Speakers Profile

Ms Amarjit Kaur
Trainer

Amarjit is an experienced sustainability consultant specializing in strategy, management systems, and assessments across various sectors. She helps clients create sustainability strategies through materiality assessments and target setting. With diverse industry experience, she’s spoken at conferences, contributed to sustainability reporting guidelines for Bursa Malaysia, and actively participates in ISO working groups.

Amarjit holds certifications and is a Fellow of IEMA, GRI Certified Sustainability Professional and Trainer, and a registered HRDC trainer since 2012. Currently, she leads a team helping public listed companies with sustainability, ESG disclosures, and value chain integration.

Ms Margie Ong
Speaker

Margie is the CEO of Thoughts In Gear (TIG), a Sustainability and Social Impact consultancy firm working with corporations to ingrain Sustainability and ESG principles into their core business; and with non-profits for strategic and systemic impact.

An Electrical Engineer graduate, Margie holds a Sustainability Leadership certification from the London Business School. She has garnered experience at prominent organizations such as The Boston Consulting Group, ERM Consulting, Intel, HCL Technologies, and the CIMB Foundation. TIG’s accomplishments include launching South East Asia’s first Sustainability Accelerator, creating the national Simplified ESG Disclosure Guide (SEDG), and crafting notable Sustainability Strategy and Report content. Margie serves on the Advisory Group for Sunway’s Centre for Planetary Health (SCPH) Asia and is an Emissary for Responsible Finance and Investments (RFI) Foundation US.

Mr Simon Yeoh Seng Leong
Speaker

Simon Yeoh Seng Leong is the current President of MAICSA, serving since July 2023, and was initially elected in July 2022. He specializes in taxation and is a dedicated Governance Professional and Fellow member of MAICSA. Simon joined the MAICSA Council in June 2012, and has held various key roles. He currently chairs the Taxation Committee.

Before MAICSA, Simon held leadership positions at Ernst & Young Tax Consultants Sdn Bhd, including the Country’s Tax Quality & Risk Management Leader and founding the Corporate Services-ACR group. With over 30 years of taxation experience, he is well-versed in corporate tax matters, compliance, planning, and restructuring. Simon actively participates in tax seminars, contributes articles on corporate social responsibility from a tax perspective, moderates webinars on governance, ESG, reporting, and engages in tax-related dialogues.

Mr Chuah Cheng Leong
Speaker

Chuah Cheng Leong is the Vice President of Human Resources for the Plexus (APAC) region. Plexus is a global leader in the electronics manufacturing services industry, supporting the healthcare and life sciences, industrial, and aerospace and defense market sectors. Cheng Leong leads the APAC human capital strategy in three countries covering eight manufacturing and service centers, two sourcing offices, and one design center. With talent management and ESG at the core of the company’s growth, Cheng Leong provides direction on strategic human resource planning and drives employee engagement via HR and ESG initiatives to establish the organization as a workplace of choice. Cheng Leong’s career in the electrical and electronics industry spans over 30 years in engineering, manufacturing, facility management, and human resources.

Ms Farina Farid
Panelist

Farina is currently the Head of Communications for Capital Markets Malaysia (CMM), an affiliate of the Securities Commission Malaysia mandated with promoting Malaysia’s capital market both domestically and internationally. She has over 18 years’ experience in brand management, marketing communication and stakeholder engagement, at both local and regional levels. Farina joined CMM in 2020 to lead the brand and communications strategies for CMM, in the areas of sustainable finance and investment, the private markets, digital markets as well as the Islamic capital market.

Dr Meenachi Muniandy (Jessica)
Panelist

Dr Meenachi is the Senior Director at Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), overseeing ESG-related matters for the manufacturing sector. Prior to this, she was with the Ministry of Finance for 19 years, involved mostly in planning, analysing and writing various policy papers in the field of economics. Notably, she was involved in the writing of Economic Report / Economic Outlook as well as the budget speeches and fiscal stimulus packages. She was also involved in the macroeconomic forecasting and modelling. In 2020, she was seconded to the Faculty of Business and Economics, University Malaya as a Senior Lecturer for two years.

She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Economics in 1996 from University Malaya and Post-graduate Diploma in Public Administration in 2001. Meanwhile, she obtained Masters in Public Policy (Economics) from Japan in 2007 and PhD (Economics) in the field of Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Modelling from Monash University, Melbourne in 2015.

Datin Dr. Vijayalakshmi Samuel
Panelist

Datin Dr. Vijayalakshmi Samuel, a seasoned professional with nearly three decades of experience in EHS, sustainability, and ESG consulting, currently serves as the CEO and co-founder of AGV Sustainability & ESG Services Sdn. Bhd. She holds a PhD in Sustainability Studies and is also an Executive Director at AGV Environment Sdn. Bhd. With over 18 years in a US environmental consulting firm, including a Partner position for the last three years, Dr. Vijayalakshmi specializes in providing ESG advisory services to diverse clients, ranging from public listed companies to government agencies.

Her expertise involves developing ESG strategies, Net Zero Frameworks, Climate Risk Assessments, and Decarbonization Strategies aligned with international standards. Her project portfolio includes ESG reporting, carbon footprint assessments, sustainability key performance indicators, stakeholder engagement, and capacity building for sustainability initiatives. Dr. Vijayalakshmi has played a crucial role in helping companies improve their sustainability performance and gain recognition on ESG indices such as FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia Index, FTSE4Good ASEAN Index, and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, with her extensive experience spanning various business sectors across the Asia Pacific region.

Arina Kok
Panelist

Arina is a Partner and Malaysia Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader at Ernst & Young Consulting. She’s also EY APAC Decarbonization Solution Leader and a member of the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board Working Group 71 Sustainability Reporting. Arina specializes in integrating sustainability into clients’ strategic plans, focusing on ESG strategy, due diligence, framework development, outcome measurement, and stakeholder management. She led the issuance of the inaugural Climate Risk Disclosure Barometer 2020 Malaysia. Arina facilitated capability-building workshops for Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission Malaysia Joint Committee for Climate Change in 2020 and 2022. EY, under her leadership, is the delivery partner for the JC3 Journey to Zero Conference 2023, emphasizing the financial services industry’s role in Malaysia’s transition to net-zero and long-term sustainability.