Dato’ Sri Idris Jala is the President and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of PEMANDU Associates. Previously, he was the CEO of PEMANDU, a unit in the Prime Minister’s Department, Malaysia, the organisation tasked with spearheading Malaysia’s transition towards high income status by 2020. He also served as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Malaysia for 6 years, and later as the Advisor to the Prime Minister on the
National Transformation Programme.
He is a renowned transformation guru in turning around companies’ performance through his big fast results methodology and transformational strategies that are innovative, rigorous and relevant to today’s demands. He has continuously delivered sustainable socio economic reforms which, in 2014, saw Bloomberg place him among
the top 10 most influential policy makers in the world.
Dato’ Sri Idris Jala is also the Founder and Executive Chairman of The Global Transformation Forum (GTF), the world’s singular platform for influential, global leaders to engage and share experiences and best practices on how to drive transformation.
In addition, Dato’ Sri Idris Jala is an Expert Resource Speaker at the Harvard Health Leaders’ Ministerial Forum and a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Oxford Blavatnik School of Government. He also served on the Advisory panel for the World Economic Forum (WEF) on New Economic Growth and also on the Advisory Panel of World Bank.
Prior to his Government stint, Dato’ Sri Idris Jala was Managing Director/CEO at Malaysia Airlines (MAS) for 3 years. He was brought on board to turn around the airline which was in crisis brought about by a prolonged bout of losses from operational inefficiencies.
Before MAS, he spent 23 years at Shell, rising up the ranks to hold senior positions including Vice President, Shell Retail International and Vice President Business Development Consultancy, based in UK. This included successful business turnarounds in Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
His directorship in other public companies are Heineken Malaysia Berhad, and Sunway Berhad and Jeffrey Cheah Foundation.