Profile of Tengku Farith Rithauddeen, Group CEO and Co-Founder of SKALI

The vibrant Tengku Farith Rithauddeen or better known as TF amongst SKALI’s staff is responsible for the strategic vision, overall management and leadership of SKALI. 

In 2002, Farith was selected as one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow (GLT) by the World Economic Forum, Davos of Switzerland. In 2004, he was the first recipient of the Young Entrepreneur award by the Malay Chamber of Commerce, Malaysia and in 2006 was awarded the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship for 2007 by the Eisenhower Foundation, USA.

Practicing open concept and bottom-top management practice, he has more than 13-years of management and business experience. Farith is responsible to drive the growth of the company.

Having established a good relationship and rapport with Venture Capitalists and authorities, Farith was the Advisor to Venture 2001, which promotes innovative and successful business models among Malaysians.

Farith was the President of TeAM, Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia from 2004 to 2007.  TeAM has been formed by a group of Malaysia Technopreneurs and to assist in the development of the Digital Economy in Malaysia.

He is also a co-founder and current advisor of the New Entrepreneur Forum (NEF) which among other established to promote the development of Bumiputera ICT entrepreneurs or Technopreneurs. He sits on other advisory boards both in the public and private sectors which focus mainly on Industry and Netpreneur development in Malaysia. 

His career began with Commerce International Merchant Bankers (CIMB) in the corporate finance division.  He was a key team member in the Corporate Finance and Capital Market divisions.   He has in-depth knowledge about corporate restructuring, corporate financing and financial re-engineering.

Throughout his career at CIMB, Farith established relationships with various investment bankers, analysts, researchers, venture capitalists and private investors, and was involved in corporate advisory services for Penang Port, agencies under the Ministry of Rural Development and KPJ Healthcare Bhd.

He then moved on to Road Builder (M) Holdings Berhad and was responsible for its business development in property and infrastructure projects.  At Road Builder, he was instrumental in securing numerous privatization projects relating to property and infrastructure.

Prior to joining SKALI as its President, Farith led a team to turn around a local manufacturing company involved in the building materials industry.  In his four-year stint as CEO of this company, he earned valuable experience in managing the day-to-day and hands-on operations of two factories employing 160 employees.

At SKALI, he is also instrumental in the establishment of SKALI's new division and program called SNAP or SKALI Netpreneurs Acceleration Program.   SNAP is an initiative for Asian Netpreneurs to leverage the pool of SKALI's experience, expertise, resources and business networking.  SNAP creates and adds further value for investors, Netpreneurs and communities in general by sharing an in-depth knowledge base and widening the reach of Internet opportunities.

Farith obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada in 1992.