MDEC Appoints Razif Abdul Aziz as vice president of Investment and Grants

• Previously COO of Cradle, will oversee investment strategy and grants framework
• Brings over 25 years leadership experience and deep passion for startup ecosystem

Continuing its ‘Reinvent’ mission, the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) announced Razif Abdul Aziz as its new Vice President of Investment and Grants. Razif will manage the ongoing and upcoming initiatives to drive investments in Malaysia’s digital economy and to manage grants distribution across all MDEC programmes. He will report to Raymond Siva, Senior Vice President of Investment and Brand, and CMO of MDEC.

Of immediate importance, Razif will lead the efforts to strengthen the integrity of the grants framework and institutionalising best practices in the evaluation, disbursement and monitoring of all MDEC-managed grants and its alignment to MDEC’s investment attraction objectives.

“MDEC’s Reinvent mission has continued to attract top talents and forward-thinking leaders who have in-depth private and public sector experiences. With Razif’s appointment, one of MDEC’s core functions will be further recalibrated for this high-performance division to ensure improved processes including the digitalisation of grant management and administration. His wealth of experience will ensure transparency is included in the entire workflow. This will enhance MDEC’s role as an Investment Promotion Agency (IPA). As such, MDEC can capitalise on new opportunities with a more people-first, society-driven mindset, further accelerating the country’s digital agenda,” said Dr Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff, Chairman, MDEC.

Prior to MDEC, Razif was the Chief Operations Officer for Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd (Cradle). In his five-year tenure there, his scope included legal, human resources, administration and IT, marketing and strategic partnerships and finance. He successfully introduced transformation including updates to standard operation procedures, improving human resources and procuring value-added partnerships. In 2018, he assumed the Acting Group CEO role when Cradle introduced the Succession Plan.

“As we expand the depth and breadth of our leadership capability, MDEC is poised to further accelerate the nation’s leap into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and ramp up efforts to drive high impact digital outreach. With Razif’s appointment, the key investment and grant functions will be streamlined to ensure improved operational efficiencies for this high-performance division. He brings a wealth of experience – from startup to technology development, being in legal and regulatory and working with talent development and investments – all of which are critical for MDEC to fulfil the nation’s digital-first vision and in line with the goals of Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDigital),” said Surina Shukri, CEO, MDEC.

Razif has also held various board and leadership positions in investment units and government agencies. Most notable are Executive Director at the Malaysian Business Angel Network (MBAN), Chief Operating Officer in Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Bhd and Senior Vice President for Malaysia Biotechnology Corp.

Before going into corporate leadership, he worked in legal advisory roles, government and regulatory affairs and foreign trade. Currently, he is on the Industry Advisory Panel for the School of Business at KDU University College (renamed University of Wollongong) and Taylor’s University. He also previously held advisory roles for multiple councils and industry authority boards such as UM Capital Bhd, Malaysian Venture Capital and Private Equity Development Council.

“This role comes with enormous responsibility. I am ready to contribute and look forward to joining the dynamic team as MDEC charts our digital course forward and pave the way for the digital economy to grow towards firmly establishing Malaysia as the Heart of Digital ASEAN,” said Razif.