KUALA LUMPUR: Employees Provident Fund (EPF) chief executive officer Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan has been appointed as the Finance Minister II following a cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday.

The appointment was announced by Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the Prime Minister’s Office at 11 a.m. today.

Amir was sworn in as a Senator in Dewan Negara earlier at the Parliament today. 

He is the second technocrat in the finance ministry to have a corporate background, following the footsteps of former finance minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz who had served as the group CEO and executive director of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd from Feb. 27, 2015 to March 9, 2020.

Amir joined EPF — the country’s largest pension fund in terms of asset management — as CEO in March 2021.

Prior to this, he was the president and CEO of Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) from April 2019 to February 2021.

Amir’s career began with Shell Group of Companies, where he served for 10 years in various capacities in Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

He joined MISC Bhd in 2000, and held several senior management portfolios before being appointed as president and CEO in January 2009.

He was later appointed as managing director/CEO of Petronas Dagangan Bhd in June 2010.

In August 2012, Amir joined Petronas Lubricants International as group MD and CEO, while simultaneously serving as the vice-president for Downstream Marketing, and subsequently as VP of Lubricants for the Petronas Group.

In March 2016, he joined Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) to steer its investee company, Icon Offshore Bhd as MD and CEO, and was later appointed to Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s subsidiary, Themed Attractions Resorts and Hotel Sdn Bhd as its group CEO before joining TNB in April 2019.

He is currently the non-executive chairman of Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd, and also sits on the boards of Sime Darby Plantation Bhd and Sime Darby Oils International Ltd.

Amir holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management (majoring in Finance and Economics) from Syracuse University, New York. 

He had also attended the Stanford Executive Programme at Stanford University, and the Corporate Finance Evening Programme at the London Business School.

Full list of the new cabinet line-up