This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 24, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: British American Tobacco (M) Bhd (BAT) has appointed its North Asia area director Erik Stoel to assume the managing director (MD) post, effective June 1.

In a bourse filing, BAT said Stoel, from the Netherlands, replaces former MD Stefano Clini, who resigned on May 3 and will be returning to his home country Italy after concluding his international assignment here.

Stoel has held numerous top brand marketing positions in the conglomerate in South Korea, Ukraine, Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Hong Kong, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and Malaysia over the past 20 years.

He is also no stranger to BAT Malaysia, where he served as marketing director in 2010, before moving to South Korea as BAT Korea’s marketing director in 2012. 

Subsequently, he was promoted to the role of North Asia area director, running South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau operations.

“Malaysia will undoubtedly present a more unique challenge, especially due to rampant illegal cigarettes that had reached 45.6% as at December 2015, following high excise hikes,” observed Erik Stoel in a statement.

“However, armed with my familiarity with the Malaysian market, and BAT Malaysia employees’ pride and passion for a more-than-a-century-old company, I am confident that we can together work towards steering the business to a new and more sustainable model. There will be so much to do, but I am really looking forward to my new role in this great company,” he added.