KUALA LUMPUR (July 26): Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd today announced the resignation of Datuk Mohd Noordin Abbas as group managing director.

The group's executive director and group editor-in-chief Datuk Abdul Aziz Ishak also announced his resignation today.

Their resignations follow that of four directors — chairman Tan Sri Mohamad Fatmi Che Salleh, Datuk Seri Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad, Jamalul Kiram Mohd Zakaria and Mohd Yusof Abu Othman on May 15.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Utusan said Mohd Noordin and Abdul Aziz's resignations were voluntary.

According to Utusan's Annual Report 2017, Mohd Noordin, 59, was appointed to his current post on May 20, 2014 and also holds directorship in subsidiaries within Utusan Group namely Utusan Karya Sdn Bhd, Utusan Media Sales Sdn Bhd, Utusan Publications & Distributors Sdn Bhd, Utusan Land Sdn Bhd, Juasa Holdings Sdn Bhd, Utusan Technology Asia Sdn Bhd and Asian Environmental Engineering Sdn Bhd.

He has extensive experience in development banking, particularly with regard to international project finance and management. He has served as the chief executive officer in Malaysia Export Credit Insurance Bhd and Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Bhd.

Abdul Aziz, 54, joined Utusan on April 1, 1984 and served in various capacities before being appointed to his present post as the group editor-in-chief on Dec 1, 2008. He holds directorship in subsidiaries of Utusan Group namely Utusan Media Sales Sdn Bhd and Utusan Karya Sdn Bhd.

He is also a member of the Board of Governors of Malaysian National News Agency since Feb 16, 2009 and serves as a member of the Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) since Aug 15, 2016. He is also an independent non-executive director of Dataprep Holdings Bhd.

In a separate Bursa filing, Utusan announced the appointment of Dr Badrul Hisham Mohd Yusoff as an independent and non-executive director of the group.

Badrul Hisham started his career as an auditor with Arthur Andersen & Co in 1997 where he served the firm for three years. He then joined Tradewinds (M) Bhd as an internal audit manager from 2001 to 2003.

Subsequently he was appointed as chief internal auditor for various organisations such as Affin Investment Bank Bhd, Chemical Co of Malaysia Bhd, Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd, Bursa Malaysia Bhd and Bank Rakyat. He was also a board member of internal audit for Co-opbank Persatuan from 2016 to 2017.

He has been on the board of Merge Energy Bhd since October 2017 and is also a director of IHB Solutions Sdn Bhd.

Umno-controlled Utusan publishes the Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo! newspapers.

Utusan shares closed unchanged at 27.5 sen today, with 5,000 shares done, bringing it a market capitalisation of RM30.45 million.