Renaka Ramachandran

• Function: Chief Financial Officer / Deputy Managing Director
• Company: Sime Darby Plantation Berhad / Sime Darby Oils

Renaka, 54, is the Chief Financial Officer of the world’s largest producer of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil, overseeing various departments within the Group, including finance, information technology, corporate finance and investor relations. As Deputy Managing Director of the Group’s downstream business, Sime Darby Oils (SDO), Renaka leads an ambitious transformation programme that has thus far delivered sterling results, and oversees all 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 Executive Director, she was involved in various projects, including the audit of public listed companies, initial public offerings, due diligence and financial analysis. She also provided training for both internal staff and external clients. Renaka was represented PricewaterhouseCoopers as a committee member of the working group for IAS 41 (Accounting Standard on Agriculture) on the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (MASB).

Renaka 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 and has worked on papers with the MASB for onward discussion with the International Accounting Standards Board. She is a member of the ACCA Accountants for Business Global Forum. Renaka is also a sought after panellist for various forums conducted by ACCA and the Palm Oil Industry.

In 2021, Renaka was appointed chair of a pivotal Working Group in SDP that was formed to address the finding by the United States Customs and Border Protection that indicators of forced labour are present in SDP’s Malaysian operations. The Working Group was instrumental in leading efforts to improve the working lives and living conditions of SDP’s workforce. These improvements and changes form part a comprehensive report that was submitted to the United States Customs and Border Protection on 26 April 2022 which aims to demonstrate the Company’s compliance with the United States import regulations and international labour standards.