This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 5, 2023 - June 11, 2023
SPECULATION that Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is getting a new managing director (MD) has begun again. This rumour has emerged as Datuk Iskandar Mizal Mahmood’s two-year tenure at the helm of the government-linked company is expiring in October.
MAHB has had five MDs over the past two decades. Prior to that, the airport operator was helmed by the late Tan Sri Basir Ismail, who had served as executive chairman since its corporatisation exercise in 1992. During his tenure, Basir saw the opening of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in 1998.
The company’s first and longest-serving MD was Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid, who assumed his post in June 2003. Bashir led the company for 11 years, during which time it saw significant growth, as well as the opening of KLIA’s second terminal for low-cost carriers, klia2, in 2014. Bashir stepped down in 2014 and subsequently served as adviser to the board of directors until 2017.
Datuk Mohd Badlisham Ghazali succeeded Bashir as MD in June 2014. He left the company after a four-year stint.
The two MDs after Mohd Badlisham had shorter stints working at MAHB. Badlisham was replaced by Raja Azmi Nazuddin, who was the company’s chief financial officer from 2016 to 2018. Raja Azmi had been the acting CEO of the airport operator since June 2018, before he was promoted to the position of group CEO in January 2019. However, he stepped down from his post after just over a year.
Raja Azmi was succeeded by Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh, who was then the chief operating officer of MAHB, and promoted to group CEO in March 2020 just before the Covid-19 crisis hit. He resigned from his position in October 2021. The end of Mohd Shukrie’s tenure was marred by a dispute between MAHB and property firm WCT Holdings Bhd over the redevelopment of the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (Subang Airport) in Subang, Selangor.
Iskandar Mizal, 57, has been heading MAHB since October 2021.
But critics posit that shorter stints in the top job have a serious impact on the MDs’ or CEOs’ ability to do their job properly. “He or she should be allowed to see through plans that they have laid out,” says an industry analyst.
The position of CEO or MD at MAHB is appointed by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) with approval from the prime minister. According to Iskandar Mizal, MAHB’s policy is that an MD above 55 years old can only sign a contract for a period of two years, while those below 55 years old will have a tenure of three years.
“I am only focused on what I have to do and I can only do things that are within my control, like making changes to the organisation’s DNA (culture), implementing the transformation plan and looking forward to international expansion and other big-ticket items. I have a plan and I am institutionalising the plan [so that it can proceed] even if I am not here,” Iskandar Mizal tells The Edge.
“Of course, every organisation must have continuity. You must see certain things through, but that is not for me to say. As far as I am concerned, I have a plan, a management team and now we need to get all the other people to get involved,” he adds.
Critics also point to MAHB’s current board members having no aviation experience apart from its MD, and the board’s past failure to respond quickly over upgrades of the KLIA Aerotrain, baggage handling system, and ageing information technology system and equipment.
To this, Iskandar Mizal says: “As a seasoned MD, no matter how experienced your board members are, I still need to adapt. If I need to explain more, then I will. The governance must be there. You must be able to come up with a considered opinion. I cannot just expect whatever I say people will follow.”
Since April, MAHB has announced the departure of four directors, leaving the board with eight. They comprise non-executive chairman Tan Sri Zainun Ali (former Federal Court judge), Iskandar Mizal, Wong Shu Hsien (as nominee director of Khazanah Nasional Bhd), Rohaya Mohammad Yusof (as nominee director of the Employees Provident Fund [EPF]), Datuk Zamzuri Abdul Aziz (MoF deputy secretary general [policy]), and independent directors — Datuk Mohamad Husin, Ramanathan Sathiamutty (former MD of IBM Malaysia) and Cheryl Khor Hui Peng (former director of Deloitte Southeast Asia).
Khazanah Nasional is the largest shareholder of MAHB, with a 33.24% stake. EPF owns 13.52%, while Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) holds a 6.72% stake.
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