SAP Malaysia has appointed a new managing director, just 18 months after former MD Bernard Chiang took on the job.
Terrence Yong will now lead sales, business strategy development and oversee SAP operations in Malaysia, as well as continuing to build “company bench strength for the future”.
Young began his career in the SAP Malaysia office in 2006, growing the SME business segment in the manufacturing industry. He moved to SAP Singapore in 2008 and held various sales and support roles, including as senior director, operations for SAP Southeast Asia, where he led a team providing business management support to the entire Southeast Asia organisation.
Yong returned to SAP Malaysia and most recently served as vice president, head of sales.
In his new role, Yong will report to Francois Lancon, president and managing director, SAP Southeast Asia.
“I am a firm believer [in] nurturing local talents to elevate them into leadership positions when they are ready. Grooming future leaders is a key component of my organisation’s succession plans and has delivered us young leaders like Yong,” said Lancon.
“With his proven track record in developing and motivating successful sales teams and extensive industry experience, I am confident that he will lead the SAP Malaysia team to becoming a customer-focused sales force and a leading cloud company within the Malaysian market.”
Young himself is excited to take on the role as the country moves towards ‘Digital Malaysia’ by 2020.
“SAP’s experience and leadership in the global marketplace makes us an ideal partner to help drive this national initiative for Malaysia. Our advanced technology and expertise are the essential building blocks that can play an integral part in the transformation of Malaysia into a fully-fledged digital economy, with pervasive usage of ICT such as big data, analytics and cloud for government, businesses and the rakyat,” said Yong.
Digital Malaysia is a national program based on three “strategic thrusts” to transform the country into a developed digital economy by 2020 – including a move from supply to demand focus, a shift from consumption to product, and evolving from low knowledge-add to high knowledge-add. The aim is to create an ecosystem that “promotes the pervasive use of ICT in all aspects of the economy to connect communities globally and interact in real time resulting in increased Gross National Income, enhanced productivity and improved standards of living”.
