Mohd Munir Abdul Majid

President
ASEAN Business Club

Tan Sri Dr. Munir returned from his studies and work experience in the UK as a university tutor and research analyst in the City of London at the end of 1978, and started work in Malaysia as leader writer for the New Straits Times. He progressed to the position of Group Editor before leaving in 1986 to become Chief Executive Officer of a small merchant bank Pertanian Baring Sanwa, whose name he changed to Commerce International Merchant Bankers (CIMB), which was then transformed into one of Malaysia’s leading merchant banks. In 1993, he was invited by the Government of Malaysia to establish the Securities Commission, where he served as founding Executive Chairman for two terms until 1999. He was instrumental in shaping the legal and regulatory framework of the capital markets in Malaysia, particularly in establishing disclosure-based regulation. He was also responsible for drafting the country’s first code of corporate governance in the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98. He was the Chairman of the Emerging Markets Committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions during his term at Malaysia’s Securities Commission. After leaving the Securities Commission, he became Independent Non-Executive Director of Telekom Malaysia Berhad, Chairman of Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad and Non-Executive Chairman of Malaysian Airline System Berhad. He was Founder President of the Kuala Lumpur Business Club, established in 2003 and is a member of the Court of Fellows of the Malaysian Institute of Management. He is currently Chairman respectively of Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad, of CIMB ASEAN Research Institute and of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, Malaysia, as well as President of the ASEAN Business Club. He also sits on the board of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia and on the Financial Services Talent Council of Bank Negara Malaysia. He writes a fortnightly column, in the Saturday BizStar section of The Star newspaper.

Tan Sri Dr. Munir obtained a B.Sc (Econ) and Ph.D in international relations from the London School of Economic and Political Science (LSE) in 1971 and 1978. He is an Honorary Fellow of LSE and continues the long association with his alma mater as Visiting Senior Fellow at the Centre of International affairs, Diplomacy and Strategy.