Eqhwan Mokhzanee Muhammad

Eqhwan Mokhzanee joined AmBank Islamic Berhad as the Chief Executive Officer in 2015. He was the Group Sustainability Champion of AmBank Group from 2019 to May 2023, where he was responsible to drive AmBank Group’s sustainability/ ESG agenda and to oversee AmBank Group Sustainability Department.

Eqhwan commenced his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London and subsequently joined the corporate advisory practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Kuala Lumpur. Thereafter, he worked with local and foreign banks where he was exposed to corporate banking, debt capital market, corporate finance, financial advisory and real estate investment. Other than in banking, his career has provided him with experience in corporate management, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), strategy development and operational start-ups within and outside Malaysia.

Eqhwan has been invited as a speaker at conferences in Malaysia and overseas. He has also developed award-winning and innovative Islamic financial structures, and authored research papers on Islamic finance.

Eqhwan has received various awards such as the “Islamic Banker of the Year 2019” and “CEO of the Year” from the Global Islamic Finance Awards for 3 consecutive years (i.e. 2021 to 2023). He was also named as the “Best Islamic Banking CEO Malaysia” by Global Banking and Finance Review for 3 consecutive years (i.e. 2019 to 2021). Eqhwan was conferred the “Best Islamic Banking CEO of the Year Malaysia 2023” award by Global Business Review Magazine and the “Islamic Banker of the Year 2023” at the The Asset Triple A Islamic Finance Awards.

As part of his contribution towards talent development, Eqhwan is a member of the Industry Advisory Panel of the Azman Hashim International Business School, University Technology Malaysia (UTM) and was a Professor of Practice at the International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF). He is also the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Financial Industry Collective Outreach (FINCO) since July 2022.

At the industry level, Eqhwan was the 1st Chairman of the Working Group which developed the value-based intermediation (VBI) sectoral guides for the palm oil, renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors which were issued on 31 March 2021. These sectoral guides are intended to facilitate financial institutions to assign ESG rating for investment and financing decisions. Eqhwan was appointed as the Co-Chairman of the Risk Management Sub-Committee of the BNM and SC-led Joint Committee on Climate Change (JC3) in April 2023.

Eqhwan has Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Economics from the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) and a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accounts (MIA). Eqhwan is also a Chartered Banker with the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers (AICB) and a Chartered Professional in Islamic Finance (CPIF) with the Chartered Institute of Islamic Finance Professionals (CIIF).