ZAINAL ABIDIN M NOOR
DIRECTOR

Esperanza Management Advisors

Zainal is a Chartered Insurer and Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and of the Malaysian Insurance Institute. He has 40 years working experience in risk management, insurance, reinsurance/retakaful and claims. He was the CEO of Mayban Assurance Berhad from 2003. In 2007 when Mayban Assurance merged with Malaysia National Insurance Bhd to form Etiqa Insurance Bhd, Zainal was its first CEO. In early 2008, Zainal was part of the team, which includes Khazanah, responsible in establishing ACR Retakaful, the world’s largest retakaful group. He was later made the CEO/Director of the Malaysian operations. Prior to joining Esperanza, he was with Pana Harrison (L) Ltd, a Labuan-registered reinsurance broker as its Director and CEO.

A well-known and active personality in the Malaysian insurance fraternity, Zainal was appointed to sit as a Council Member in the Malaysian Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) for the period 1987–90 and sat in the Management Committee of General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM) from 2001, chairing the Fire Sub-Committee until 2007 when he had the honour of being elected as the Chairman of PIAM. He was also at one time a member of the Executive Council of the East Asia Insurance Congress (EAIC). Presently he serves as Board Member of the Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII).

email him: [email protected]

KIT BROWNLEES
DIRECTOR

Esperanza Holdings Ltd.

Having practiced as an international lawyer , Kit joined the insurance industry as a specialist in political risk and trade credit insurance . He was successively MD of Aon Political Risk and Gallagher Credit and Political Risk . He has extensive experience in structured trade and project finance and insurance.

email him: [email protected]

VIMALA SUPPIAH
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

Vimala has extensive experience in management and administrative roles working with board members and C-suite executives including  a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders across both high-profile private and public sector organisations. She is proficient in working with large multi-disciplinary teams and organisations on complex multi-faceted international projects, combine with excellent strategic organizational abilities with strong communication skills to ensure client projects are facilitated and delivered timely including assignments servicing clients in New Delhi and other parts of India. Vimala was also the compliance officer for 5 years with Virginia Surety Company, Labuan Reinsurance (The Warranty Group, an extended warranty solutions provider). Prior to joining the Esperanza team, Vimala worked with an international technology company to facilitate and assist in the establishment and operationalisation of a Malaysian entity to undertake a major infrastructure transportation project.

email her: [email protected]

DR. DAVID BOBKER
SENIOR CONSULTANT

Dr. David is a UK Chartered Accountant (trained with Peat Marwick Mitchell in London) and a GARP Financial Risk Manager (FRM). He holds a First Class degree in Mathematics and a DPhil from Keble College Oxford, United Kingdom.
Dr. David has more than 30 years experience in consulting and training at high level in risk management, compliance, internal audit, corporate governance and operational risk management in banking and insurance. His main areas of expertise are quantitative risk modeling, enterprise risk management, internal audit (with 10 years’ experience as a head of audit) and corporate governance. He is also an IT specialist and has developed custom applications to implement the risk and audit frameworks.

He is a former Head of Risk at the Asian Institute of Finance where he carried out research and training in risk management in the financial services sector. He had concurrently been engaged by the International Finance Corporation to upgrade risk governance and internal audit at a bank in the Pacific region. Dr David has had extensive consulting experience in the financial services and property sectors, both with the Big 4 and with his own firm, Real Assurance Risk Management. He was also engaged by Bank Negara Malaysia during 2009-2010 to develop and deliver the Risk Module of the Financial Institution Directors’ Education programme to directors of banks and insurance companies. He has continued to deliver risk management and governance training at board level to a variety of Malaysian institutions.
He has lived in Kuala Lumpur since April 2010.

ADRIAN NORMAN,
INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

Born in Mackay, Adrian spent over 30 years in insurance, tourism and aviation in Australia, Africa and Asia.

He was Managing Director for Australia’s leading marine insurer with branch operations around Australia and New Zealand including Townsville. The company also provided extensive marine hull and liability and cargo and hull claims management services in over 20 countries around the Pacific Rim and Indian Ocean including Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Adrian also assisted in the development of a program at the Maritime College in Launceston. He was a frequent contributor at Industry educational seminars and peak body conferences before leaving the industry in 2011.

He was a Director, Planning and Strategic Development based in Hong Kong for a leading UK based financial services firm where he was responsible for establishing operations in India, Vietnam and Korea. He was also responsible for marine insurance operations throughout South East Asia. Later he spent 4 years as Managing Director of a European Investment and Insurance Group joint venture in Malaysia. He represented Hong Kong Board at the International Union of Marine Insurers during his stay and was involved extensively in recruiting, training and mentoring executives across Asia.

Adrian also spent 6 years in Africa, building, owning and operating a tourist lodge and safari business for several years in Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. In addition as a commercial pilot, he managed and flew for an air charter company in nearby Botswana.  During his stay in Zimbabwe, he served as Chairman of the local primary school and was involved in various community groups.

GRAHAM TAYLOR
INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

Graham has over 30 years international experience gained with a number of global blue chip companies including John Brown Engineering and Bombardier Transportation. Graham has very senior level experience in Power Plant projects and MRO activity, Rolling Stock manufacture and maintenance and has held a range of Managing Director level appointments in medium/heavy engineering businesses in markets as diversified as Railways, Power, Oil & Gas, Mining and Aerospace.

Graham is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and is Vice Chair of their Professional Review Committee with specific responsibility for awarding Chartered Engineer status.

Graham resides in Scotland but completed a 2 year assignment to Malaysia in the 1990’s and has since retained strong personal and business links.

JOHN NOLAN

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

John began his international career at Johnson & Higgins as country manager in Saudi Arabia before leaving the Middle East to head up the Asia Special Projects team. He then became the Leader for the Asia Power & Infrastructure practice following the mergers with Marsh and McLennan 0and Sedgwick. John then spent 17 years based in various Asian capitals John is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute/ and a Chartered Insurance Practitioner. John’s expertise and capabilities extends to Construction, Property and Casualty insurance lines and major infrastructure projects. He has extensive experience with the International Finance Corporation, major banks and Multilateral export credit agencies.

He led teams to develop and implement risk management and insurance programmes during the development and construction phases of numerous leading-edge projects financed power and infrastructure projects throughout Asia and the Middle East.

For the last few years, John was working again in the Middle East where he focused on Limited Recourse Renewable Energy projects including the first Wind Farm Independent Power project in Saudi Arabia and the largest Solar Farm project in Jordan and the first Solar IPP in Dubai. He also has a detailed understanding of the international and regional insurance markets to ensure that clients’ insurance programmes are procured at competitive terms.

GERARD SINTES

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

Gerard resides in France and holds a Diploma in Hotel Management from the prestigious Lausanne Hotel School, in Switzerland. He has worked 16 years in South-East Asia ( Taipei, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Kota Kinabalu, Jakarta and Bangkok ), 8 years in the Indian Ocean ( Mauritius ) and South Africa ( Cape Town ) and the last 10 years in Europe ( Barcelona, London and Madrid ). Gerard Sintes' career has grown through luxury hotels operations to reach his first role as General Manager in 1994. On two occasions he also held the position of Area Vice President Operations in Asia with Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts and Europe with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

He is now an independent consultant based between Paris, Bordeaux and Nimes, in France.

GILES WARD

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

Giles has over 30 years of experience in the international insurance industry having held senior management positions with Guardian Royal Exchange, AXA and Chubb. He has lived and worked in Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

Whilst working for Guardian Royal Exchange and later AXA, Giles held director / CEO roles in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia (where he lived for 6 years from 2000). On joining Chubb (then ACE) in 2006 he moved to Bahrain to establish a new insurance carrier as the regional head office for MENA, and then to Sydney as CEO of ACE's Australia & New Zealand operations. He relocated to London in 2014 to lead the Eurasia & Africa region for Chubb, comprising businesses in MENA, South Africa, Russia and Turkey. From 2021 Giles has moved into a non-executive role for Chubb on various subsidiary and joint venture boards, as well as undertaking independent advisory work.

Giles has a degree in economics from the Victoria University of Manchester, is qualified as a Chartered Insurer and is a Member of the Institute of Directors.

DATO DR ILANGO KARUPPANNAN

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

Dato Dr Ilango Karuppannan is an accomplished diplomat and a former Malaysian senior government official. He has served in several ambassadorial postings including as Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore, High Commissioner to Cyprus and Ambassador to Lebanon. He has also served in various diplomatic ranks in Washington DC, Bonn, Conakry and with shorter stints in Paris and Wellington.

He served as Malaysia’s lead negotiator in the Malaysia-EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) and led to its successful conclusion. He also served as Malaysia’s lead representative in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) -Australia/Netherlands/European Union to investigate the tragic downing of MH17 over the Ukrainian airspace.

Dr Ilango was appointed to the Prime Minister’s department to head the Public Sector Reform division in the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Planning Unit (MAMPU)and teaching role at the National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN.

Retired from public service in September 2020 and currently an Adjunct Professor at University Malaya and Taylor’s University teaching post- graduate /undergraduate courses on international relations and diplomacy. Fluent in English, French, and Bahasa Malaysia.

SHARIFAH NAZNEEN BINTI SYED SALIM AGHA

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

Sharifah read law at the London School of Economics and Political Science then qualified as a lawyer. She began her career working at the International Affairs Department of the Securities Commission of Malaysia for four years, then went on to serve the United Nations. She worked as Project Manager with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Malaysia on capacity building on health issues among civil society and government bodies, before joining the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2005, where she still serves as legal consultant. For over 15 years, she worked for UNHCR offices in Asia, Europe and the Middle East as a legal expert in refugee protection, human rights, international criminal law and operational management. She has also worked with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Malaysia on capacity building of non-profit organizations advocating for child rights, as well as on gender-based violence projects with the United Nations Population Fund and the Women's Aid Organization.

She has published in the Refugee Survey Quarterly (RSQ) by the Oxford University Press on the topic of ethics and asylum, and was a speaker at an international conference organized by UNHCR in 2009. She also sits on the Executive Committee of JUST International, where she actively participates in talks and international meetings on strengthening global justice.

NORISWADI ISMAIL

INDEPENDENT NON-EXECUTIVE ADVISOR (PRO BONO)

Noris is diversity, equity and inclusion doer and global privacy, governance, ethics, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies' risks specialist. Formerly Founder & Executive Leader, Noris Ismail Consulting, Strategy & Policy, London; Independent Non-Executive Advisor/Mentor , ICT Legal Consulting International B.V., Amsterdam; Independent Non-Executive Advisor/MentorOf Consultant, TechLegis, New Delhi & Dubai; Non Executive Director, Neo Forensics, London and IAPP European Advisory Board Member (2022-2023). Previously an in-house technology, regulatory compliance and risk counsel for a leading system integration organisation in Malaysia, GDPR Lead for Ernst & Young (EY) UK LLP Technology Consulting practice, Ankura EMEA & APAC Data Privacy & Governance Lead (Technology, Cybersecurity and Privacy Advisory), Global Data Privacy Leader of Breakwater Solutions, former Scientific Director of European Privacy Association (2015-2017) and former IAPP Asia Advisory Board member (2015-2017).  Author of Beyond Data Protection, (Springer, 2013); Understanding Personal Data Protection Law (LexisNexis, 2013), contributed as one of the Subject Matter Experts in Global Data Transfer [Gold Rush Publishing (GRP), 2019] and Data Breach Accountability Framework (GRP, 2021). Noris holds LLB (Hons), International Islamic University Malaysia, LLM in IT & Telecommunications Laws, University of Strathclyde, UK (as a Chevening Scholar), Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection (PC.dp), CIPP/A and Certified Oxford Scenario Planning (OSP), Oxford Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Noris was a Fulbright Professional Exchange Fellow at Fordham and George Washington Law Schools, USA. and, at present, SME blind reviewer of International Data Privacy Law Journal (Oxford University Press).

Noris has delivered more than 180,000 hours of consulting, masterclass, webinars, workshops, strategic whiteboarding business case and scenario planning sessions for Board of Directors, C-Suite, Regulators, Fortune 500, FTSE 100, FTSE 250 – data driven organisations and cross sectors, Middle-Management, Middle Market firms and Start Ups. Extensive experience in governance, risk, controls and compliance, predominantly the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), NIST Cybersecurity Framework, HIPAA and emerging global data privacy & data governance framework, technology implementation and improvement [particularly Brazil, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Region: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman; Africa: Egypt, Malawi, Mauritius & South Africa; India, China, ASEAN: Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and East Asia: Japan, South Korea; Hong Kong and Oceania: Australia and New Zealand].  

Sector experience: Financial Services, Insurance, Life Sciences, Technology, Media & Telecommunications, Energy, Public Sector, Education, Aviation, Ports, Real Estate and Infrastructure (Smart Cities), Sports & Fitness, Charities and data-driven sectors powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning.

Noris is splitting his time between Malaysia/Asia Pacific (across 11 key markets), London/Europe and North America and currently leading, executing, writing, consulting, coaching and mentoring global digital data stakeholders on strategy, scenario planning, simplified governance, frameworks, controls' implementation and communications linked to cultural complexity & diversity of data in cybersecurity, AI and emerging technologies.

RUBINI ARASALINGAM

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

Rubini is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ANZ) and member of Association of Certified Fraud Examiner (ACFE), Rubini has over 20 years working experience in Malaysia and internationally in several consulting and corporate roles. She started her career at KPMG in audit for 3 years, and forensic investigation for 4 years, prior to a short stint in at CIMB Bank Berhad for 1 year. She then joined the oil & gas industry at SapuraCrest Petroleum Berhad (now Sapura Energy Berhad) where she worked for 14 years, initially as Head of the Investigation Department and thereafter in other senior positions of Business & Operations Planning, Head of Asset Management, and finally assumed the role of General Manager, Head of International Business & Commercial Planning. Since 2023, Rubini operates an independent boutique consultancy firm, Sens Capital Sdn. Bhd. which provides advisory services to clients’ on new business set-ups in the domestic or international marketplace, corporate and licensing registrations including development and implementation of business plans.

ENG. DAVID WRIGHT

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

David is a civil engineer by profession with over 44 years of experience in Asia, Australasia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and North America. He has held senior management positions with international engineering consulting and construction companies. Until recently, he worked for the global top ten ranked construction and engineering group, HOCHTIEF AG based in Germany as corporate auditor and risk assessor for operational risks in construction projects and business units internationally.

He is specialized in identifying operational weaknesses and risk, and areas for correction; together with necessary improvement and mitigation measures. He has reviewed diverse projects ranging from $US 100’s millions upwards to over $US 4 billion in the private, public and PPP sectors comprising buildings such public buildings, laboratories, offices, hotels, commercial, sporting and educational facilities as well as infrastructure projects for tunnels, metros and railways, airports, harbors, water supply and dams, wastewater, expressways, highways and bridges.

ANDREW PILGRIM MEng CEng FIChemE

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT

Andrew is a highly qualified and self-motivated Risk Engineering specialist with a strong focus on results delivery and client satisfaction. He brings a wide range of risk engineering expertise covering high hazard risks such as chemical, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, steel production, aluminium, upstream, desalination, power generation (including renewables) and other utilities for the placement of both Construction and Operational Insurance. Experienced in working with and supporting multi-disciplinary teams for process improvements, loss prevention and loss investigation. Excellent communicator with strong team leadership skills leading loss prevention workshops in Bahrain, KSA, Oman, USA, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Kuwait, UK and beyond. Former global technical consultant for high hazard, downstream petrochemical manufacturing processes for ICI.

Who is Esperanza?

Esperanza cares about trans-generational building.  We are purpose driven and passionate in seeing the four generations present in the marketplace become unified by unchangeable values.  We specialize in Enterprise Risk Management Services.  It is imperative to protect the shareholder and market value of organizations through clear risk mitigation plans. Governments and regulators now impose stringent framework of conducting business to safeguard the interest of the public and the nation’s economic well being hence requiring a greater focus and understanding of the business risks enterprise wide. Esperanza has the professional expertise and capabilities to assist our clients to consolidate and develop a workable strategic risk framework.

Why Esperanza?

We work and collaborate with a grouping of highly reputable, experienced and qualified risk management insurance consultants with various disciplines of expertise based in Malaysia, the region and Internationally.

Esperanza deploys the diverse talents and hands-on experience of our Malaysian and global based team of risk advisors and consultants by fully understanding our clients business and specific needs. We develop timely practical & measurable financial results and professional risk & insurance services at the most competitive costs.

Where is Esperanza?

Esperanza is located in Menara BRDB, 9th Floor, 285 Jalan Maarof, Bukit Bandaraya, 59000 Kuala Lumpur.  We work with clients in different parts of the world and have a scope that reaches far beyond the beautiful landscape of Malaysia. No matter where you are in the world Esperanza will help you.