The Mentors

Aaron Saw
ACCA Malaysia
Head of Policy & Technical

A representative of ACCA’s Professional Insights (PI) in Malaysia, Aaron likes to explore areas of interest that are aligned with the needs of the accountancy profession and its stakeholders. These areas include the economy, technology, accounting, finance, taxation, corporate governance and sustainability.

Aaron believes in fusing knowledge with human interactions, so knowledge can be shared. At times, he’ll be coordinating or assisting with a research project. Other times, he creates learning experience for others like a conference, a workshop, a forum, a roundtable or a lecture.

Prior to joining ACCA, Aaron had a decade of experience providing audit and non-audit assurance services to multinationals and their subsidiaries and small and medium-sized enterprises in Malaysia operating in a wide range of industries that includes manufacturing, trading, retail, consultancy, market research, engineering, construction, healthcare and plantation. He is also adept at training, technical consulting and developing training courses.

Abir Abdul Rahim
Lean In Malaysia
Co Founder and Director

“Never let anyone tell you what you cannot do, just because they can’t”

A First Class Honours degree holder in BSc Actuarial Science from Swansea University, Wales, Abir also owns a Masters Degree in Actuarial Management from CASS Business School, London which she was one of the 12 recipients of the King’s Scholarship Award, the most prestigious scholarship in the country, for her Masters.

Abir has been a full time aspiring actuary in the insurance industry which she now is attached to Great Eastern Takaful Berhad, a leading Takaful Operator in the country, managing the actuarial pricing of Takaful products sold via the company’s biggest business portfolio. She is also heavily involved in the industry’s development, actively participating in the industry’s task forces representing the company.

Abir has always been passionate in giving back to the society. On that aim, Abir co founded Asia Women Circle (AWC); that drives “Lean In Malaysia”, a women-led non-profit organisation inspired by Sheryl Sandberg's (COO, Facebook) #leanin movement which harnesses the power of leadership and community to embolden women to achieve their full potential by educating, enabling and empowering them to define their success. The platform that was established in 2015, challenges the norm and raises the status of women in the society for an equal world.

Under her leadership, the platform has now gained a membership of more than 5000 members and today is recognised as the voice of credibility for women issues in Malaysia by the government.

In January 2016, Abir was named Regional Leader of Leanin.Org by Sheryl Sandberg and has spoken on women empowerment agenda on panels across the world such as California, Thailand and Turkey.

Aiman Syed Jaafar
Brunsfield International Group
Senior Manager, Corporate Strategy

Aiman is a strategy and investment professional with expertise in public-private partnerships, property development and capital projects. He started his career as a management consultant at Accenture before moving to be Special Officer to the CEO at Iskandar Waterfront, where he advised C-level officers and led transformation initiatives in the master developer. He was subsequently part of the team that developed the socio-economic development framework for Malaysia’s high speed rail. He is currently Senior Manager of Corporate Strategy & Investments in a property developer where he leads deal origination, validation and execution as well as driving the company’s digital communications agenda.

Outside work, Aiman is passionate on youth empowerment and is active in Young Corporate Malaysians, a non-profit business club for young corporates. He was active since its early days, having been Chairman of the organization in 2012 and currently its Director providing mentorship to its new members. As Chairman and Director, he has led the organisation’s strategic decision making, leading execution, fundraising, client negotiation and defining growth for the YCM brand. Through the platform, YCM has hosted over 70 leading CEOs and thought leaders from across ASEAN, India and China.

Aiman also ventures into entrepreneurship through his two F&B ventures, Double A Café and Fluff Bakery KL. Double A Café was the recipient of the BOSS Award for Outstanding F&B Set Up by MATRADE in 2016. Fluff Bakery KL on the other hand is the Malaysian presence of the famed Singaporean brand. Aiman is an avid coffee lover and enjoys pouring his own latte art.  

Fam Li Ying
Teach for Malaysia
Partnership Development Manager

Li Ying started her career with Goldman Sachs in United States after pursuing her studies in Psychology and Business at Stony Brook University. During her time at Goldman Sachs, she was a committee member of the Women’s Network and actively organised sessions which empowered and enhanced the experience of women professionals in the organisation. Passionate in building the social sector, she subsequently joined Teach For Malaysia, a non-profit organisation with a mission to improve education by expanding opportunity for all children and led the recruitment team in seeking top graduates and young professionals to teach in high need schools across Malaysia. She currently leads the Partnership Development team where she cultivates and strengthens partnerships within the corporate sector and the public community. She is also the Partnership Lead for Lean In Youth, a Lean In Malaysia circle that educates, enables and empowers youths in universities to discover, build their potential and become change makers towards an equal world.

Ibrahim Sani
Astro Awani
Lead Business Editor & Executive Producer

Ibrahim Sani is Astro AWANI’s Lead Business Editor and Executive Producer. He is an AVP at Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (AMHB), the parent company of Astro AWANI.

He anchors a number of shows at the station, such as policy and current affairs shows such as Agenda AWANI and AWANI Review. He also presents Nota Ibrahim Sani and its English counter-part Notepad with Ibrahim Sani, a daily news-magazine programme. He is a key producer and presenter of the award-winning show “Malaysia Memilih’ which showcased the 14th General Election.

He is an Executive Producer for the English-belt of Astro AWANI, which includes shows like Let's Talk with Sharaad Kuttan, For The Win with Melisa Idris, The Society with Farhana, and Health Matters with Dishen Kumar.

Prior to joining AWANI, he was a presenter and producer of BFM Radio’s “The Morning Run Show” for a few years where he anchored the award winning programme – The Breakfast Grille.

Ibrahim started his career in Investment Banking, spending nearly a decade working at EONCAP Islamic Bank, Hong Leong Investment Bank, and later CIMB Investment Bank. He holds a Bachelor of Accounting degree from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and a post-graduate Diploma in Management Accounting from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Leslie Ong
Ongs Properties Sdn Bhd
Director

Leslie is a Director at Ongs Properties Sdn. Bhd. and its related entities which primarily operate within the oil palm and property industries. Leslie oversees the oil palm plantation operations in East Malaysia, with a focus of integrating leading technologies, machineries and systems for cultivation and harvesting of fresh fruit bunches. He is also serves on the Council of the Malaysian Estate Owners’ Association (MEOA).

Previously, Leslie was a Manager in PwC’s South East Asia Counsulting practice’s Sustainability & Climate Change team. His experience includes greenhouse gas analysis and reporting, identifying and setting carbon reduction initiatives, sustainability assurance, and benchmarking analysis of corporate sustainability reports against ISAE3000 guidelines. Prior to leaving PwC, he worked on various sustainability valuation projects focusing on identification of material Environmental, Social and Governance factors and assessing its corresponding value impacts.  

Tasnim Hadi
ThinkCity

Tasnim works on Strategy and Partnerships at Think City, a social purpose organization working to make cities better. Here, she manages existing and potential stakeholders, formulates and delivers design sprint-based programmes to empower individual citymakers, and explores operational efficiency. She has 6 years’ experience working in the social sector, previously managing a private philanthropic fund where she also mentored NGOs and social enterprises in Malaysia and was part of the founding team for Malaysia's first collective impact initiative.Tasnim holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Oxford, and is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.

Wong Wai Ken
StashAway
Country Manager, Malaysia

Country Manager - Malaysia, 10 years experience in investments and capital markets

Wai Ken has accumulated asset management experience in the Investments division of Khazanah Nasional Berhad and Premium China Funds Management in Australia.

He has also gained capital markets experience at Affin Hwang Capital by serving in both its Corporate Strategy and Equity Capital Markets departments.

Wai Ken holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Economics from the University of New South Wales.

Ashwin Jeyapalasingam
CatchthatBus
Co-founder & COO

Loh Ken Ming
Teach for Malaysia
Talent Acquisition Manager