By BERNAMA / Pic By RAZAK GHAZALI

PETROLIAM Nasional Bhd (Petronas) president and group CEO Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin (picture) is once again recognised as the only Asean and oil and gas (O&G) CEO from Asia in the list of 100 best global Brand Guardians for 2020, by Brand Finance, the world’s leading brand valuation authority.

Globally, Wan Zulkiflee is ranked at No 58 in this year’s list, up from 93 in the previous year. He received the recognition from Brand Finance due to his far-sighted stewardship of the company in matters of business, brand and sustainability, as well as prudent management in steering the national O&G company and industry forward.

Other eminent business leaders in the Brand Guardians 2020 list include LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, Facebook Inc’s Mark Zuckerberg and Shell’s Ben van Beurden.

Petronas was also recognised as Asean’s most valuable brand once again, with the highest brand value growth across all regional brands in the Global 500 at US$15.2 billion (RM61.71 billion). Brand Finance mainly attributed this recognition to the company’s stronger business performance and strong and positive forecast.

This recognition complements Petronas’ climb up in this year’s Top 500 Most Valuable Brands list to No 120 from 130 the previous year.

Brand Finance CEO David Haigh said: “Petronas, along with all the O&G giants, is facing persistent market volatility. In facing the challenges, the company has clearly set its intentions to strive towards delivering energy solutions in a more sustainable manner, while strengthening its resiliency and continuing to be agile.”

Based on the world’s top companies by portfolio brand value, the Brand Guardianship Index rates CEOs to capture how well they measure up as brand managers and ambassadors.

Similar to its Brand Strength Index, Brand Finance’s new metric score of zero to 100 considers multiple inputs reflecting CEOs’ success in investment, guardian equity and performance.

The 2020 iteration of the Brand Finance Global 500 report on the world’s most valuable brands across all sectors and countries was announced yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. — Bernama