Roslina Abdul Rahman Managing Director, Amundi Islamic Malaysia
What kind of education did you have when you were growing up?
I spent 11 years of my primary and secondary education at the Convent Bukit Nanas primary and secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur. After my SPM examination (equivalent to the ‘O’ levels), I left for the USA and completed my BBA degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. I returned to Malaysia to work for a few years and then proceeded to do MBA at the Australia Graduate School of Management in Sydney in 2000.
Who was your mentor?
I do not have any specific individual mentor. During the span of my 22-year career, I have been fortunate to work under some very good and enterprising companies and bosses in the business. The different experiences have provided me with very good foundation for my leadership role.
How would you describe your managerial style?
Consultative. I believe in teamwork and will seek the views of the relevant parties involved before making the appropriate decisions.
Ambition or talent: which matters more for success?
Ambition. I have seen talented people’s careers stall as they were not driven or hungry enough to work hard and push themselves to succeed. Someone once said to me “It’s not where you start, but where you end that matters” and there’s a lot of truth in that statement.
What was your earliest ambition?
To be a lawyer In what place are you the happiest? Surrounded by family and good friends.
What ambitions do you still have?
To grow Amundi Islamic to be a leading and preferred Shari’a-compliant asset manager globally.
What drives you on?
To be successful at a given task or goal
What is the greatest achievement of your life so far?
Being a pioneer staff and spearheading Amundi’s Malaysian office at the start of its operations in 2008 and growing, both conventional and Shari’a-compliant, into one of the largest foreign-owned asset managers in Malaysia.
What has been your greatest disappointment?
In the development of Shari’a-compliant investments, I have been disappointed by the slow speed of some large institutions in Muslim-majority countries to invest in Shari’a-compliant investments.
What do you do in your spare time?
I read to keep up to date with the current events in the world and financial markets.
If you had to rate your satisfaction with your life so far, out of 10 what would you score?
I am blessed to live a comfortable life surrounded with good friends and caring family. There’s more I can achieve career-wise so I guess that’s where the dissatisfaction lies.
If your 20 year’s old self could see you now, what would she think?
She would be very impressed with how I have progressed in my career. I wasn’t a particularly ambitious 20-year-old and only became career-driven when I started working and seeing the successful results of my work.
How committed are you to Islamic banking and finance?
As I said earlier, one of my ambitions is to see Amundi’s Shari’a-compliant asset management business grow into a global leader and asset manager of choice. Amundi Islamic Malaysia is Amundi’s global hub for Shari’a-compliant asset management and global sukuk investments, so it has the support of the Amundi group to grow it into a leading global player. Being the country head responsible for the growth of this business, I am very committed.
