CEO (Malaysia) for an Islamic Bank
Background:
Our client is an International Islamic Bank with presence in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Malaysia and Turkey. Madison Pearl was given the mandate to identify a CEO for the Bank in Malaysia; the first foreign Islamic Bank licensed to conduct a full range of non-ringgit banking activities.
The role required an internationally experienced candidate with exposure to Corporate Banking, Treasury and Investment Banking in addition to experience working within Malaysia.
Snapshot of the search process:
- The key requirements for this particular search were to identify candidates who had prior experience in Islamic Banking and were familiar with the market in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong in addition to being fluent in Mandarin, Malay and English as the Board looked at expanding operations in the aforementioned geographies.
- Our strategy was to identify top Islamic Banks operating in those regions and Islamic Banks with international operations to generate an initial Longlist of candidates. The main constraint, we soon discovered, was finding a candidate that was fluent in both Mandarin and Malay.
- After a few weeks of research and reaching out to our network, we presented a shortlist of 3 candidates that were based in Malaysia (2) and Singapore (1). All three candidates were interviewed and within the next two weeks, the Board members and CEO, Bahrain met with the preferred candidates in Malaysia.
- Shortly thereafter, our candidate in Malaysia was made an offer which he duly accepted. During this time, we conducted background checks and kept both the client and candidate posted on developments as we waited on approvals from the Central Bank. A couple of months later, after successfully interviewing with the Governor and Central Bank, our candidate joined in August, 2017.