ICOQSIA2020

YBhg Dato' Dr. Ir. Annuar Mohd Saffar is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KXP AirportCity Holding Sdn Bhd, a special purpose vehicle established by the State of Kedah to design, plan and manage development of Kulim International Airport (KXP). He was the former President and Group Chief Executive Officer of Kulim Technology Park Corporation (KTPC), Kulim Hi-Tech Park, in Kedah, Malaysia from 2013-2018 .

Dato' Annuar studied at University of Missouri, in Columbia, Missouri, United States of America, on a PETRONAS scholarship in 1980. He graduated with three degrees; Bachelor of Science Industrial Engineering (Magna Cum Laude & Honors Scholar in Engineering, 1984), Master of Science in Industrial Engineering (1986), and Master of Business Administration (in Finance, 1986).

Upon returning from USA in 1986, he was posted by PETRONAS to a subsidiary company, ASEAN Bintulu Fertilizer (ABF), in Sarawak, where he worked as project engineer and plant engineer. During his employment at ABF too, he undertook an overseas assignment as Resident Engineer in Dortmund, Germany in 1990.

In 1993, Dato' Annuar left PETRONAS to take up the position as Director (Industry & Technology), Technology Park Malaysia, Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, where he worked in various capacities including as vice-president for technology development, before joining Kulim Technology Park Corporation (KTPC) in 1999.

Dato' Dr. Annuar received his Doctor in Business Administration (DBA) degree from University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia in October 2015. In September 2012, Universiti Malaysia Perlis conferred an Honorary Masters Degree in Engineering for his contribution to the university. The Universiti Utara Malaysia appointed him as adjunct professor (quantitative sciences) in 2018. Dato' Dr. Annuar was also instrumental in getting KTPC Board to provide RM 5.0 million R & D endowment to Universiti Sains Malaysia, and Universiti Malaysia Perlis, to conduct research and analytical works in resolving common industry problems at Kulim High Tech Park. The endowment to the two universities (RM 2.5 million to each university) was approved in 2017 during his leadership at KTPC.

Dato' Annuar is also a fellow and alumni of two prestigious universities, namely Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA and University of Oxford UK, through participation in the universities' professional programs.

Prior to his retirement Keith Houghton was Professor of Business Administration at the Australian National University. He is now an Emeritus Professor of the University.

Professor Houghton holds degrees from the University of Western Australia, the University of Melbourne and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a Fellow of CPA Australia and the Institute of Accountants in Australia.

For eight years Professor Houghton served as Dean of the University’s College of Business and Economics and its antecedent bodies. He was also Director of the National Graduate School of Management before its merger into the College in 2006. During periods over the ten year service at the ANU he served as the Chair of the University Academic Board and the Audit and Risk Management Committee. He has been a member of the University Council. He was also Chair of the University’s Access and Equity Committee.

Professor Houghton’s teaching and research supervisory responsibilities have included undergraduate, honours and postgraduate coursework and PhD supervision.

He has written and published widely in international journals (including the Journal of Accounting Research) domestic scholarly journals (including Abacus) and served on a number of Editorial Boards (including The Accounting Review). The research paradigm applied by Professor Houghton involves the use of archival and experimental data.

Professor Houghton was a member of the Australian Audit and Assurance Standards Board for a number of years during its transformation to a Federal Government statuary authority. He was also a member of the three-person taskforce created by the accounting profession in response to evidence provided to the HIH Insurance Royal Commission.

The 2002 Australian Parliamentary Inquiry on Auditor Independence made specific note of Professor Houghton’s research on audit quality. He has been one of two independent reviewers of the Australian audit practice of the accounting firm KPMG prior to the formal oversight by Australia’s corporate regulator ASIC.

Responsible as VP/ CFO and executive director for the legal entity of InfineonTechnologies (Kulim) Sdn Bhd, a wafer fab in Malaysia, established 2005. Tasks include the full scope of Business Admin and Controlling, government relations and funding as well as responsibility for IT, Purchasing and BC of the site with about 1 Billion Eur Invest and 2000 HC. I am also VP of the Kulim Industrial Tenants Association (KITA) and chairman of the Semiconductor Fabrication Association Malaysia (SFAM). I am with Infineon Technologies, formerly Siemens Semiconductor, since 1982 in various positions in Munich, Berlin and Malacca/ Malaysia, and since 10 years in this position in Kulim/ Malaysia.