Across Malaysia, a generation of leaders is redefining what influence looks like — not through titles alone, but through decisions, organisations and movements that address some of the country’s most pressing challenges. From recycling incentives in urban neighbourhoods to landmark rulings at the Federal Court, these individuals have translated purpose into measurable action across sustainability, public health, education, law, heritage and social justice.
The People: Who They Are
The individuals profiled here span a wide range of disciplines, generations and institutional contexts. What connects them is a pattern of sustained, concrete contribution rather than proximity to power. Tatler Asia’s Asia’s Most Influential Changemakers collection for Malaysia — retrieved October 2026, with individual profiles published at various dates — identifies figures working across sustainability, education, public service, law, social entrepreneurship and philanthropy.
Among the names: Syed Zain Almohdzar, co-founder of Klean; Andrew Chan, sustainability and climate change leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers; Pang Chong Yong, co-founder and managing director of Gemilang Coachwork; Datin Seri Sunita Rajakumar, founder and chairperson of Climate Governance Malaysia; Shin Tseng, director of Urban Agenda Design Group; Davis Chong, executive director and group CEO of Solarvest Holdings; Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Sir Jeffrey Cheah KBE AO, founder and chairman of Sunway Group; Professor Dato’ Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, President and Pro Vice-Chancellor of Monash University Malaysia; Darren Teoh, chef at Dewakan; Andrew Yap, co-founder of BookXcess; and Suriani Kempe, president and human rights activist at Family Frontiers.
Their Roles: What Each Person Does
The breadth of roles represented here is itself significant. Syed Zain Almohdzar runs Klean, a platform built around incentivising recycling behaviour among ordinary Malaysians. Andrew Chan holds a senior sustainability and climate change leadership position at PricewaterhouseCoopers, operating at the intersection of corporate advisory and environmental strategy.
Pang Chong Yong leads Gemilang Coachwork as co-founder and managing director — a Malaysian company that designs and manufactures bus bodies serving both local and international transport markets. Datin Seri Sunita Rajakumar chairs Climate Governance Malaysia, an organisation focused on embedding climate responsibility into corporate governance frameworks. Shin Tseng directs Urban Agenda Design Group and works as an architect engaged in the revitalisation of heritage structures in Kuala Lumpur’s city centre.
Davis Chong serves as executive director and group CEO of Solarvest Holdings, a renewable energy company. Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Sir Jeffrey Cheah founded and chairs Sunway Group, a conglomerate with activities spanning property development, education and healthcare. Professor Dato’ Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman is both an infectious diseases specialist and the President and Pro Vice-Chancellor of Monash University Malaysia. Darren Teoh helms Dewakan, a restaurant in Malaysia. Andrew Yap co-founded BookXcess, a books retailer and literacy advocacy enterprise. Suriani Kempe leads Family Frontiers, an organisation that campaigns on gender equality and human rights.
Their Contributions: What They Have Built and Changed
Several of these leaders address the same underlying problem — environmental sustainability — from different entry points. Syed Zain Almohdzar approached the recycling gap not through regulation but through reward, designing Klean to give participants a tangible reason to change behaviour. Datin Seri Sunita Rajakumar took a governance angle, advocating for climate accountability to be embedded inside corporate structures rather than treated as a peripheral concern. Davis Chong has built Solarvest Holdings into a clean energy company, contributing to Malaysia’s solar sector. Andrew Chan has worked to develop the corporate sustainability agenda from within one of the world’s largest professional services firms.
In urban development, Shin Tseng has concentrated on revitalising heritage buildings in downtown Kuala Lumpur — applying architectural thinking to the question of how cities preserve identity while absorbing growth. Pang Chong Yong‘s Gemilang Coachwork contributes to transportation infrastructure both domestically and in export markets, with the company’s bus body solutions addressing mobility challenges at scale.
In education and public knowledge, Andrew Yap has used BookXcess to democratise access to books, framing literacy as an equity issue. Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Sir Jeffrey Cheah has, through Sunway Group, built educational and healthcare infrastructure alongside commercial developments, creating an integrated model with wide community reach.
Professor Dato’ Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman has contributed on multiple tracks simultaneously — advancing HIV advocacy, engaging with United Nations drug policy reform processes, and leading Monash University Malaysia as a senior academic executive. Darren Teoh at Dewakan has focused on Malaysian indigenous ingredients, building a restaurant identity around local sourcing and culinary heritage. According to the Tatler Asia profile, Dewakan holds the distinction of being Malaysia’s first two-Michelin-star and Green Star restaurant, as stated in that source. Suriani Kempe has directed Family Frontiers toward gender equality in citizenship rights, working as both a president and human rights activist.
Achievements: Milestones the Evidence Supports
Where specific achievements are documented in the supplied sources, they are worth examining closely. Professor Dato’ Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman is described by Tatler Asia as one of Malaysia’s most distinguished scientific leaders, with her work spanning infectious disease medicine, HIV advocacy and UN-level drug policy engagement — as well as her current role heading a major international university campus in Malaysia.
Darren Teoh‘s decade at Dewakan, combined with the restaurant’s Michelin recognition (two stars and a Green Star, as stated by Tatler Asia), represents a concrete institutional achievement in Malaysian fine dining. The Green Star designation, awarded by the Michelin Guide for sustainability practices, is particularly relevant to the broader themes shared across this group.
Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Sir Jeffrey Cheah carries a full list of official honours — KBE and AO among them — which reflect international recognition of his philanthropy and business contribution, though the specific basis and dates of these honours are not detailed further in the supplied sources.
A separate supplied source from Prestige Online (published 26 August 2022) documents the significance of Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Malaysia’s Chief Justice, who was appointed on 2 May 2019 as the country’s first female Chief Justice. That same source records her role leading the five-member Federal Court panel in the high-profile case involving former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and notes a 2013 Court of Appeal case she presided over involving the conviction of two former Malaysian police commandos in the case of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu. Former Malaysian Bar president George Varughese is quoted in that source as saying her appointment “augurs well, especially for the reform of the judiciary.” While Tun Tengku Maimun is not listed in the Tatler Asia changemakers collection as retrieved, the Prestige source situates her clearly within the same conversation about Malaysian leadership and institutional change.
Why This Matters: The Wider Significance of Malaysian Leadership in Action
Taken together, these individuals illustrate something specific about Malaysian leadership at this moment: the most consequential work is happening not in a single sector but across many simultaneously, and the people doing it are operating at the edges of their disciplines — architects preserving heritage, scientists reforming drug policy, restaurateurs documenting indigenous ingredients, lawyers presiding over historic cases.
The cross-sector pattern is not incidental. Challenges like climate change, public health, access to education and gender equality do not respond to siloed solutions, and the leaders here reflect that reality. A corporate sustainability adviser working inside a global firm, a recycling startup founder using behavioural incentives and a climate governance chairperson pushing boardroom accountability are each pulling a different lever toward the same outcome.
For Malaysia specifically, the significance extends to representation. The appointment of the country’s first female Chief Justice in 2019 was, as noted in the Prestige source, a structural shift in the judiciary — not merely symbolic but consequential in how major cases are composed and decided. Similarly, Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman’s work at the intersection of science, public health policy and higher education leadership reflects the growing weight of Malaysian professionals in international institutions.
These are not figures who arrived at influence by accident. Their profiles describe careers built through specific decisions: choosing to address recycling through incentives rather than penalties; choosing to put indigenous ingredients at the centre of a fine-dining menu; choosing to reform corporate governance from a climate perspective rather than wait for legislation. The cumulative effect of those decisions — across sustainability, law, health, food, education and civil society — is a more legible picture of what Malaysian leadership looks like when it is working.
Illustrative photo: Photovoltaic panel at the National Solar Energy Center in Israel.jpg by David Shankbone / Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 3.0. Resized for display.
