Khazanah boss Azman Mokhtar a tough act to follow

Singapore

OF THE many things Azman Mokhtar, boss of Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional, may be, one attribute towers over the rest. He fights a good fight.

In May next year, when the 56-year old is ready to call it quits, he will have stayed in the hot seat of the country's sovereign wealth fund for a spectacular run of five terms (15 years).

That's fortitude in a landscape that would have driven away lesser men who would not have survived the stinging scrutiny, personal jabs and worse still, political meddling and vigorous lobbying by over-achievers eyeing the powerful spot.

"He upset the gravy train for many and made powerful enemies who undermined his great track record," says a veteran banker.

In fact, Mr Azman is one of the last men standing in the same C-suite among the professional managers who were handpicked in the early 2000s to sit atop government-linked companies and push the government's clean-up of government-linked companies (GLCs), many of which were crippled by debt and weak management post-Asian financial crisis, or at best, were dull, lumbering gia…