Mohd Haris Mohd Arshad

Mohd Haris Mohd Arshad, 52, Male, Malaysian, was appointed Group Chief Operating Officer of SD Guthrie Berhad (formerly known as Sime Darby Plantation Berhad) (SD Guthrie) on 1 January 2024. He was the Managing Director of SD Guthrie International (formerly known as Sime Darby Oils) (SDGI) from March 2019 to August 2024, a position he relinquished following the appointment of the Chief Executive Officer of SDGI. He joined the Group in 2014 and prior to the demerger of the Sime Darby Group, led the then Sime Darby’s Global Trading & Marketing unit and Plantation Division’s Downstream Manufacturing division.

As the Group Chief Operating Officer, he oversees SD Guthrie upstream operations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea & Solomon Islands, SDGI, and SD Guthrie’s Innovation & Research. He also spearheads key transformation programmes, and various corporate exercises for the Group towards operational excellence, environmental stewardship, and innovation. Mohd Haris chairs the Operations Leadership Team in SD Guthrie, which team is instrumental in ensuring seamless alignment and coordination of SD Guthrie’s strategic efforts. During his tenure as Managing Director of SDGI, he led initiatives in market expansion and revenue growth, focusing on bulk trading, differentiated product offerings for industrial customers in the Business-to-Business segment and high-quality end-consumer products for its Business-to-Consumer segment.

Mohd Haris started his career in 1995 as a palm oil trader with Cargill in Malaysia, later moving to the Philippines in 1999 to handle copra sourcing and coconut oil sales in Europe. In 2001, he joined Nestle Malaysia and was soon transferred to London for global cocoa procurement and price risk management. He relocated to Singapore in 2006 to set up Nestle’s Commodity Procurement Centre for Asia, Oceania, and Africa, becoming General Manager & Head of Global Oils and Fats. He led supplier development and regional procurement efforts. In 2010, he joined Unilever Singapore as Director of Commodity Risk Management, overseeing a global team managing oils and fats price risk and market analysis.

Mohd Haris is currently the Chairman of the Palm Oil Refiners Association of Malaysia, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council. He is also a Non-Independent, Non-Executive Director of Duopharma Biotech Berhad.

Mohd Haris graduated from the University of Arizona, in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration. In 2019, he attended the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts.

Additional Information

• No family relationship with and is not related to any director and/or major shareholder of SD Guthrie Berhad (formerly known as Sime Darby Plantation Berhad) (SD Guthrie), nor has any personal pecuniary interest in any business arrangement involving the Company.
• No conviction of offences within the past five years, nor public sanctions or penalties imposed by the relevant regulatory authorities during the financial year other than traffic offences, if any.
• No conflict of interest with SD Guthrie.
• Does not hold any directorship in public companies and listed issuers, other than as disclosed above and companies within the SD Guthrie Group.