Datuk Wira Azhar Abdul Hamid who was appointed as the MRT Corp chief executive officer on Sept 1, 2011, resigned today following the accident at the MRT worksite which claimed three lives.

Before this, Azhar had served as the Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd managing director.

Concurrently, he was also the Sime Darby Bhd’s Plantations and Food Division divisional director.

He had also served as the Malaysian Palm Oil Association chairman and a board member of the the Malaysian Palm Oil Board and the Malaysian Palm Oil Council.

Azhar who is a chartered accountant by profession is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Accountants in the United Kingdom and member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.

The 51-year-old Azhar, is also a also shareholder and founder of Chelsea Capital Sdn. Bhd., an investment holding and corporate advisory company focusing on the oil palm, property and food sectors.

During his tenure as the CEO, Azhar had introduced the concept of a mutual agreement with owners whose land were affected by the MRT project.

The agreements allowed land not to be compulsorily acquired by the government and allowed private land to co-exist with MRT alignment.

The agreements had also reduced the amount of compensation to be paid by the government for land acquisition by about RM1.5 billion.

Azhar had also often stressed on the need to improve safety at worksite and had worked personally to achieve this, including creating the Contractor’s Performance Assessment System (CONPAS) where safety, health and environment is one of the items contactors are assessed.