This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 12, 2017 - June 18, 2017

ALTHOUGH there has yet to be any verdict on the conduct of Datuk Zakaria Arshad, president and CEO of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV), market talk has it that there are three candidates who could take over the helm of the plantation giant.

They are Tan Sri Ismee Ismail, former managing director and CEO of pilgrim fund Lembaga Tabung Haji; Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh, president and chief executive of Sime Darby Bhd; and Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid, currently the managing director of Malakoff Corp Bhd.

Ismee, 52, is an accountant by training and is seen as a dark horse as he was appointed independent non-executive director of Media Prima Bhd on June 1. In September 2016, he became chairman of Al-Hijrah Media Corp.

Before that, Ismee was head of forex and banking of Shell Malaysia Ltd and group accountant of Shell Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd, and had two stints with Arab Malaysian Development Bhd — as management accountant and general manager of business development.

His other stints include CEO of ECM Libra Securities Sdn Bhd, and chief accountant and treasurer at Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Bhd, the national debt restructuring agency.

Ismee, who is said to be politically well connected, was also on the board of beleaguered 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

Bakke, 62, was group president and CEO of FGV and served as managing director of Felda Holdings Bhd before he joined plantation giant Sime ­Darby. That would mean going full circle for him if he does go back to FGV.

Apart from that, he was managing director of Lembaga Tabung Haji and a director of Danaharta’s property division. He also worked with several subsidiaries of the Permodalan Nasional Bhd Group.

Bakke’s reign at Sime Darby may come to an end as the group is being broken up and its assets floated separately on Bursa Malaysia. For Bakke to take over a smaller outfit of Sime Darby would be somewhat of a demotion whereas a transfer to FGV would be seen as more of a parallel move. He is said to be a close associate of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and was on the board of 1MDB as well.

Among his strengths is that he has a reputation of being clean.

However, he could be perceived as being too old to handle the CEO’s job as, unlike Sime Darby, there are many issues at FGV he may have to grapple with.

Perhaps the front-runner for FGV CEO is Azhar, who, at 55, would still be able to cope with the pressure.

In May, Azhar was reported to have left Tradewinds Corp Bhd, where he was the chairman, after a little more than two years at the plantation and property development group.

This has raised the question of whether he would stay on at Malakoff, which, like Tradewinds, is controlled by billionaire Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary.

Before he joined Syed Mokhtar’s group, he was the CEO of Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp), and acting CEO of plantation giant Sime Darby Bhd. It is interesting to note that he helmed Pernas International Holdings Bhd, which eventually morphed into Tradewinds.

Azhar is expected to have little difficulty handling a company the size of FGV considering his stints in Sime Darby and Tradewinds. Some of the key units under Tradewinds include Tradewinds (M) Bhd and Tradewinds Plantations Bhd.

He is known to have good contacts and connections, and is a respected corporate personality.

He had resigned from MRT Corp, taking responsibility for a construction accident in Kota Damansara that claimed three lives.

While others could emerge as events continue to unfold, these three candidates seem to have the right credentials.

To recap, last week, Zakaria, FGV CFO Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha, FGV Trading CEO Ahmad Salman Omar and senior general manager Kamarzaman Abd Karim were suspended and given leave of absence from Tuesday while awaiting the results of an inquiry concerning deals under Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of FGV.

In the interim, a board executive committee, comprising FGV directors Datuk Dr Omar Salim and Datuk Mohd Zafer Mohd Hashim, together with Azman Ahmad, head of the logistics cluster, will take over the functions of the group president and CEO. Aznur Kama Azmir, group financial controller of its plantation sector, has been appointed the interim group CFO.

However, it is understood that some of the candidates will only take up the job if FGV non-executive chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad leaves.

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