KUALA LUMPUR – Veteran corporate personality Tan Sri Azlan Mohd Zainol died this afternoon. The former chief executive (CEO) of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) was 72.
According to a message from his family, the father of four had passed away at 2.40pm at Assunta Hospital here.
He was believed to have been seeking treatment there for some time.
His body will be at the family residence in SS1, Kg Tunku here and will be brought to Saidina Abu Bakar Mosque in Jalan Ara, Bangsar at 8am tomorrow before burial at the Bukit Kiara Muslim Cemetery.
The late Azlan was chairman of among others, Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) and MBSB Bank, as well as Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd.
He was also chairman of RHB Bank Bhd and EcoWorld until last year, besides having held directorships in several public-listed companies.
Known as a by-the-book and no-nonsense individual, Azlan placed corporate governance as a topmost priority.
He had resigned in protest as a director of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) on January 11, 2010 following revelations of 1MDB’s mismanagement and the emergence of businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.
In former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s corruption trial, former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi testified that only Azlan and one other director, Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh, had raised doubts over the viability and authenticity of the company’s investments.
Azlan and Bakke raised concerns over the fact that 1MDB was not taking the board’s views seriously but instead was taking instructions “from outside”.
As the chief executive of EPF from 2001 to 2013, Azlan also got the institution to actively invest abroad with its overseas investments rising to US$6 billion (RM26 billion) during his tenure. – The Vibes, January 12, 2023
