KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 — Prasarana Malaysia Bhd’s (Prasarana) new president and Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Masnizam Hisham, is keen to continue the tradition of excellence at the company.

Her appointment was announced by the Ministry of  Finance yesterday and is effective for three years.She replaces Datuk Seri Azmi Abdul Aziz whose tenure of service ended last December.

In a statement today, Masnizam said she was grateful to be appointed to the post and expressed happiness over the confidence placed in her to spearhead the operations of the Prasarana Group.

“This is an honour for me personally, and for my family, as well as all other career women.

Advertisement

“However, I would be the first to admit that this is a very challenging responsibility, particularly with Prasarana Group now expanding its wings from the original role of a provider of stagebus and urban rail services,” she added.

Prasarana Group is now also a key driver in areas related to public transportation, including transit-oriented development, optimisation of commercial value via its owned assets and exporting specialist expertise in project management, as well as the operation and maintenance of public transport.

Masnizam was previously the CEO of Prasarana Integrated Management & Engineering Services Sdn Bhd (PRIME).

Advertisement

According to her, the biggest challenge for Prasarana Group is not only to increase the number of public transport users, especially on the MRT, LRT, monorail and at bus stops, but also ensure efficiency in prudent spending and investment.

“We need to optimise all the resources available within Prasarana, as well as expertise in several fields, especially rail and bus engineering, project management, commercial and administration.

“This expertise has been proven in terms of not only the ability to handle the country’s public transportation system to be on par with other similar world-class public facilities, but also on the international arena.

“I am confident that Prasarana Group will be able to go further in elevating Malaysia’s name in the international arena, especially within the public transportation league,” Masnizam said.

She is currently in Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the President of the Saudi Railway Organisation to discuss potential collaboration in the rail industry.

Masnizam, 46 has also been serving Prasarana for over 12 years from 2005 as the Head of the Legal Department and as Company Secretary at Rapid KL.

Her other positions included Head of Group Procurement Division, Head of Strategic Communications and Marketing and Infrastructure Services Chief Officer of Prasarana Group, before being appointed the CEO of PRIME in 2016.

Other than PRIME, Prasarana Group has five other subsidiaries, namely, Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd which operates urban rail services, Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd (stage bus and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kuantan and Kamunting), Prasarana Integrated Development Sdn Bhd ( commercial and transit— oriented development), Prasarana Rail and Infrastructure Projects Sdn Bhd (new large infrastructure projects) and Prasarana Integrated Solution and Management Sdn Bhd (provider of insurance services for public transport services). — Bernama