Dato' Zainal Abidin Putih was born on January 14, 1946 in Kuala Lumpur and had his early
education at Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur. He left for England in 1967 and in 1972
qualified as a Chartered Accountant of the England and Wales Institute (ICAEW). Upon his
return he joined the firm of Hanafiah Raslan & Mohamad which merged with Arthur Andersen in
1990 and he became the Country Managing Partner. In July 2002 the firm merged with Ernst &
Young following which he became its Advisor. In addition to being a Fellow of the ICAEW, he is
Public Accountant of the Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA).
Zainal has very extensive experience in audit having been involved as a practicing accountant
throughout his career. Principal industries that he has been involved in, include banks,
insurance, energy, transport, manufacturing, government agencies, plantations, properties,
hotels, investment companies, unit trusts, distributors, timber, wholesalers etc.
He has also a good working knowledge of taxation and has been involved in clients’ tax matters
and tax planning. He has been involved in management consulting for various clients. In
particular cases that related to acquisitions, takeovers, amalgamations and restructuring of
companies and in the preparation of companies for floatations.
Zainal is also active in the community and the corporate world. He is a Past President of the
Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA)(1989 ‐ 1991) and was an Advisor to
Ernst & Young, Malaysia. In addition, he was also a member of the Malaysian Communication &
Multimedia Commission, a body set up by the Malaysian Government to oversee the orderly
development of the Multimedia and Telecommunication industry in Malaysia. He completed his
maximum of two terms of 2 years each in October 2002.
He was the Chairman of Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Berhad (Danaharta), the National
Asset Management Company, set up by the Malaysian Government to acquire NPLs from Banks
affected by the Regional Financial Crisis commencing in 1997. Until recently, he was the
Chairman of the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (MASB) and a member of the
Investment Panel of the Employee Provident Fund (EPF).
Recently, Zainal has been appointed Chairman and a Director of Dutch Lady Mil Industries
Malaysia Bhd. In addition, he is a Director of a number of other publicly listed companies,
namely, Tenaga Nasional Malaysia Berhad, Esso Malaysia Berhad, Bumiputra‐Commerce
Holdings Berhad (BCHB) and he sits on the Boards of a number of CIMB Group of Companies,
namely, CIMB Group Bhd, CIMB Bank Berhad and CIMB Investment Bank Berhad. He is the
Chairman of Mobile Money International Sdn. Bhd and acts as a Trustee of the National Heart
Institute Foundation (IJN).
He was awarded the Darjah Setia Negeri Sembilan (D.S.N.S.) by the Yang Di Pertuan Besar Negeri
Sembilan in 1995. On 11 October 2008 he was awarded the Jaksa Pendamai (J.P.) by Yang Di
Pertua Negeri Melaka. He has six children and is married to Datin Jasmine Abdullah Heng.
Source: www.ifrs.org
Personality Of The Day: Dato' Zainal Abidin Puith
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