Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia

Michele brings with her leadership and advisory experience on a wide spectrum of corporate governance and boardroom matters that includes board, committees and director effectiveness evaluation, competency development needs, remuneration and succession planning, legal and compliance, and corporate performance. Her passion in developing high-performing people has been the driving force in making her a forward-looking leader in the corporate sector.

Michele was Group Head, Corporate Secretarial and General Counsel for the last five years with IHH Healthcare Berhad, one of the largest listed healthcare providers globally. She oversaw legal, corporate secretarial and governance functions across several jurisdictions such as Singapore, Turkey, India, Asia Pacific, North Asia and the CEEMENA region while keeping watch on local matters.

Some of the key areas she was instrumental on includes mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, joint ventures, corporate schemes, and operational matters. She was also on the Board of Directors on a subsidiary board and Chief Sustainability Officer in charge of sustainability reporting and practices for the Group.

Prior to IHH, Michele spent six years from 2006 to 2012 at Malaysia’s national car manufacturer Proton Holdings Bhd where she held various positions in the Group Legal division, including Chief Legal Counsel. She was also board member of several Proton Holdings Berhad local and foreign subsidiaries and associated companies, member of the Group Management Committee, Management Audit Committee, Group Risk Management Committee, various project steering committees and task forces.

Upon leaving legal practice at Shook Lin & Bok where she specialised in the areas of banking, commercial/corporate, land and tort, Michele joined Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Bhd in 1998 until 2005 as Assistant General Manager in its Legal Affairs and Risk Division. Here she oversaw negotiations in project conception, acquisitions of syndicated/bilateral domestic and foreign loans, club deals, share sale agreements, and risk participation agreements.

Michele holds a LLB Hons degree from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (1991) and is a Barrister-at-Law at Middle Temple, London, England. She has been an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya since October 1993. She completed the Senior Management Development Programme of Harvard Business School in 2009, Professionalism in Directorship Programme by Malaysian Alliance of Corporate Directors (MACD) in 2012 and the NAM Institute for the Empowerment of Women (NIEW) Women Directors’ Training Programme in 2014. Michele is also a licensed company secretary.