KUALA LUMPUR (April 8): Masterskill Education Group Bhd saw a slew of boardroom changes today, which included the appointment of Datuk Dr R Palan as an executive director in the education group, and the redesignation of chairman and executive director Siva Kumar M Jeyapalan to the role of a non-independent and non-executive director.

According to separate filings with the local bourse today, it was revealed that Palan — who is the chairman and group chief executive officer of education and human resource services provider SMRT Holdings Bhd — will be taking on the executive role in Masterskill.

SMRT subsidiary Strategic Ambience Sdn Bhd controls some 23% of Masterskill.

Siva Kumar’s role of chairman will be filled by former chief of the Malaysian Army General(R) Tan Sri Mohd Shahrom Nordin.

Earlier this year, Siva Kumar had disposed 30.75% of his stake in Masterskill to SMRT and Creador II LLC, and had ceased to be a substantial shareholder in the education group.

The education group also announced the appointment of Major General Datuk Pahlawan Dr Mohana Dass Ramasamy (Rtd), Darawati Hussain and Loh Kok Long as non independent and non executive directors in the company.

Mohana Dass is the deputy chairman of the board of governors for Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences, which is owned by SMRT.

Darawati was the former chairperson of the Malaysian Venture Capital Association, while Loh is the managing director of Creador.

Leou Thiam Lai, who is a partner in audit firm Leou & Associates, was appointed as an independent and non executive director in Masterskill.

Masterskill (fundamental:0.8; valuation:0.6) shares closed down 1 sen or 1.6% lower today to 61.5 sen, with a market capitalisation of RM235.05 million.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)