Sulaiman Mahbob, who was appointed the acting Felda Global Ventures chairperson today, is not a foreign name in the civil service, corporate world and academia in Malaysia.

The 68-year-old who succeeded Halim Shafie as Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) chairperson in 2015 has served in the civil service for 38 years.

Among others, he was director of the Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister's Office and the head of the National Economic Advisory Council during the Asian financial crisis in 1998.

The Universiti Malaya economics graduate was Malaysian Institute of Economic Research director in 1995 and founded the Institut Integriti Malaysia (IIM) where he was president for a year in 2004.

He also headed the boards of directors of Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) and the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) and sat on the boards of Petronas and FGV's parent, Federal Land Development Authority (Felda).

He is also chairperson of the Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group and Jambatan Kedua Sdn Bhd, the project owner of the second Penang bridge.

In the academic field, Sulaiman returned to his alma mater as an adjunct professor and teaches economics and public policy at Universiti Tun Abdul Razak.

He has a Master's Degree from the University of London and obtained a doctorate from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, in the US in 1986.