Founding Partner & Chairman
Prior to co-founding Ikhlas, Nazir led CIMB as Chairman from 2014 to 2018, and as Group CEO from 1999 to 2014. As Group CEO of CIMB, he spearheaded CIMB’s transformation from a local investment bank to the fifth largest universal bank in ASEAN, the largest Asia Pacific-based investment bank and a world leader in Islamic finance. He served on the Investment Panel of the Employees Provident Fund (2002 to 2017) and the board of Khazanah Nasional (2014 to 2018). He was also the Chairman of Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad, a development finance institution (2021 to 2023). Nazir is currently the Chairman of PLS Plantations.
Nazir has received some of the most prestigious awards from international journals and institutions as a banker and a corporate leader. He is recognised as a passionate advocate of ASEAN through his achievements at CIMB, founding of the ASEAN Business Club and inaugural chairmanship of the World Economic Forum ASEAN Regional Strategy Group. He is currently the Chairman of ASEAN Business Advisory Council ("ASEAN-BAC") Malaysia and Malaysia Indonesia Business Council ("MIBC").
Nazir holds a BSc from Bristol University and an MPhil from Cambridge University. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and at the Blavatnik School of Government (“BSG”), Oxford University. He is also currently a member of the BSG’s International Advisory Board.