SIME Darby Bhd interim acting chairman Samsudin Osman is the frontrunner for chairman at Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), people familiar with the matter tell FocusM.
“He is pretty much confirmed,” a source said. Samsudin is expected to replace Zeti Akhtar Aziz, whose contract expires this month.
Samsudin is a retired civil servant whose last job was chief secretary to the government from 2001 to 2006. He was also Employees Provident Fund chairman from 2007 to April this year.
Earlier, it was believed that former Khazanah Nasional Bhd managing director Azman Mokhtar was slated for the top job at one of the largest asset managers in the country. But sources said he had turned down the offer.
On June 29, PNB appointed former Khazanah deputy managing director Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn as its president and group chief executive.
He replaced Jalil Rasheed, who resigned on June 15 after the latter’s education credentials and working experience came under scrutiny.
But in his farewell email, Jalil said he had received harassing phone calls while his corporate email and LinkedIn profile had been hacked.
That was the “last straw… In the end, I decided that it would be unfair to my family should matters escalate,” Jalil said.
PNB and the Securities Commission are currently investigating the matter. – July 9, 2020
