Pankajkumar A/L Bipinchandra, a Malaysian, aged 55, is our Independent Non- Executive Director. He was appointed to our Board on 15 December 2020. He is the Chairman of our Risk Management Committee and Nominating Committee, and a member of Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee. 

He graduated with a Bachelor in Accounting (Honours) from the University of Malaya in 1990. He then obtained his Masters in Business Administration (Finance) from the University of Malaya in 2014. He has been a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia since 2 November 2018, a member of Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) – Bursa Malaysia Industry Advisory Panel since December 2020 and a member of FTSE Bursa Malaysia Index Advisory Committee since December 2008.

Upon graduation in 1990, he joined Nova Hopi (M) Sdn Bhd as an Accountant and Business Development Executive. He then left Nova Hopi (M) Sdn Bhd and joined OSK Research Sdn Bhd in 1996 as a Research Analyst before being promoted to the positions of Senior Analyst, Manager, Senior Manager and Assistant General Manager in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003, respectively. His last held position in OSK Research Sdn Bhd was Head of Research, a position to which he was promoted in 2004, where he was tasked to oversee the research activities undertaken and recommend investment strategies for clients of the company, develop articles for publication in the newspapers and manage a team of analysts undertaking company and sectorial research assignments.

In 2005, he left OSK Research Sdn Bhd and joined Kurnia Insurans (Malaysia) Berhad (then wholly-owned by Kurnia Asia Berhad, a company which was listed on the Main Market of Bursa Securities) as Chief Investment Officer, where he was responsible for managing the company’s fixed income and equity portfolio, staff and agent housing loans as well as property investments. In addition, he was also involved in evaluating and presenting the overall economic and financial market assessments to the company’s investment committee and board of directors, and participated in investor relation activities for Kurnia Asia Berhad. He was transferred to KSK Group Berhad (previously known as Kurnia Asia Berhad) in 2012 as Director, Head of Corporate Strategy & Investments where he was responsible for managing the company’s investment portfolio, preparing reports for the company’s investment committee and board of directors, as well as involved in developing growth strategies for the company’s business.

Since leaving KSK Group Berhad in 2018, he has contributed articles on the economy, market and sectorial topics as well as on issues related to governance and ethics for the StarBiz under its “Inside Insight” column. He is also actively involved in providing Continuous Professional Education (CPE) classes, mainly for financial market participants as well as for industry associations and public listed organisations.