Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Abdul Taib, Datuk Seri (Photo credit: cmsb.my)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (July 8): Datuk Seri Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Abdul Taib has been named as the new managing director of Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS), succeeding Datuk Isaac Lugun.
According to CMSB’s bourse filing, Isaac has been re-designated as a non-independent and non-executive director.
From March 2008 to December 2009, Sulaiman, the brother of CMSB deputy chairman Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, was the deputy minister of tourism.
In 1995, he was appointed to the CMSB board of directors, and he retired in 2008. He held the positions of chairman, deputy chairman, acting group chief executive officer, and executive director at CMSB during his time there.
Isaac Lugun, Datuk (Photo credit: cmsb.my)
CMSB chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid has welcomed Sulaiman’s appointment, adding that Sulaiman’s knowledge with the group and wide-ranging commercial experience will be beneficial to the organization.
“This shift is due to Datuk Isaac’s early retirement, but he will remain with the group as a non-independent, non-executive director,” he explained.
Sulaiman, he continued, brings a plethora of banking, finance, and insurance experience to the table, having served as executive chairman of RHB Capital Bhd and its group of companies.
Just last month, CMSB reshuffled the members of its audit committee, as well as the nomination and remuneration committee. This followed claims of a conflict of interest in contract awarding and probable financial mismanagement among the company’s top executives.
CMSB also hired KPMG Management & Risk Consulting Sdn Bhd to assess the financial management of certain investments and contracts as an independent consultant.
On April 22, Abu Bekir requested a leave of absence from all of his positions within the organization, as CMSB began an investigation into claims of conflict of interest involving him and former chief information officer Karl Vink @ Khalid Abdullah.
Following that, on May 5, the business reported that group chief financial officer Syed Hizam Alsagoff had been suspended for 30 days to allow for investigations into allegations of suspected financial misconduct in the company’s investments and operations.
The Sarawak conglomerate announced the board’s request for Abu Bekir to stay the next day, after concluding that the claim of a potential conflict of interest between Abu Bekir and Karl Vink was “without merit.”
CMSB’s stock fell nine sen today, or 7.2 percent, to RM1.16, giving the company a market capitalization of RM1.25 billion.
Year to date, the stock has lost 46% of its value./n
