  Non-Executive  Director.  She  served  as  a member of Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Women Entrepreneurs Panel (2013-2015), is a co-founder of  the  Malaysian  Chapter  of  the  30%  Club  (a  business  campaign  lobbying  for  increased  women representation on the boards of Malaysian PLCs), is a Board Trustee for Tun Fatimah Hashim UKM Women  in  Leadership  &  sits  on  the Board  for  Protect  &  Save  the  Children  (non-profit organization focused on child protection from sexual abuse).

Jo Haigh, ICDM

Jo Haigh is a Faculty Member of ICDM. She is the CEO and founder of fds, which has bases in London, Birmingham and Yorkshire within the UK. An experienced dealmaker, Jo specialises in putting together the right deal at the right time and in the right format for growing businesses throughout the country. Jo is a regular presenter for Institute of Directors and Vistage on corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions.

As a member of ICDM Faculty, Jo Haigh is a regular presenter for ICDM Public Programme Series namely How to be an Effective NED in a Disruptive World programme that received overwhelmed responses from the participants.

Uantchern Loh, ICDM

Uantchern works with organisations on how to communicate their corporate culture through annual reports, internal communications, websites and social media. Through their purpose, mission and values, he helps organisations understand what stakeholders want to know about their tone at the top and corporate culture. As an adjunct professor at the School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences, he has taught extensively on ethics and risk management. His other research areas include corporate reporting, text analytics and behavioural science.

As a member of ICDM Faculty, Uantchern has conducted a public programme for ICDM on Cultural Diversity in the Boardroom.

Shai Ganu, ICDM

Shai Ganu is passionate about enhancing board effectiveness, combating climate change, ensuring cognitive diversity on boards, embedding ESG priorities, and driving meaningful behavioural change through incentives and human capital governance.

Shai is WTW’s Global Leader for Executive Compensation & Board Advisory business. He leads a team of over 500 exceptional consultants, across 40 countries, who are trusted advisors to clients on issues related to board and executive compensation, performance management and incentives, board effectiveness, organisation transformation, future of work, and human-capital governance. Based in Singapore, he has extensive experience working closely with the Boards and management teams of some of the largest companies in the world. He is a trusted advisor to more than 100 Boards, Remuneration Committees, Nomination Committees, and Sustainability Committees. He specialises in banking, insurance, real estate, and telecommunications industries, and works extensively with sovereign wealth funds, private equity, and family businesses.

Shai is also an associate university lecturer, faculty member at director associations in the region – and teaches courses related on Remuneration, Nomination, Talent Management, and Sustainability (ESG) matters.  He serves on Boards and HR Committees of leading companies and not-for-profit organisations in the region. He is a Fellow and Governing Council member of the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID), chairs its Partnerships Committee and is also a member of its ESG Committee. He is also a member of the global Governing Board of Climate Governance Initiative, a founding member of the ASEAN Climate Governance Network, and a Steering Committee member of Climate Governance Singapore.

As an ICDM Faculty, Shai has conducted the “The Role of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee in Human Capital Management” programme and spoken at ICDM’s signature PowerTalk Series as well as webinars. Shai was also a speaker at ICDM’s inaugural International Directors Summit, our facilitator for ICDM’s signature programme “Introduction to Corporate Directorship (ICD)”as well as a lead facilitator for ICDM’s board evaluation. He is also our selected expert facilitator for “Ask an Expert”, an on-demand hourly session by ICDM’s group of subject matter experts - to support companies in navigating through change, disruption, risks, challenges and uncertainties within their business and economic environment by providing strategic advice and guidance to actionable plans, especially during the recovery and rebuilding phase post pandemic.

Dr. Jayanthi Desan

Jayanthi is the founder and Managing Director of Synergio, one of Malaysia’s leading sustainability strategy consultancies. She has over 18 years experiencein the area of sustainability and governance, having shaped and influenced some of the sustainability best practices in the region, covering sectors involving banking and finance, utilities, oil and gas, plantation, property, construction, FMCG and industrial conglomerates.

As an experienced speaker and trainer, she has conducted training and lectures for institutions across Asia in various EGS areas, spanning disclosure, value mapping as well as frameworks and policies. A faculty member of ICDM, she co-facilitates in courses for Directors on ESG leadership.

Jayanthi’s work is fuelled by her belief in ‘business for good’ and how all businesses must invest in social and environmental capital in order to build longer term economic capital successfully. Apioneer in the field of sustainability, she has been part of multi-stakeholder engagement in the development of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). She has an LLB and LLM (Hons) from University of Malaya as well as a PhD in the area of standards of sustainability from Queen Mary, University of London.

Dr. Farouk Abdullah

Farouk is a digital and analytics business leader delivering organisational transformation in large companies in the UK, Europe and South East Asia. He is currently the CEO of Natural Intelligence Solutions.

Known as a radical thinker and a straight talker Farouk is obsessed with bringing real change to organisations and emphasizing on exponential growth. He has worked with organisations in multiple industries implementing enterprise-wide digital transformation projects, held an advisory role to C-Suites and established effective digital teams that deliver real change to organisations.

Farouk’s passion for digital, data and analytics has driven his belief that data and analytics must be used for the good of the society. He has spoken on numerous platforms globally to underline the importance of digital, data and analytics education for our next generation. Farouk was also one of ICDM’s speakers for the ICDM Digital Series for Boards in 2021 on the topic of Data Adoption and AI to Drive Better Business Decisions.

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