Up the ranks: Telekom Malaysia appoints Farid Basir as its new HR head

Telekom Malaysia (TM) has announced the appointment of Farid Basir as its new chief human capital officer (CHCO) effective 1 October 2018. He takes over the position previously covered by Suhaimi Sulong as the acting CHCO since early this year.

According to a media release, prior to his appointment, Farid was the chief human capital officer at Bank Rakyat for almost three years.

Before that, he has assumed various human resource-related roles at several organisations including Etiqa and Nestle. During his 11-year tenure at Nestle, Farid took on several key positions and assignments abroad, continentally at its home-base Switzerland and South Africa, and regionally, in the Philippines.

He is an alumnus of International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Switzerland and Cambridge Islamic Finance Programme. Under his belt are four global professional certifications, namely Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI)-HR Management Professional, HRCI-Global HR Professional, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)-Senior Certified Professional and Global Remuneration Professional.

Commenting on the new appointment, Datuk Bazlan Osman, acting group chief executive officer, TM said: "We are excited to welcome Farid on board to lead group human capital management as our new chief human capital officer. Farid is no stranger to TM; he was a TM scholar and started his career here back in 1994. With his experience in TM as well as in various other industries, I am confident that Farid is fully capable to give the boost the company needs as we continue our journey and face the challenging road ahead.

"At the same time, on behalf of the management of TM, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Suhaimi Sulong for stepping up to hold the reins at group human capital management division, especially during the critical period when we first started our Performance Improvement Plan 2018 (PIP 2018) journey. Under his supervision, we have introduced many new and out-of-the-box initiatives to help increase the company’s productivity and flexibility."

TM welcomes four new board memebers

In the same statement, announced the appointment of four new directors effective 3 October 2018 to further strengthen the board composition in taking the TM Group to the next level and also as part of its board refresh.

The new directors are Dato' Asri Hamidin @ Hamidon, Dato' Mohd Naim Daruwish, Hisham Zainal Mokhtar, and Saheran Suhendran. The appointments followed the resignation of David Benello as an Independent Non-Executive Director with effect from the same date.

The group chairman of TM, Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr. Sulaiman Mahbob, welcomed the new board members and CHCO saying: "On behalf of the board and management, I am very pleased with the appointments and welcome the new directors on board. This is a distinguished line up of individuals who will be able to take TM forward into the future. The board and the senior management have, between them, vast experience and the expertise necessary in their respective fields – ranging from strategic management, economics, corporate finance and restructuring to law. This strengthens the composition of the TM leadership bench as we move forward with our ongoing transformation. I look forward to working with all of them and am excited to see them contribute their knowledge and wisdom."

Photo / provided