KHAZANAH Nasional Bhd has appointed Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn and Azmil Zahruddin Raja Abdul Aziz to the newly created posts of deputy managing directors, effective January 1. 

Khazanah made the announcement in a statement following a board directors’ meeting in Langkawi today.

It is widely speculated that whoever becomes the deputy managing director will be in pole position to take over when the managing director of 15 years, Azman Mokhtar leaves upon the expiry of his contract in 2019.

A panel has been formed to select his successor from a list of candidates, among which are Arul Kanda Kandasamy of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), and Tengku Zafrul Aziz of CIMB Group, which is a unit of Khazanah, but Khazanah chairman, Prime Minister Najib Razak has yet not made his preference clear. 

Meanwhile, Khazanah today named Andrew Sheng the new Khazanah Research Institute chairman. He replaces Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who resigned in September over a 30-year-old Bank Negara financial scandal. Nor Mohamed was named the person responsible for the central bank’s forex speculation losses by the inquiry investigating the affair last month.

Md Nor Yusof is the new board executive committee chairman.

Khazanah said Nor would chair with immediate effect the board nomination and remuneration committee that was formed as a result of a streamlining of the human capital oversight functions of the board exco and the board committee for succession management. – December 11, 2017.