Petronas announces new leadership team, cuts 1,000 jobs

Posted on March 2, 2016

Petronas announced its new leadership team, following a strategic review of its business operating model for better business efficiency, resilience and sustainability amidst a challenging time for the oil and gas industry.

The leadership line-up, together with the new organisational structure, was unveiled by Petronas’ President and Group Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin at a gathering for employees today.

The structure sees new appointments from within the organisation, taking effect from 1 April 2016, and the departure of some leaders whose service contracts have come to an end.

The new leadership team comprises the following:

President & Group Chief Executive Officer: Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin
Executive Vice President & Chief Executive Officer, Upstream: Datuk Mohd Anuar Taib
Executive Vice President & Chief Executive Officer, Downstream: Md Arif Mahmood
Executive Vice President & Group Chief Financial Officer: Datuk Manharlal Ratilal
Senior Vice President, Project Delivery & Technology: Mazuin Ismail
Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy: Adif Zulkifli
Senior Vice President & Group General Counsel: Mohamad Rauff Nabi Bax
Senior Vice President, Group Human Resource Management: Dato’ Raiha Azni Abdul Rahman
Vice President, Group Health, Safety, Security & Environment: Sharbini Suhaili
Senior General Manager, Group Strategic Communications: Zahariah A. Rahman
Senior General Manager, Group Internal Audit: Syed Sheikh Syed Idrus Alhabshi

The new structure – designed for a flatter, leaner and more efficient business operating model – is a part of deliberate, sequential measures that Petronas is undertaking to better navigate the organisation through tough external environments.

It marks the start of a total group-wide transformation geared towards making it more resilient and focused to thrive both in the current and future industry landscapes.

Consequently, this group-wide transformation is expected to result in redundancies of under 1,000 positions. Exhaustive efforts are on-going to re-deploy affected employees. Petronas will further embark on a separation exercise for these employees as needed, which is expected to be completed over the next six months.