KUALA LUMPUR: The Land Public Transport Commission, Malaysia (SPAD) has appointed Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah as its chief executive officer (CEO), replacing Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal who will join the Finance Ministry’s wholly-owned unit MyHSR Corp Sdn Bhd, as its CEO to oversee the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail link project.

In a statement yesterday, SPAD said Mohd Azharuddin’s appointment as its CEO was with immediate effect.

Prior to his appointment, Mohd Azharuddin was director of urban public transport for Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley at the Performance Management and Delivery Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department. He had also held various key positions, such as in Microsoft Malaysia, where he was the director of public sector group for Malaysia, and Khazanah Nasional Bhd, where he was the senior vice-president of special projects.

Mohd Azharuddin was also attached with Royal Dutch Shell plc, having undertaken assignments in both Malaysia and its corporate headquarters in London. In his new role, Mohd Azharuddin’s immediate responsibilities include accelerating the growth of a viable Land Public Transport (LPT) ecosystem as envisaged in the National Land Public Transport Master Plan.

SPAD chairman Tan Sri Dr Syed Hamid Jaafar Albar said Mohd Azharuddin’s strong credentials and extensive experience in the LPT sector makes him the right leader for SPAD, as the commission gears up to drive more people centric mobility and connectivity. 

“I look forward to working closely with [Mohd] Azharuddin to build seamless multimodal integration to make public transport as the mode of choice for all Malaysians.

 “The commission would like to put on record its sincerest appreciation to Mohd Nur Ismal for his dedication and contributions in his five years as the CEO of SPAD,” said Syed Hamid.

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on September 2, 2015.