Sujatha Sekhar Naik is a senior governance and capital markets professional and legal practioner, whose experience encompasses policy and strategy development, governance & sustainability, compliance, and dispute resolution. With over 30 years of experience in legal and capital market work, Sujatha brings a depth of experience and a practical and holistic understanding of financial markets and the regulatory framework, together with insight into investor concerns and challenges.
She is the Chairman and board member of the Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance (MICG) and is a partner at Messrs Aqran Vijandran, providing legal advisory and consultancy services in her areas of expertise.
Her career spans leadership roles, including as Chief Governance Officer & Group General Counsel of a glove manufacturing company, bringing her experience in governance and compliance work to the manufacturing sector, advising and guiding the company through its ESG and broader sustainability journey. She was also part of a founding team of a fintech start-up and digital asset platform, responsible for developing the risk and compliance framework for the platform.
From 2013 to 2019, she served as CEO of the Securities Industry Dispute Resolution Center (SIDREC), steering its dispute resolution services to align with international best practices and capital market developments. She continued to contribute to this sector as a board member of the Ombudsman for Financial Services, and currently as a board member of FMOS. Her prior work as a regulator at the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), included advisory and reform work across the Market Policy and Development, the General Counsel’s Office, and the Corporate Finance and Investments, business groups. She played a direct role in major policy initiatives and reform efforts at the SC and continues to contribute to policy work in the capital market. She currently sits on the SC’s Corporate Governance Council and is a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors’ Task Force on Statement on Risk Management & Internal Control (SORMIC) Revision Project Management.
Sujatha holds an LLB (Hons) from the University of London and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1989, re qualifying with the Law Society of England and Wales as a Solicitor in 1990. She was called to the Malaysian Bar in 1998 and is a qualified mediator and trainer accredited by the Bar Council’s Malaysian International Mediation Centre.
She also sits as an independent director on the Boards of the Financial Markets Ombudsman Service (FMOS), Metrod Holdings Berhad and Hextar Technologies Solutions Berhad.