FGV appoints Khairil Anuar as officer-in-charge to assume Zakaria’s duties

Interview with FGV executive vice president cluster head (trading,marketing and logistics) Datuk Khairil Anuar Aziz. SAMUEL ONG / THE STAR, 7TH DECEMBER 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) has appointed Datuk Khairil Anuar Aziz, chief operating officer (logistics & others sector), as the officer-in-charge to take over the duties and responsibilities of the group president and chief executive officer Datuk Zakaria Arshad.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the company also announced that the board executive committee had been disbanded with immediate effect from Thursday, July 20.

The committee was formed in early June to take over the responsibility to perform Zakaria’s functions. It comprised two FGV directors, Datuk Dr Omar Salim and Datuk Mohd Zafer Mohd Hashim, together with head of logistics cluster Azman Ahmad.

On  Monday, FGV acting chairman Tan Sri Sulaiman Mahbob said the investigation on Zakaria, who had been told to go on indefinite leave of absence from June 6 in relation to a probe on deals under FGV subsidiary Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd, was expected to be completed by Aug 14.

In the latest announcement, FGV noted that Khairil Anuar had been with the FGV group since 2012. 

He was born and bred in Felda Sungai Klah, Sungkai, Perak, and is the second generation of Felda settlers.

In a May 2013 interview with StarBiz, he said: “My parents were simple villagers from Bagan Datoh, Perak, in 1964 who moved to become settlers at the Felda scheme.

“I grew up on my parents’ eight acres of rubber plantation and two acres of oil palm estate and most of my siblings know how to tap rubber.”

Before coming on board FGV, Khairil Anuar was chief executive of an associate research and development company under Universiti Sains Malaysia.

“MLABS Systems Bhd was successfully listed and I believe it was the first company related to a public tertiary institution to be listed locally,” he says.

Asked if he had imagined himself being where he was then (as FGV chief operating officer for domestic division) during his childhood, Khairil Anuar replied with a chuckle: “As an anak Felda, the top three choices were always police, teacher and fire brigade, because these are the three people you always see in your environment until you start to go out and see the world.”