New Chairman to drive Sunshine Holdings to fresh horizons
Thursday, 19 February 2015 00:00
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The Sunshine Group’s new Chairman Munir Shaikh, who took over the position after the retirement of his predecessor Rienzie Wijetiilke, says that his vision for the group is to drive it towards new horizons.
Shaikh, who possesses a strong pharmaceutical background, was Managing Director of the Pakistan branch of leading healthcare company Abbott from 1970 to 1977. As the Regional Manager of Caribbean and West Indies for Abbott, he was based in Puerto Rico from 1977 to end 2008 and later posted to Abbott’s headquarters in Chicago where he served as the Director Business Development from 1978 to 1982.
He also held the positions of Regional Director for Pacific and Far East from 1983 to 1988 and was then based in Singapore as Abbott’s Vice President for Asia Pacific and Africa. Shaikh, who retired from Abbott after 40 years of service, still sits on the company’s Board as Chairman of Abbott in India and Pakistan.
Although his strong background and expertise in the pharmaceutical industry will be a considerable asset for the group’s substantial healthcare arm, where he sees a lot of growth potential, the new Chairman says that the company’s plantation sector too has to be rejuvenated to become more profitable. He says that although oil palm growing has been a success they have to have better solutions for main crops such as tea and rubber in order for the sector to add more to the group’s bottom line.
Adding that the group’s diversification plans are already well placed, Shaikh says, “We are already diversified. We are in healthcare, plantations; we market tea and are the market leaders for tea in Sri Lanka. We also have a small packaging unit as well as being involved in hydroelectric power generation, so its already a well diversified operation and the question now is how do we leverage what we have already set in place to grow further.”
The Chairman says that he believes the company needs to take advantage of the high potential for growth in the hydropower sector and the fast-growing healthcare business. “I think the potential is substantial but rather than growing in all directions we intend to focus on three or four core areas and build on those, maximising on our already existing strengths,” he says.
Shaikh, who is an independent director of the company with no shareholding in the group, says that as Chairman of the Board he will be representing the majority as well as minority shareholders of the company.
“My objective is that we as a group are fair and make decisions that would benefit all stakeholders of the group and being independent of thought would make it easier for me to influence such decisions.”
As the newly appointed Chairman of Sunshine Holdings, a sustainable organisation which has been involved in the nation-building business from its inception and has helped build communities in the plantation sector, has been an industry leader in the health sector as well as being a contributor of green energy to the national grid, Shaikh intends to drive his new vision which will see growth in several key areas of the group. The Chairman says that the Sunshine Group, with him at its helm, has overall plans for business expansion both in Sri Lanka as well as in the region in the coming years.
