KUALA LUMPUR (April 25): Heineken Malaysia Bhd announced on Thursday that it has nominated Martijn Rene van Keulen as its new managing director (MD).

Martijn, currently MD of Heineken Myanmar, will succeed Roland Bala, who is set to step down from his role as Heineken Malaysia MD on July 1 after over five and half years in the job that he was appointed to in September 2018, according to the brewery company’s statement on Thursday.

Roland will also be relinquishing his directorships across all subsidiaries of Heineken Malaysia on the same day, before assuming the MD post at Multi Bintang Indonesia — an Indonesia-based brewer that is also part of the Heineken group.

“Under his leadership, Heineken Malaysia has grown its business in a very challenging environment and delivered a record performance for the year 2022.

“Roland has successfully boosted the performance of the group, leveraging the Heineken Global EverGreen strategy with a focus on meeting the needs of the consumers and customers by ensuring effective commercial execution, driving sales transformation, improving cost efficiency and uplifting the sustainability initiatives,” said Heineken Malaysia.

Shares of Heineken closed 1.57% or 36 sen higher at RM23.36 on Thursday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM7.06 billion.