KUALA LUMPUR: Heineken Malaysia Bhd has named Martijn Rene van Keulen as the company's managing director (MD) effective from July 1. 

Van  Keulen will replace Roland Bala who will be taking up the position of MD for Multi Bintang Indonesia. 

Roland will also relinquish his directorships in all subsidiary companies of Heineken Malaysia with effect from the same day.

Van Keulen is currently Heineken Myanmar MD, where he led his team to drive an ambitious transformation agenda and delivered strong performance despite extremely challenging times. 

Prior to that, he held the position of MD  of Grande Brasserie de Nouvelle-Caledonie, a producer and distributor of beers and non-alcoholic drinks in New Caledonia. 

He was general manager of Heineken Kirin Japan and account director for Modern Trade and Convenience at Heineken Netherlands for five years. 

He joined Heineken International in 2000 and held various commercial positions before taking on the role as global account manager for the Heineken Global Duty Free and Travel Retail business where he spent four years.

Meanwhile, Roland has helmed the position of Heineken Malaysia's MD since September 2018. 

Over the past five years, Roland has dealt with major challenges arising from the brewery lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He implemented various key initiatives including the setting-up of e-commerce platforms from business-to-business to business-to-consumer, re-organisation of the sales structure and the brewery upgrades.