The Fintech Association of Malaysia (FAOM) hosted its fourth Annual Grand Meeting (AGM) virtually in which the association elected Karen S. Puah as its president.

According to a statement by FAOM, Karen will be the first woman to helm the position of President among the national fintech associations throughout ASEAN.

Karen S. Puah, FAOM’s reigning President said,

“We have come a long way since our inception in 2017, and that’s owed to the dedication of the past Presidents and Committees. I’m honoured to receive the torch from our outgoing President, Ridzuan Aziz and hope to carry the vision that him, and the committee holds for FAOM.

I hope that with my appointment, and through FAOM’s future initiatives, we get to see more women stepping up and increasing our stake in the fintech startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

The AGM was convened with the purpose of reviewing the progress achieved by the association thus far, the COVID-19 related challenges faced by the industry, strategising the way forward for the further development of Malaysia’s Fintech industry and most importantly, announcing the new line-up of committee members who will be helming FAOM for the 2020/2021 term.

The newly minted president will be joined by an experienced executive committee of namely:

• Wilson Beh, representative of Polisea Sdn Bhd as the Vice President
• Jonathan Lim, representative of Zaid Ibrahim & Co. as the Secretary
• Calvin Foo of Peoplelender Sdn Bhd as the Treasurer; and

6 committee members, namely:

• Teoh Ze Han, representative of FWD Technology and Innovation Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.;
• Aminnurllah Mustapa, representative of AAM Commodities Sdn Bhd;
• Henry Chong, representative of Fusang Malaysia Sdn Bhd;
• Wong Sue Wan, representative of Wong & Partners;
• Naoto Nomura, representative of AEON Credit Service (M) Berhad;
• Matthew Fernandez, representative of microLEAP.

The AGM revealed the association’s growth plans for the future which involves the reskilling and upskilling Malaysians as well as introducing new skills which satisfy fintech’s future needs; focus on improving the relevance of FAOM and strengthening IP practices; to improve the marketing and branding efforts as well as FAOM’s Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) pillar.

Featured image credit: edited from Unsplash Photo by Esmonde Yong