Mercedes-Benz Malaysia (MBM) has named Amanda Zhang as the new CEO & President of Mercedes-Benz Cars Malaysia. Her role includes being Head of the Mercedes-Benz Cars SEA II region which covers Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Zhang, who takes over from Sagree Sardien, was previously with the luxury carmaker’s Central and Europe Cluster as the CEO at Mercedes-Benz Romania overseeing 4 business divisions. During her tenure, Zhang and her team generated significant momentum, achieving a robust double-digit growth in both sales and customer services.
Besides playing a pivotal role in revitalizing the dealer network in the Romanian market, she also effectively implemented the electrification strategy within a demanding market landscape. This experience should be useful in her new role as the Malaysian market is also focussed on electrification.
Over 20 years with Mercedes-Benz
Zhang embarked on her career journey through Daimler’s International Management Associate Programme over 20 years ago. Since then, she has successfully managed intricate international projects, including the notable ‘Journey to China’ which involved relocating all wholesale operations from Hong Kong to Beijing.
After joining Region Europe in 2014, she built up the regional product management and marketing team as well as multiple regional hubs which operations are the foundation of today’s Experience Centre within Region Europe. With her digital expertise, she also successfully ramped up Customer Journey Operations, a Salesforce CRM Hub based in Bucharest for the European markets in the recent year.
“I am truly honoured to take on this new role in Malaysia and SEA II. Having been part of Mercedes-Benz’s remarkable journey in the Central & Eastern Europe Cluster, I am now eager to lead the Mercedes-Benz Malaysia team and join forces with our retail partners to continue our pursuit of excellence for this dynamic and vibrant market. I firmly believe that innovation, customer-centricity, and sustainable growth are the cornerstones of success, and I am committed to fostering a culture that embraces these values at every level of the organisation,” said Zhang.
Fourth foreign female CEO
Zhang would be the fourth foreign female CEO to head a car company in Malaysia. The first was Lena Olving who was MD of the newly established Volvo Car Malaysia in 1998. Her presence was possible as the government had revised the investment conditions which allowed foreign carmakers to have control of their subsidiary.
The change in policy also saw the local auto industry landscape change for the better as foreign carmakers invested more, assured of being able to control their destiny themselves.
It had undergone restructuring after the introduction of the New Economic Policy in the 1970s which saw foreign-owned car companies changing ownership or closing.
Other female heads of local car companies have included Deb Aronson (Ford Malaysia), Madoka Chujo (Honda Malaysia) and Sagree Sardien (Mercedes-Benz Malaysia). Malaysians who have headed car companies have been How Wei Thing (Volvo Car Malaysia) and Belinda Lim (Daihatsu Malaysia) and, of course, the late Datuk Aishah Ahmad was President of the Malaysian Automotive Association for many years.