While board remuneration practices have evolved significantly over the years, what constitute a fair compensation package continues to be one of the most talked about issues for the Board Nomination & Remuneration Committees. Taking into consideration factors such as the level of responsibilities, the complexity of the role as well as the size and industry of the company, the lingering questions however, remain – is the remuneration truly equitable and aligned with established policies and best practices? How are other similar companies remunerating their boards?
In view of the above, ICDM in collaboration with WTW and Bursa Malaysia has embarked in this study to deepen our understanding of prevailing industry practices relating to board and senior management practices in Malaysia. Find out more and gain insights on prevailing industry practices. Pick up some practical tips for your board and senior management remuneration strategies from your peers.
Sign up now at www.icdm.com.my. Send us your burning questions or issues you would like to bring up during the dialogue session to advocacy@icdm.com.my.
Programme Agenda
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 2.00 pm | Context Setting Michele Kythe Lim, President & CEO of ICDM |
| 2.05 pm | Opening Remarks Julian M Hashim, Chief Regulatory Officer, Bursa Malaysia Berhad |
| 2.10 pm | Presentation:
Key Insights into the Board & Senior Management Remuneration Practices Review in Malaysia
|
| 2.40 pm | Sharing Session & Open Dialogue with Attendees: Balancing the Scales of Board Remuneration This dialogue session will be held under the Chatham House Rule. Panellists:
Moderator: Shai Ganu, Managing Director & Global Leader – Executive Compensation & Board Advisory, WTW |
| 4.00 pm | Session Ends |
Speaker’s Profile
Michele Kythe Lim
President & CEO
ICDM
Michele brings with her leadership and advisory experience on a wide spectrum of corporate governance and boardroom matters that includes board, committees and director effectiveness evaluation, competency development needs, remuneration and succession planning, legal and compliance, and corporate performance. Her passion in developing high-performing people has been the driving force in making her a forward-looking leader in the corporate sector.
Michele was Group Head, Corporate Secretarial and General Counsel for the last five years with IHH Healthcare Berhad, one of the largest listed healthcare providers globally. She oversaw legal, corporate secretarial and governance functions across several jurisdictions such as Singapore, Turkey, India, Asia Pacific, North Asia and the CEEMENA region while keeping watch on local matters.
Some of the key areas she was instrumental on includes mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, joint ventures, corporate schemes, and operational matters. She was also on the Board of Directors on a subsidiary board and Chief Sustainability Officer in charge of sustainability reporting and practices for the Group.
Prior to IHH, Michele spent six years from 2006 to 2012 at Malaysia’s national car manufacturer Proton Holdings Bhd where she held various positions in the Group Legal division, including Chief Legal Counsel. She was also board member of several Proton Holdings Berhad local and foreign subsidiaries and associated companies, member of the Group Management Committee, Management Audit Committee, Group Risk Management Committee, various project steering committees and task forces.
Upon leaving legal practice at Shook Lin & Bok where she specialised in the areas of banking, commercial/corporate, land and tort, Michele joined Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Bhd in 1998 until 2005 as Assistant General Manager in its Legal Affairs and Risk Division. Here she oversaw negotiations in project conception, acquisitions of syndicated/bilateral domestic and foreign loans, club deals, share sale agreements, and risk participation agreements.
Michele holds a LLB Hons degree from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (1991) and is a Barrister-at-Law at Middle Temple, London, England. She has been an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya since October 1993. She completed the Senior Management Development Programme of Harvard Business School in 2009, Professionalism in Directorship Programme by Malaysian Alliance of Corporate Directors (MACD) in 2012 and the NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women (NIEW) Women Directors’ Training Programme in 2014. Michele is also a licensed company secretary.
Julian M Hashim
Chief Regulatory Officer
Bursa Malaysia Berhad
Julian, an advocate & solicitor of the High Court of Malaysia, was a founder partner of a leading Kuala Lumpur law firm. In his 25 odd years of legal practice, Julian advised on all aspects of corporate transactional work including international and domestic M&As, take overs and capital market transactions. Julian also advised his clients on their on-going reporting obligations, corporate governance requirements and other compliance matters.
As the Chief Regulatory Officer of the Exchange, Julian and his team at Bursa Regulation undertakes regulatory functions of Bursa Malaysia Berhad and its licensed subsidiaries ranging from regulatory strategies and policies, listing, market and corporate surveillance, governance and sustainability, participant supervision, investigation and enforcement.
Julian is also the Chair of Sub-Committee 2: Governance & Disclosures of the Joint Committee on Climate Change (JC3) as well as a member of the newly established Advisory Committee on Sustainability Reporting (ACSR), a national-level committee set up to support the implementation of the IFRS sustainability disclosure standards (ISSB Standards) in the country
Vivian Ko
Head of Research & Advocacy
ICDM
Vivian brings with her diverse skills and experience ranging from research, knowledge management, process reengineering, programme design to stakeholder relations and communications. Having worked with various professional organisations in Malaysia including PwC, ACCA and FIDE FORUM, she has developed several key publications, built knowledge databases, managed awards and conferences, oversaw membership strategies, board and assurance services as well as finance. Spearheading research at ICDM, Vivian plays a central role in driving key studies on governance practices, trends and emerging issues as well as leads the advocacy efforts in elevating the voices of directors. She is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA)
Dr Tan Juan Jim
Managing Director, Head of Work & Rewards Business,
South Asia, ASEAN and Malaysia
WTW
Dr. Juan Jim Tan (“Jim”) is the current Managing Director for HR Advisory Business of Willis Towers Watson (WTW) South Asia, ASEAN and Malaysia. He leads the overall business providing end-to-end solutions to various industries and largest clients in Malaysia and the region.
Jim has over 20 years of professional work experiences in computational science, management consulting and line management. Jim held positions as CHRO for IHH Healthcare Berhad and Parkway Pantai Limited, the second largest listed healthcare group globally directly managing the operations of over 30,000 employees in 6 countries.
Prior to that, he was a Research Scientist at Institute of High Performance Computing, Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore (ASTAR). He has authored over 20 international scientific publications, contributed to industry specifications in AI and delivered several key projects on intelligent systems in cyber security and GRID computing. Jim was also part of an EU research consortium pioneering the first multi intelligent agent platform AGENTCITIES.RTD, which was shortlisted as one of the finalists for the prestigious European Descartes Prize.
Jim holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence under scholarship with EU Research Funding and a MSc in e-Commerce Engineering from Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London.
Dato Dr Nik Ramlah Mahmood
Senior INED and Board Nomination & Remuneration Committee Chair
Axiata Group Berhad
Dato Dr Nik Ramlah retired as Deputy Chief Executive of Securities Commission Malaysia in March 2016, having joined the organisation in 1993 as Manager for Law Reform and Regulatory Policy.
Throughout her 23 years at the SC, Dato Dr Nik Ramlah has worked in areas ranging from legal and regulatory reform, product and market development, corporate governance, Islamic capital market, enforcement and investor education.
Dato Dr Nik Ramlah is currently a member of the MIFC Leadership Council and is a board member of INCEIF University as well as the Institute for Capital Market Research Malaysia. She is also Board member of Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia, Permodalan Nasional Berhad, Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad, Axiata Group Berhad, United Malacca Berhad and EDOTCO Group Sdn Bhd.
Prior to joining the SC, Dato Dr Nik Ramlah was an Associates Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya.
Dato Dr Nik Ramlah holds an LLB Honours (First Class) from the University of Malaya and LLM and PhD from the University of London. For her PhD she was a recipient of the Association of Commonwealth Universities scholarship.
Mohd Azman Sulaiman
Nomination & Remuneration Committee Chair
Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Keluarga Berhad
Azman is 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-Suite 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 Fellow & Faculty Member of the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia (ICDM).
Rejina Rahim
Advisor
Institutional Investor Council Malaysia
Rejina started off her career in stock broking before joining the fund management industry in 1998.
She has under her belt 25 years in the Malaysian capital markets. Up till end 2021, Rejina was the Founding MD for the Malaysian office of Nomura Asset Management which she grew from scratch to an award winning firm with over MYR30 billion in assets under management.
She remains actively involved with the industry through her advisory and board roles as well as various industry committees including Islamic finance and women leadership. Rejina is a well known advocate for DEI and Governance
She was one of the inaugural 2021 Listee of the Kindness & Leadership 50 Leading Lights Asia Pacific and was also named by Asia Asset Management magazine as 25 industry leaders of the Asian asset management industry.
She started Wahine (pronounced Wa-hee-nay) Capital as a means of securing the financial future of women and they have just released their first product, W Vault on 28th May 2023. She is also a proud mum to two adults who live in Auckland, New Zealand and the only child of septuagenarian parents.
Shai Ganu
Managing Director & Global Leader – Executive Compensation & Board Advisory,
WTW
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.
