KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): Datuk Nik Airina Nik Jaffar, director of special projects and corporate finance at UEM Group Bhd, is said to have been appointed as the new managing director and chief executive officer of PLUS Malaysia Bhd, according to sources.

Nik Airina is also MD of UEM Builders Bhd, and the former chief operating officer (COO) of PLUS Expressways Bhd.

She has almost 30 years of experience in transport infrastructure planning, development and implementation as well as operations and maintenance, having been involved in the development/management of various infrastructure projects including the North-South Expressway (NSE), North-South Expressway Central Link (NSECL), Cikopo-Palimanan Toll Road in Indonesia, Manila-Cavite Expressway in the Philippines, LRT Extension, G-G institutional strengthening initiatives for the National Highways Authority of India as well as the Pan Borneo Sabah project.

Currently, Nik Airina also sits on the board of CIDB Malaysia, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, and several other subsidiaries within UEM Group, including ProHawk, PLUS Expressways International Bhd, UEM Suria Bhd and Borneo Highway PDP Sdn Bhd.

The MD and CEO post at PLUS Malaysia, a government-linked company co-owned by UEM Group (51%) and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Board (49%), has been vacant for some three months.

This follows the departure of Datuk Azman Ismail at the end-December last year when his term expired.

Azman had been at the helm of PLUS Malaysia for six years following his appointment on Jan 1, 2017 as MD and CEO, replacing Datuk Noorizah Abdul Hamid, who had opted to retire.

The Edge understands that the company has formed an interim executive committee to assume the responsibilities and perform the functions of the MD/CEO.

The exco members comprise UEM Group executive director Datuk Mohd Izani Ghani, EPF chief financial officer (CFO) Mohamad Hafiz Kassim, as well as PLUS Malaysia’s COO Datuk Zakaria Ahmad Zabidi, CFO Ahmad Rizal Omar and chief people officer Shazalina Ahmad.