JALIL Rasheed has resigned as chief executive officer of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), citing harassment to him and his family during his nine-month stint leading the RM300 billion public fund management company.

In a letter to PNB staff sighted by The Malaysian Insight, the 38-year-old said he made the “lonely and devastating” decision to resign as he did not want to “drag PNB into this.”

“The last straw for me was the harassment I had to endure from hate calls from unknown numbers, hacking of my other corporate email account and my LinkedIn profile. This made me increasingly worry for the wellbeing of my family.

“In the end, I decided that it would be unfair to my family should matters escalate. We made a big financial and family sacrifice to relocate back to KL from Singapore because I truly wanted to contribute to nation building. I’m disappointed this has to come to an abrupt end.”

He said he will be taking some time off with his family “to gather my thoughts and decide on my next step.”

Jalil, a London School of Economics graduate who previously served as CEO of Southeast Asia for Invesco Ltd, said he does not regret joining PNB, describing staff members as supportive and dedicated.

“I’m so very proud of all of you for embracing the many changes that came your way; workplace transformation, flexible work arrangement, reorganisation of the firm, Focus-4, stewardship framework and embracing technology. Thank you for your commitment and never ending support.

“Always remember we have 14 million unitholders that depend on you to give them returns on their hard-earned money,” he added.

In a statement announcing Jalil’s appointment, PNB said the move was in line with the “government’s wish to make optimal use of Malaysian global talents and consistent with the fund’s strategic initiative to diversify its assets globally.”

Seasoned journalist A. Kadir Jasin, however, claimed that the removal by the Perikatan Nasional government was done on grounds that Jalil allegedly lied about his qualifications.

“The reason used could purely be one of misrepresentation about his alma mater,” Kadir wrote on his blog.

“He got his degree from University of London but he allegedly reported it as the LSE.”

The London School of Economics and Politics (LSE) is one of the 17 colleges under the University of London.

Jalil was the youngest chief of PNB and was appointed by Pakatan Harapan in October, replacing Abdul Rahman Ahmad.

His tenure was the shortest in the sovereign unit trust fund’s history.

PNB manages savings of over 14 million Malaysians and is a major shareholder in Sime Darby, MayBank, SP Setia, UMW, Malaysian Reinsurance and Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Bhd (MIDF).

Former Bank Negara chairman Zeti Akhtar Aziz is currently PNB chairman. – June 15, 2020.