Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR (May 23): British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd (BAT Malaysia) has appointed its North Asia area director Erik Stoel to assume the managing director (MD) post, effective June 1.

In a bourse filing, BAT Malaysia said Stoel, from the Netherlands, replaces former MD Stefano Clini who resigned on May 3 this year 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 Korea, Ukraine, Dubai (UAE), 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 Korea as BAT Korea's Marketing Director in 2012. Subsequently, he was promoted to the role of Area Director North Asia Area, running Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

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

"However, armed with my familiarity with the Malaysian market and BAT Malaysia's employees' pride and passion for a more-than-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.

"On a personal note, my wife, two children and I love Malaysia and it is really great to be back!" he added.

Stoel holds a marketing degree from Hanzehogeschool Groningen, Netherlands, and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Northumbria, England.

BAT closed 40 sen or 0.81% higher at RM50 today, for a market capitalisation of RM14.2 billion.

 

      Print
      Text Size
      Share