Gajani Nayagi Seeveneserajah, 45, a Malaysian, was appointed as the Chief Risk Officer of Sime Darby Plantation Berhad (SDP) on 1 June 2018. In this role, she is responsible for assisting the Risk Management Committee in ensuring the effective implementation of the Board approved Risk Management Framework. This includes integrating risk considerations into key strategic and business processes to facilitate effective decision making.

Effective 1 March 2022, she assumed an additional role in the Office of Chief Operations Officer (COO), Upstream, to oversee the implementation of human rights policies and processes across our operations.

She was appointed the Head of Portfolio Management of SDP in October 2017 and was in the team responsible for the establishment of the Transformation Office. This included development of the infrastructure, processes and resources to facilitate execution of value creation projects.

Prior to joining SDP, she was the Head of Performance & Innovation Management of Sime Darby Berhad from 2016 where she supervised and provided direction on the development and management of the infrastructure and processes for Sime Darby Group and Divisions to generate, prioritise and implement innovation projects. In this role, she was also responsible for facilitating the performance management process for the President & Group Chief Executive and his direct reports. She joined the Sime Darby Group of companies in 2012 as the Head of Risk Management for the head office functions of Sime Darby Berhad and Head of Risk Management for Plantation Division where she reviewed and enhanced Group Risk Management’s roadmap, policy, framework, methodology and system.

She began her career in 1999 in Ernst & Young where she ascended to the level of Director in the Advisory practice prior to leaving to join the Sime Darby Group after over 13 years of service. She provided assurance and advisory services to a wide variety of clients from various industries particularly in the plantations, aviation, financial services, healthcare, oils and gas support, manufacturing and leisure industries specifically in the areas of enterprise risk management, internal audit, corporate governance, internal controls, fraud investigation and statutory financial audit.

She is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA) and Business and Finance Professional (BFP) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Accounting and Financial Management from the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.