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Tag: Bahren Shaari

  • Commentary: Why Did Malay Candidates Who Qualified Refused To Challenge Halimah Yacob?

    Commentary: Why Did Malay Candidates Who Qualified Refused To Challenge Halimah Yacob?

    Dear Editors,

    Everyone is now visibly upset with the Presidential walkover but I am more upset with the passive nature of our malay candidates. Apart from Salleh Marican and Farid Khan who did not make the cut, there were high profile business persons who automatically qualified like Bank Of Singapore CEO Bahren Shaari and the CEO of PT Trans Retail Shafie Shamsuddin. Why did they not stand up and be counted for our Malay community and stop this farce of an election walkover?
    For PR Trans Retail CEO Shafie Shamsuddin, Singapore’s GIC invested 5.2 trillion rupiah (SGD$387 million) for a 17% stake in PT Trans Retail. If you extrapolate that to the full value of PT Trans Retail, it would be over SGD$2200 million. This would have allowed him to qualify without any problems.

    Same for Bank of Singapore CEO Bahren Shaari, BOS managed more than 79 billion dollars worth of assets, surely that qualifies him automatically as well.

    So why did these two upstanding individuals from our community not step up to challenge Halimah Yacob who did serve in public service but sadly has not have the experience in managing huge amounts of money like the Singapore reserves.

    Are they more concerned with making more money for themselves? Why did they not take the opportunity to give back to our community and to show Singapore that we the Malays have good candidates as well? We don’t need any special treatment to qualify for the 500 million benchmark, we have successful people who can qualify on our own merit.

    The PAP planned everything nicely and Halimah got a comfortable smooth sailing ride because our Malay representatives refused to step up to the challenge. This is a shame our community, where has the spirit of serving gone to? With too much money, people forget about their roots?

    Abdul Raheem

     

    Source: everyday sg

  • Prominent Malays Named As Potential Candidates For Elected President

    Prominent Malays Named As Potential Candidates For Elected President

    Mr Mohamed Salleh Marican’s declaration of his interest in running in the upcoming presidential election is not a total surprise.

    As a prominent, successful Malay entrepreneur, his name is among several talked about in recent weeks as a possible presidential hopeful for the September election.

    Meanwhile, two other figures seen as potential candidates – former minister Abdullah Tarmugi and Bank of Singapore chief executive officer Bahren Shaari – told The Straits Times they were not keen on standing for the election.

    Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob, 62, who is widely considered a front runner, did not respond to queries from The Straits Times.

    Mr Mohamad Salleh, explaining his intentions, told The Straits Times in an e-mail yesterday: “I believe I have done well for myself in business and would like to step up and give back to society in a much larger way.”

     

    When contacted, two other prominent individuals from the Malay community touted as potential candidates confirmed they were not eyeing the election.

    Mr Bahren, 54, told The Straits Times in an e-mail: “I am humbled to have my name mentioned as a potential candidate for this year’s presidential election by various media. It is always a privilege and honour to serve the nation.

    “At the moment, my focus is on growing the business of Bank of Singapore with my team and deriving the synergies from our recent acquisition of the wealth and investment management business of Barclays Bank PLC.”

    Mr Abdullah, 72, said it is “unlikely” he will run in the election.

    “I had considered contesting earlier and many had in fact encouraged me to do so. But it is unlikely that I will contest. I have my reasons,” he said, declining to elaborate.

    Other names that have been mentioned include Mr Shafie Shamsuddin, 46, the chief executive officer of PT Trans Retail, which operates Carrefour supermarkets in Indonesia.

    Mr Shafie, who could not be reached for comment, was named outstanding overseas chief/senior executive of the year at last year’s Singapore Business Awards.

    He is the first non-Frenchman named in 2011 as an executive director of the global supermarket giant Carrefour, taking charge of talent management and organisational development.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • Malay President – Halimah Yacob, Abdullah Tarmugi Or Bahren Shaari?

    Malay President – Halimah Yacob, Abdullah Tarmugi Or Bahren Shaari?

    MADAM HALIMAH YACOB, 62

    APPOINTMENTS

    2001 to now: Member of Parliament

    2011 to 2012: Minister of State (Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports)

    2012 to 2013: Minister of State (Ministry of Social and Family Development)

    2013 to now: Speaker of Parliament

    WHY HER?

    “She is a trained lawyer. Was in the top echelon of NTUC, then MP, Minister of State, and Speaker. In short, she is very well-qualified. I believe she is also well-liked. As an added bonus, she is a woman.”

    – Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser, National University of Singapore

    “Usually, candidates (for the Presidency)  don’t step down from their current positions and stand for election immediately because they may be seen as too closely associated with the governing party.

    – Mr Mano Sabnani, political observer and chief executive officer of Rafflesia Holdings, a media and financial consultancy company

    MR ABDULLAH TARMUGI, 72

    APPOINTMENTS

    1984 to 2011: Member of Parliament

    1989 to 1993: Deputy Speaker

    1993 to 2002: Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs

    1994 to 2002: Minister for Community Development

    2002 to 2011: Speaker of Parliament

    2012 to now: Member, Presidential Council for Minority Rights

    WHY HIM?

    “He’s been retired from politics for some years  now.  So he could be seen as not closely linked to the political establishment.”

    – Mr Sabnani

    “That Abdullah Tarmugi was born to a Malay father and a Chinese mother, and the fact that his wife is also Chinese may well be an added advantage as the portrayal of a multicultural identity is likely to resonate with the society at large here.”

    – Dr Mustafa Izzuddin, Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute

    MR BAHREN SHAARI, 54

    APPOINTMENTS

    2010 to 2015: Global Head (Southeast Asia), Bank of Singapore

    2015 to now: Chief executive officer, Bank of Singapore

    2012 to now: Non-executive and independent director, Singapore Press Holdings

    WHY HIM?

    “He is known to many in the community, but he may have to boost his profile beyond the community should he be interested to run for president.”

    – Dr Mustafa

     

    Source: www.tnp.sg

     

     

  • Bahren Shaari Appointed as New CEO of the Bank of Singapore

    Bahren Shaari Appointed as New CEO of the Bank of Singapore

    SINGAPORE: Bank of Singapore, the private banking subsidiary of OCBC Bank, has appointed Bahren Shaari as its new chief executive officer (CEO) from Feb 1 next year.

    He replaces Renato de Guzman, 64, who will retire as CEO from end-January.

    Mr de Guzman, also known as Bing, will stay on as senior advisor to the bank till Jun 30, 2015.

    Mr Bahren, 52, has more than 25 years of banking experience and was part of the management team at ING Asia Private Bank (IAPB) that moved over to Bank of Singapore in January 2010 when it was acquired by OCBC Bank.

    Prior to that, he was managing director of UBS Wealth Management, where he headed the South East Asia and Australia marketing team.

    Over the past five years, Mr Bahren helped build Bank of Singapore’s market position in Indonesia and Malaysia by tripling the assets under management.

    The bank said in a statement that he has “spearheaded the implementation of a robust client-centric advisory process that has helped deliver significant revenue growth”.

    Under the leadership of Mr de Guzman, the bank’s assets under management crossed the US$51.1 billion (S$65.9 billion) mark as at Sep 30, 2014, from US$23 billion in January 2010.

    Bank of Singapore’s chairman, Ching Wei Hong, said: “Within the short span of five years, Bank of Singapore has achieved remarkable success. A large part of this is due to Bing’s passion and his relentless efforts to always do what is best for our clients.”

    Last month, Mr de Guzman was named Outstanding Private Banker – Asia Pacific by news and research firm Private Banker International.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com