Maybank names group chief strategy officer for Malaysia

Maybank has appointed Siew Chan Cheong (pictured) as the group chief strategy officer of Malaysia. He will assist and report to the group president and CEO of Maybank, Khairtussaleh Ramli and work closely with the board and the leadership team. In his current role, Cheong is responsible for broadening and deepening the digitalisation agenda and for driving the industrialisation and adoption of analytics across the group to achieve business goals.

Cheong will be succeeding Michael Foong who concurrently held the position as the group’s chief strategy officer in addition to CEO of Maybank International. Foong will still remain the CEO of Maybank International. Cheong has over 20 years of experience in formulating and implementing multi-country transformation strategies across various industries and organisations, including major banks in Europe and Asia.

As the former senior strategy consulting director with Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), Cheong worked with large British and German banking clients as part of his London and Hong Kong postings to help these clients achieve renewed growth following the global financial crisis in 2008.

After living abroad for more than 18 years, he returned to Southeast Asia in 2014 and shifted his focus to supporting ASEAN financial institutions in the areas of business growth acceleration, branch transformation, talent, digital banking, big data analytics and IT strategies.

Before Cheong joined Maybank, he worked as the group chief strategy and innovation officer at RHB Banking Group, where he was responsible for developing and driving the group’s strategic growth priorities and transformation across the banking group. During his time there, Cheong also served as a member of the group’s senior management team covering nine ASEAN countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia.

Khairtussaleh said Cheong’s breadth of knowledge, leadership skills and international experience make him the right candidate to lead the Group’s medium- to long-term strategic vision. “Cheong’s understanding of global trends and hands-on track record in responding to rapid digital changes will allow him to drive compelling and connected thinking within the organisation. This is key as we further pursue the bank’s digital aspirations, explore new income drivers and adopt strategic transformation initiatives to drive better performance,” he added.

Khairussaleh was appointed in May this year, succeeding Abdul Farid Alias after the latter stated that he will not be seeking a renewal of his contract that expired on 1 August. Separately, Maybank was recently named Malaysia's strongest brand by Brand Finance. With a brand value of US$3.9 billion, Maybank has a brand strength index of 89.1 out of 100 and a corresponding AAA brand strength rating. The bank overtook PETRONAS (87.7 out of 100) in the 2022 strength ranking in 2021 and Digi (79.2 out of 100).

Related articles:
Maybank drops catchy sonic branding to humanise brand
Maybank goes 'platinum' in credit card partnership with Grab
Maybank and Shopee create co-branded card, drive awareness through concert