KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 22): The Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group (MSWG), which has been without a permanent leader since last December, has appointed Devanesan Evanson as its new chief executive officer (CEO).

“We welcome our new CEO Devanesan Evanson, who comes to us armed with decades of experience in the key areas of corporate governance, risk management and internal controls,” MSWG said in its weekly newsletter released today.

Until his appointment with MSWG, Devanesan — an accountant by profession and holder of a law degree from the University of London — was the president of the Malaysian Advisory Committee of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and a past president of the Institute of Internal Auditors Malaysia (IIAM).

Notably, Devanesan spent 18 years with Bursa Malaysia where he served in various positions, including as the head of group internal audit and risk management, chief regulatory officer and chief market operations officer. He has both internal audit and external audit experience.

“We look forward to the immense contributions he will undoubtedly make in our pursuit of the highest standards of corporate governance and corporate oversight,” MSWG said in its newsletter. 

It took MSWG exactly one year to find the ideal successor to its former CEO, Rita Benoy Bushon, who had last October decided to call it a day, after almost eight years at the helm of the organisation.

Bushon, a founding director of MSWG, had officially retired on Jan 1 this year, when her contract ended. Effectively, her office was emptied in end-November, after deducting her unutilised leave.

It is learnt that over the past 12 months, Lya Rahman, the general manager of MSWG, has been the unofficial “caretaker” of the minority shareholder protection group. 

MSWG was established as a government initiative to protect the interests of minority shareholders, through shareholder activism. The organisation encourages good governance among public-listed companies, with an objective to raise shareholder value over time.

Over the years, MSWG has also evolved into an independent research organisation on corporate governance matters. It now provides a platform and a collective voice to both retail and institutional minority shareholders, and it advises on voting at general meetings of public-listed companies.

With just a small team of 20-odd people — including Rebecca Yap and Quah Ban Aik (heads of corporate monitoring), as well as Norhisam Sidek, Wong Kin Wing, Hoo Ley Beng and Elaine Choo (managers of corporate monitoring) — MSWG could cover about 300 public-listed companies on the local bourse each year.