KUALA LUMPUR (May 5):Lembaga Tabung Haji (LTH) has appointed Syed Hamadah Syed Othman as its new managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), effective Saturday (May 6).

Syed Hamadah, who is the former CEO of Kumpulan Wang Persaraan Diperbadankan (KWAP), will replace Datuk Seri Amrin Awaluddin, who completed his two-year term of service as the pilgrim fund’s MD and CEO on Friday (May 5).

The Edge Malaysia weekly in its Jan 16-22, 2023 edition reported that Amrin was not keen to renew his contract with LTH, quoting sources. He took on the role on May 6, 2021 from Datuk Ni Mohd Hasyudeen, who himself led the pilgrim fund from Sept 1, 2019 to May 5, 2021.

Following his resignation as the nominee director of LTH, bourse filings showed that Amrin, 57, also resigned from the role of non-independent and non-executive directors of TH Plantations Bhd and Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd. 

On the new appointment, LTH said in a statement on Friday that Syed Hamadah is a director and partner at Actuarial Partners Consulting Sdn Bhd.

Syed Hamadah — who also served as KWAP CEO for two years from Nov 1, 2018 to Oct 31, 2020 — has more than 25 years of experience in consulting multinational and local organisations on pension design, funding, pension accounting, as well as mergers and acquisitions, said LTH.

"I am confident that with the extensive skills and experience possessed by Syed Hamadah, he will be able to continue efforts to strengthen TH in terms of governance and operations, to a more outstanding level in the future," LTH chairman Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar commented in the statement.

"LTH board members and senior management [also] express their appreciation and gratitude to Datuk Seri Amrin for his commitment and efforts in organising strategies to achieve the aspirations of Hijrah24 in boosting haj management activities, branch operations and investments, so that LTH continues to remain competitive, in line with the current trend in aspects of strengthening corporate governance structures, and digitisation initiatives,” he added.