Malar Odayappan is a Director with PwC Malaysia’s Sustainability & Climate Change practice. She has over 25 years of experience in social compliance and sustainability, with expertise in designing and executing engagement plans to align internal and external stakeholders on the impact of sustainability.
At PwC, Malar is responsible for establishing a sustainability services roadmap across the firm’s lines of service, and supports clients in Southeast Asia.
Malar’s notable project experience at PwC include:
- Collaborated with Malaysia’s largest energy client to direct a series of cross-stakeholder roundtable discussions on topics related to Just Energy Transition, and subsequently led the publication of a thought leadership publication titled “Laying the Foundations for a Just Energy Transition”.
- Contributed her views as a subject matter expert in the “Social” module of an ESG due diligence for a global contract skilled migrant provider.
- Led a nationwide labour market policy study for a United Nations agency, which included the conduct and analysis of over 5,000 survey results, as well as coordination of 15 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) across Malaysia.
- Led human rights risk assessment (HRRA) projects through documentation reviews guided by international human rights standards and Malaysian legislations.
- Delivered capability building workshops for senior leaders of various clients on topics including but not limited to human rights risks, grievance mechanisms and industrial relations.
Prior to joining PwC, Malar has held regional roles in multinational companies. At a multi brand footwear manufacturing group in Indonesia, she established workforce impact analysis, gender equity portfolios, fair recruitment and salary structure analysis for the manufacturing group. In her role, Malar has successfully enhanced the closed loop waste management system and energy conservation within the group. During her tenure with the group, she improved stakeholder engagement with state and federal level government officials to address critical workforce needs impacted by the pandemic.
Malar is also well versed in multi brand assessments and risk impact analysis for different industries throughout South Asia, Hong Kong and Mauritius. She conceptualised compliance and HR strategies and enhanced stakeholder engagement in the region. Her ability to create training modules and build the capabilities of vendor partners within the region has reduced ambiguity on audit requirements.