Board of Directors
Manulife Insurance Berhad

Mr. Belfer has held senior executive positions with Asian branches of global insurance companies and has significant board experience. Mr. Belfer was the Regional Senior Actuary for John Hancock in Asia for 5 years to assist with the establishment of its business presence in the region. 

Mr. Belfer was a founder for American International Group’s (“AIG”) Asia Pacific Life Operations Life Insurance Region. Mr. Belfer established and grew the Region for over 15 years, of which 11 years were as the Regional Senior Executive. He also established and led the AIG Enterprise Risk Management for two years in Asia, bringing it out of the New York Headquarters and into the businesses within the Asian Region.

Mr. Belfer was the Chief Executive Officer for Prudential Life Assurance Thailand and Managing Director for Prudential Corporation Asia from year 2015 to year 2017. Prior to that, he served as Country President (CEO) & Chairperson of the Board for the Ace Group’s Life Insurance Company in Thailand from year 2010 to year 2013.

Mrs. Vijayam Nadarajah was the president of the IIAM from year 1996 to year 1997 and was then re-appointed as a governor to the Board of Governors of IIAM in year 2018. She co-chaired the taskforce on Guidance for Effective Internal Audit Function. Mrs. Vijayam Nadarajah was the Independent Non-Executive Director of The Bank of Nova Scotia Berhad and MPI Generali Insurans Berhad. Prior to her appointment to the Board of The Bank of Nova Scotia Berhad, she was a consultant for China Construction Bank Malaysia Berhad on matters related to licensing of the bank and operational readiness audit. From year 2013 to year 2016, Mrs. Vijayam Nadarajah served as a Specialist for the Research and Development/Corporate Program of the Financial Accreditation Agency, which is an initiative supported by Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission Malaysia. She also served as Financial Controller at CIMB Aviva Assurance Berhad and CIMB Aviva Takaful Berhad, Assistant General Manager of Finance at Oriental Capital Assurance Berhad, as well as senior roles in RHB Bank Berhad and Sime Bank Berhad/UMBC Bank Berhad.

Mrs. Vijayam Nadarajah presently sits on the Boards of BNP Paribas Malaysia Berhad and Monash University Malaysia Sdn Bhd. She is a consultant and trainer in topics such as risk management, compliance, internal audit and board governance.

Mrs. Vijayam Nadarajah is the Chairman of the Risk Management Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee and Nominating/Remuneration Committee of the Company. She is also a Director and Chairman of the Group Risk Management Committee, and a member of the Group Audit Committee and Group Nominating/Remuneration Committee of Manulife Holdings Berhad.

Ms. James was the Chief Information Officer (“CIO”) & Head of Transformation Office for Bank Danamon Indonesia from 2016 to February 2020. In this role, she led digital transformation to meet the digital challenges of a mobile-first world, built digital partnerships with the business, and created new business opportunities, as well as built a consistent experience for customers across different lines of business. She built and implemented bank-wide Big Data Strategy within two years and garnered two global Big Data awards. 

Prior to joining Danamon, Ms. James was the Group CIO and Head of Infrastructure for Alliance Bank Berhad, Malaysia from October 2010 to February 2016, and was part of the management team to create new values and culture for the organization and designed and implemented a talent management framework. Ms. James also created a division to take on major Business Process Re-engineering projects, and delivered multiple infrastructure projects, legacy modernization of applications and virtualization.  

From year 2009 to year 2010, Ms. James was the Chief Information Officer at NIB Bank, Pakistan on a short-term assignment of two years to bring under control multiple failing projects and manage the cost overrun on these projects. Her major accomplishments were the rollout of Core Banking solutions nationwide across 250 branches within five months and management of IBM and Core Banking vendors to achieve savings of 30%.   

Ms. James was also with Bank Danamon Indonesia from year 2004 to year 2009 as Program Manager and subsequently Head of Technology, where she was responsible for transactional systems and technology infrastructure. As program manager, she was responsible for the bank’s critical and major IT projects, and also implemented the department organizational strategy, which involved organization realignment and optimization of IT resources. 

Ms. James held multiple senior roles in Citigroup from year 1997 to year 2004, such as Senior Project Manager, Equities Technology Group, London, Head of Systems and Expert Group, System Owner, Sales and Marketing and Head of ELC Operations and Technology, Malaysia. She replaced the global middle office system and integrated the Helsinki Exchange across both the equities and derivatives business. 

Ms. James is a Chairperson of the Nominating/Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee and Risk Management Committee of the Company.

Mr. Renzo Viegas started his career with Citibank in year 1985, where he progressively held senior positions in various Asia Pacific countries including regional responsibilities until year 2008. His last held position was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Citibank Malaysia. In year 2008, Mr. Renzo Viegas joined RHB Bank Berhad as Director of Retail Banking where he managed the consumer, insurance, hire purchase, and small and medium enterprises businesses. In year 2011, he was appointed as the Principal Officer overseeing overall operations of RHB Bank Berhad. His last held position was Deputy Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of the bank with direct responsibility in the Consumer and International businesses.

Mr. Renzo Viegas was the Deputy CEO and Executive Director of CIMB Bank from year 2012 to year 2015 with direct oversight over the Consumer and Commercial businesses and CEO of Group Consumer Banking from year 2015 to year 2016. He was responsible for the development of overall business strategies of consumer banking for the smooth implementation of the strategies and transformed the consumer bank of the Group to become its growth engine by leveraging on the regional platform to better reap synergies and accelerate business delivery. He also served as Adviser to the Group CEO of CIMB Bank–where he was responsible for the development of overall Group business strategies until March 2019–and was also the Chairman of the CIMB Group Information and Technology Steering Committee. He was also a Non-Independent Director for CIMB Bank (Vietnam) Ltd. from August 2018 to July 2019, and Non-Independent Director for CIMB Cambodia Bank PLC from November 2017 to July 2019. He served as Non-Executive Director of Sun Life Malaysia Assurance Berhad and Sun Life Malaysia Takaful Berhad from May 2013 to July 2017.

Mr. Renzo Viegas is presently an independent non-executive director on the Board of Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd. He is also the Chairman of Audit and Risk Committee, Chairman of Strategy and Business Transformation Committee and member of the Nomination, Remuneration and Corporate Governance Committee of Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd. He also sits on the Board of Ujjivan Financial Services Limited, a company listed on the National Stock Exchange of India and the holding company of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank.

Mr. Renzo Viegas is the Chairman of the Audit Committee and is a member of the Risk Management Committee and Nominating/Remuneration Committee of the Company. He is also a Director, the Chairman of both the Group Audit Committee and Group Nominating/Remuneration Committee, and is also a member of the Group Risk Management Committee of Manulife Holding Berhad.