KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 10): Airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is expected to get a new chairman soon.

Sources close to the matter told theedgemarkets.com that current chairman Tan Sri Zainun Ali is expected to be replaced by former Perak menteri besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir, who is the Pangkor assemblyman. 

The move comes on the heels of a string of leadership changes at government-linked investment companies and government-linked companies since the Perikatan Nasional coalition took over Putrajaya in March. Government sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd has a 33.21% stake in MAHB, while the Employees Provident Fund owned a 14.63% stake.

The 68-year-old Zainun, a former Federal Court judge, was appointed to her current role by the previous Pakatan Harapan government on Jan 18, 2019, replacing Tan Sri Syed Zainol Anwar Syed Putra Jamalullail. She is also the first female chairman of the airport operator. Zainun’s two-year contract is only due to end in January 2021.

According to MAHB’s website, Zainun graduated with a Bachelor of Law (LLB) from University of Malaya and thereafter obtained her Master of Law from University of Cambridge, the UK.

She has held various positions in the legal and judicial service throughout her career since 1976. She was appointed as the registrar of companies in October 1990 and the chief registrar of the Federal Court of Malaysia in November 1994. Thereafter, she was appointed as the judicial commissioner of the High Court of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur in August 1996 and elevated to the Court of Appeal in July 2007.

In April 2012, she was appointed a Federal Court judge and retired in October 2018. She is also a director of Permodalan Nasional Bhd.