From Cemerlang.org
Meet The Speakers
Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli, Group CEO of RHB Banking Group
Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli is currently the Group Managing Director of RHB Banking Group. He has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services and capital markets industry, where he has held senior positions in well-established regional financial institutions.
He is also a Council member of The Association of Banks in Malaysia and the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers. His knowledge and experience have earned him the “Best CFO in Malaysia Award” in 2010 and 2011 from Finance Asia and the “Best CFO in Malaysia Award” in 2012 from Alpha Southeast Asia.
Dato’ Khairussaleh graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School.
Mustamir Mohamad, Group CFO of Sime Darby Berhad
He began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers, London in 1995, managing audit clients in the Oil & Gas sector. He then returned to Malaysia in 1999 and joined the Banking Supervision Department in Bank Negara Malaysia. In 2005, he left Bank Negara having served as the Manager of Investment Operations and Financial Markets, to begin his career at Sime Darby Group.
Encik Mustamir holds an accounting and finance degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and has also attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants and a member of the Board of Governors and Board of Trustees for Kolej Tunku Ja’afar.
Siti Suhaila Mohamad, ex-management consultant for McKinsey
Siti Suhaila Mohamad is a former management consultant and was in consulting for almost two decades, serving both the public and private sectors. She started her consulting career at McKinsey & Company in 2000. Prior to that, she was in Shell Malaysia Trading. After leaving McKinsey, she took on a more flexible work arrangement as a freelancer and served with the likes of Ethos & Co, and Booz & Co in Kuala Lumpur, before joining the UK based Delivery Associates (DA) in mid-2014 until her last project in 2018.
Her work was mostly focused on public sector reform in Malaysia, Brunei and the Middle East. The work had seen her being heavily involved in government and public service delivery transformation, and public policy and strategy development. She also led the initial set-up of Yayasan 1Malaysia (1Malaysia Foundation, currently known as Yayasan Perpaduan Malaysia), a non-profit organisation with the critical objective of promoting unity and harmony amongst the different races and ethnicities in Malaysia. She later on also served as a member of the Board of Trustees.
Pn Suhaila holds two bachelor degrees. She read and received a BA in Politics and International Studies from Warwick University, before pursuing her second BA (with MA) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar.
Currently, she is a full-time mother of three boys, a wife, and a homemaker who still seeks to deliver impact in what little ways she can.
Highlights
- The speakers shared their experience and how different it was compared to what their children experience today.
- Emphasis was put on the right mindset to set out the lifestyle of these captains of industry, the speakers mentioned that being a leader was not the end goal, but merely the result of their experience and tenacity in making an impact in their respective fields.
- Coming from humble beginnings, they shared their inspiring journey into climbing the corporate ladder whilst mentioning that it is of the utmost importance to not forget one’s roots and thus give back to the community.
- Sometimes you have to go above and beyond to achieve greater heights, one of the pieces of advice the speakers gave. By sharing their experience in the early stages of their career, they told that sometimes you have to do things beyond your job scope in order to survive in the corporate world.
- “At times, uncertainties and not knowing, take us on the most amazing journeys”. It is important to plan ahead, but we cannot always be in control and that is what makes life even more interesting.
- The speakers also shared their experiences in balancing work and family. How they struggled in the beginning but have since then worked on improving their relationship with their family. They mentioned how the reality is that you have to burn the midnight oil in the office so that you would have more ample time with the family.
- Guiding and being present in the lives of their children became a big aspect during the talk. One speaker mentioned how this was not apparent while he was growing up and how this is a way of him ending that cycle. It is important for parents to follow as to build a healthier relationship with their children.
- From making a difference in just one person’s life to making big steps in their respective companies, the speakers shared their personal anecdotes on the impacts they are most proud of and the impacts that they are still working towards.
