This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 9, 2024 - September 15, 2024

AFTER four years of serving on the boards of directors of Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) and its parent Malaysia Aviation Group Bhd (MAG), Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin is retiring as non-executive group chairman, people familiar with the matter say. He is leaving the group as early as the middle of this month.

Aviation veteran Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid is viewed as the leading replacement for Wan Zulkiflee. Bashir Ahmad joined the boards of both MAG and MAB as non-executive director on Aug 12.

According to sources, Wan Zulkiflee’s planned exit has nothing to do with the flight disruption issues that the national carrier is currently facing for he had already expressed his intention to retire from the boards of MAG and MAB months ago.

“Wan Zulkiflee doesn’t want to renew his contract,” a source says.

Another source believes Bashir Ahmad is the right person for the job as he has over 50 years of experience in leadership roles in the aviation industry. “He currently advises India’s GMR Airports Group. And with his previous experience as managing director of Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) (KL:AIRPORT), his appointment [at MAG and MAB] will ensure the proposed privatisation of MAHB can work with MAG,” says the source.

A consortium led by Khazanah Nasional Bhd and the Employees Provident Fund has proposed to privatise MAHB at RM11 per share, in a deal valued at over RM12 billion. The transaction is currently pending regulatory approvals.

Sources see Bashir Ahmad’s appointment to the chairmanship taking the same route as that of economist Dr Nungsari Ahmad Radhi, who first joined the board of MAHB in May as its non-executive director before being appointed non-executive chairman four days later.

Bashir Ahmad is currently the non-executive chairman of Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd — the wholly-owned transit arm of the Ministry of Finance since April 2023. He is no stranger to Malaysia Airlines having served the national carrier for 29 years.

From 2001 to 2003, he was aviation adviser to the Ministry of Transport. He then became the longest-serving managing director of MAHB from 2003 to 2014, and subsequently its adviser until 2017.

Wan Zulkiflee has been a chairman of MAG and MAB since July 2020. He is best known for steering Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) as its president and group CEO from April 2015 to June 2020. He had been in the service of the national oil and gas company for 37 years. After retiring from his position as president and group CEO, he was on the board of Petronas for more than 12 years, from August 2007 to June 2020.

Wan Zulkiflee also chairs the boards of diversified business conglomerate DRB-Hicom Bhd (KL:DRBHCOM), Gas Malaysia Bhd (KL:GASMSIA) and EON Petromin Sdn Bhd. Most recently, in May, he was appointed chairman of Nestlé (Malaysia) Bhd (KL:NESTLE).

In a Sept 3 Linkedin post, Shukor Yusof, aviation research firm Endau Analytics founder and analyst, says a new chairman will sit on the board of MAG “in a couple of weeks”. 

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