By HARIZAH KAMEL / Pic By www.umw.com.my

DATIN Paduka Kartini Abdul Manaf (picture) has retired as deputy president of strategic investments at Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) effective Jan 1, 2020.

Following her retirement, both the strategic investments and private markets divisions — previously under her purview — will now report directly to PNB president and group CEO Jalil Rasheed.

PNB group chairman Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said Kartini has been a longstanding key member of PNB’s senior management team, driving the fund management firm’s major merger and acquisition (M&A) exercises.

“On behalf of the board of directors and the PNB family, I would like to express our gratitude and sincere appreciation to Kartini for her immense contribution to the group.

“We wish her well and look forward to continue working with Kartini in her role as PNB’s nominee director on the boards of some of our investee companies,” Zeti said in a statement yesterday.

Throughout Kartini’s 36 years at PNB, she served in various capacities and was involved in investment management, corporate finance and M&A, corporate restructuring, portfolio management, property investment and business development.

Kartini also served as chief strategy officer, heading the office of PNB president and group CEO prior to assuming her last position at the company.

The firm also said it has streamlined its organisation structure to better reflect the respective core functions and scope of its business units to “emulate best practices of leading global asset managers”, in a move to ensure greater operational efficiency across the board and further enhance performance levels.

Thus, the new leadership team — alongside the president and group CEO — now comprises 16 senior management personnel, each of whom heads a core business function within the group.

PNB also announced the appointment of Hafizuddin Sulaiman as group head of the newly established treasury division.

The division will manage the overall capital and liquidity management of the business, including fundraising and liability management.

“This new function was formed in line with PNB’s overall portfolio diversification strategy which includes increasing its global investment exposure,” the group said.

Hafizuddin has extensive experience in the areas of fundraising and financial reporting from his tenure at Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Ernst & Young Kuala Lumpur, it added.

Zeti said the changes will enable the firm to reinforce a more collaborative working arrangement across all layers of its organisation, thus allowing for a more effective decision-making process without compromising governance aspects.

“At the same time, the changes taking place will allow us to grow our talent pipeline in order to implement our strategic plan with the vision of becoming a distinctive world-class investment house,” she stated.