Renaka Ramachandran, 54, a Malaysian, was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of Sime Darby Plantation Berhad (SDP) on 1 April 2011. In this role, she oversees various departments within the Group, which include finance, information technology, compliance and risk (of the Global Trading and Marketing Unit), procurement, corporate finance and investor relations departments. She also was appointed as Deputy Managing Director of Sime Darby Oils (SDO) on 15 July 2020 with a role focusing on leading the transformation programme in the Asia Pacific region and governance matters.
She began her career as an Audit Associate with Raj and Associates in 1991 where she led small audit engagements until 1992. She joined Coopers and Lybrand (now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers) in 1992 as an Audit Associate and moved up the ranks to the position of Executive Director on 1 January 2004. As an Executive Director, she was involved in, among others, the audit of public listed companies, review of profit and cash flow forecast and projections for restructurings and initial public offerings, due diligence and financial analysis. Her roles included overseeing working teams, giving presentations and providing training for both internal staff and external clients. She was also the representative of PricewaterhouseCoopers and committee member of the working group of IAS 41 (Accounting Standard on Agriculture) in the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (MASB).
She was qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1992 and was admitted as a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in 1998. She became a Fellow of the ACCA in 2002.
She has been actively involved in the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board for the changes to IAS 41 by working on papers with the MASB for its onward discussion with the International Accounting Standards Board. She is a member of the ACCA Accountants for Business Global Forum. Renaka also appears as a presenter or panellist at various forums conducted by ACCA and the Oil Palm Industry.