Group Advisor – Strategic Business Consulting
Dato’ Mat Hassan bin Esa graduated with Bachelor Degree of Statistics from University of Malaya and a Master in Business Administration from The New Hampshire College, U.S.A. Upon graduation, he started a long and acclaimed career with several large government agencies in Malaysia. He began his career with Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) or National Equity Corp in 1980 during its early years of formation, and subsequently rose to the position of the Senior General Manager. He was actively involved in the creation and promotion of the first Unit Trust Fund, Amanah Saham National Berhad (ASN) which is now the largest unit trust funds in Malaysia with a combined funds under its management of close to US$90 billion.
He subsequently joined Perbadanan Usahawan National Berhad (PUNB), another government agency, as Managing Director cum Chief Executive Officer. PUNB’s core business is to offer entrepreneur development financing packages to assist the Small Medium Enterprises. In 1998, Dato’ Mat was handpicked to head Perbadanan Nasional Berhad as Chief Executive Officer. PNS focuses on the development of middle-level entrepreneurs and the development of franchising activities in Malaysia.
For his extensive experience, he was once again entrusted by the Malaysian Government to helm the Secretariat of International Zakat Organisation (IZO) as its Managing Director in 2008 until his retirement in 2013. As an inter-governmental organisation of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), IZO’s  main aim is to promote and support zakat institution as a mechanism for economic development, promoting solidarity and co-operation among Islamic countries.