Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) Malaysia announced the appointment of Ir. Dr. Sanjayan Velautham as the new chief executive officer with effect from January 9.

Prior to this, he served as the executive director of the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) based in Jakarta, Indonesia since January 2015 reporting directly to the Governing Council consisting of Leaders of the Senior Offices on Energy from the ASEAN member states.

He brings over 25 years of experience in the industry, academia and research institutes.

A professional engineer (P.Eng.) with a doctoral degree in Engineering, he has 15 years in the energy industry and 10 years of research/teaching experience at Kyushu University, Japan, and University of Technology, Malaysia.

He had worked in Singapore before taking the assignment as ACE executive director, initially with the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) as a deputy director, then with General Electric as country manager for Power Generation Services business.

He started his career at Tenaga Nasional Berhad in Malaysia within the Power Generations Division.

He has also served as the National project manager for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP Malaysia)’s BioGen Project.

Ir. Dr. Sanjayan has authored several publications in international conferences, journals and subject modules particularly in the field of energy.

He was also a panel member in preparing the Thermal Energy Efficiency Guideline for Malaysia.

His interest among others is to continue to engage in the strategy and policy research related to sustainable energy development within the ASEAN region.

SEDA is confident that Ir. Dr. Sanjayan will be able to spearhead energy efficiency and renewable energy agenda in the country, and achieve the aspirational RE target of 20 per cent in the national power mix by 2025.

His vast background and extensive knowledge of the energy industry are valuable attributes which are of great relevance to SEDA.

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