Tunku Tun Aminah Sultan Ibrahim Ismail has been appointed non-executive chairman.
PETALING JAYA: Berjaya Corp
Bhd (BCorp) has announced the first all-female board among listed companies with Tunku Tun Aminah Sultan Ibrahim Ismail (pic) taking over as non-executive chairman.
Tan Sri Vincent Tan will assume the role of adviser to “provide guidance to the board and support the continued growth of the group”, according to a statement released by BCorp.
Incidentally, the shake-up will see Aminah leading the all-female boardroom at BCorp, which also consists of Vincent’s daughters Nerine Tan Sheik Ping as joint chief executive officer (CEO) and executive director – joining Vivienne Cheng Chi Fan as CEO – and Chryseis Tan Sheik Ling as executive director.
Cheng joined BCorp’s board as executive director in September 2005, and was appointed as joint-CEO in April last year.
The rest of the line-up sees Norlela Baharudin taking up the appointment of executive director, with Dr Jayanti Naidu G Danasamy, Penelope Gan Paik Ling and Datuk Leong Kwei Chun retaining their posts as independent non-executive directors.
The new boardroom measures up to the group’s policy of promoting women empowerment in the company, with Vincent mentioning in BCorp’s 2022 annual report that female representation in the boardroom last year was already at 64%, exceeding the 30% recommended under the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance.
Commenting on the latest changes, he said the exercise reflected the group’s commitment to women empowerment in the workplace.
“I have every confidence in the leadership abilities of all the women on the board to effectively lead the group to greater heights,” said Vincent.
The appointment of an all-female boardroom, while possibly eye-catching, is in line with the character of BCorp, whose board members had last year said it was time women enjoyed better gender equality in the workplace, with Norlela herself urging women to change their mindset, be better educated, possess substance and improve their knowledge.
While women make up less than 50% of Malaysia’s population, data from the Statistics Department has highlighted they contributed to over 55% of the country’s economy in 2020.
The department also revealed that the Malaysian women’s labour force participation rate for 2020 was at 55.3%, still lower than Thailand’s at 66.8% and Singapore at 69.7%.
