Vaseehar Hassan

Vaseehar Hassan brings a long career as a senior leader in business and finance to his work in executive coaching and leadership development. He spent 10 years as a merchant banker specialising in syndications, IPOs and M & A activities, before becoming CEO of the Malaysian office of Dallah Albaraka Group, a Saudi Conglomerate.  During his 18-year tenure, he managed Dallah’s investments in financial services, real estate, healthcare, plantations and food industries and served as a Board member in various investee companies.

In his 30 year banking career, Vaseehar has held Chairmanships in three Malaysian banks – Utama Merchant Bank, RHB Islamic Bank and Unicorn Islamic Investment Bank Malaysia. After the merger of RHB/Utama Banks, Vaseehar was elected to sit on the board of all the RHB Group’s key subsidiaries including the Chairmanship of RHB Islamic Bank.

It was during the merger negotiations of Bank Utama and RHB Bank that Vaseehar developed an interest in psychodynamics of human behaviour and attended the Consulting and Coaching for Change (CCC) in 2001/2002, a programme jointly run by INSEAD and HEC, two of the leading European business schools. Vaseehar graduated with an INSEAD diploma and HEC Master’s Degree with Honours. He completed his PhD in 2013 at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.          

Vaseehar is deeply interested in the psychodynamics of leadership and continues to conduct research on Malay leadership. He is the author of Malay Leadership Mystique (2016) and co-author of Where Lies the Heart of ASEAN? Leadership for Postmodern ASEAN (coming soon).

He is an adjunct professor with University Technology Mara as well as the only Malaysian who is a member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO). He was formerly on the advisory panel of the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF).

He holds a number of Board-level roles including: Independent Director, Guidance Investments (Labuan) Limited, Asian Finance Bank Malaysia, Ingress Corporation Berhad; Chairman & Co-Founder, Zilzar Tech Sdn Bhd; and Advisory Board Member, Apiro Capital.

For his services in attracting Middle-Eastern investments to Malaysia as well his services to the financial sector in Malaysia, Vaseehar was honoured with Datoships from the states of Penang and Sarawak.