Syed Zainal Abidin appointed Petronas' marketing vice president

KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has announced the appointment of Datuk Seri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir as its new vice president (marketing) effective July 1.

Syed Zainal, who has about 30 years of experience in the corporate world, graduated with Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Maryland, USA.

He began his career with Petronas Gas Sdn Bhd in 1987 as a project engineer, prior to joining Petronas in 1992 as the senior executive of the company's Corporate Planning and International Business Development Unit.

He served at Petronas for about three years before leaving to join Hicom Holdings Bhd in 1995, where he assumed various senior positions.

In 1999, Syed Zainal was appointed as Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) senior general manager, and later in 2002 as Perodua Auto Corporation Sdn Bhd executive director. He was promoted to Perodua deputy managing director in October 2005.

Syed Zainal was also entrusted to lead the national car manufacturing company, Proton Holdings Bhd (Proton) as the group managing director from 2006 to 2012.

He also sits on the Boards of various subsidiaries of Proton Group before he left the Company in May 2012.