CHRO Malaysia 2026 gathers top HR leaders in Kuala Lumpur to address the evolving role of talent management, AI integration, and strategic workforce planning amid national economic shifts.

The role of the CHRO has never been more complex – or more consequential.. As organisations in Malaysia grapple with rapid digitalisation, shifting workforce expectations, and mounting pressure to demonstrate business value, HR leaders are being asked to do far more than manage people.. They are being asked to architect the future of their organisations.. It is against this backdrop that CHRO Malaysia 2026 returns from 23 to 25 June at the Sofitel Kuala Lumpur

Damansara.. Organised by HRM Asia, this year’s event carries the theme Leading with Purpose, Powering the Skills Economy – a theme that reflects not just an aspiration, but an urgent strategic reality facing every people leader in the country today.. The three-day event is structured around a central main conference on 24 June, bookended by two specialised full-day workshops.. Rather than offering a broad survey of HR trends, the agenda drills into the intersections that

define the modern CHRO’s mandate: where business strategy meets people data, where AI investment meets workforce readiness, and where organisational culture meets measurable performance.. The conference opens with an Executive Leadership Dialogue on one of the most pressing questions facing HR today: how should CHROs respond when geopolitical uncertainty, ESG mandates, and enterprise risk converge?. Datuk Dr Nora A Manaf, Former Chief Human Capital Officer of Maybank and Board Member of MBSB Group, brings a

board-level perspective to a conversation about elevating the CHRO’s role beyond the people function and into the heart of enterprise strategy.. The afternoon builds on this with a fireside chat on building a data-driven people function, where Rodzal Had, Vice-President, Human Resources and Admin, Honda; and Adrita Datta, Head of Talent, Culture and Inclusion, BAT, will examine how people analytics and predictive AI can move HR from reactive to anticipatory – measuring the ROI of

L&D, improving retention, and informing decisions that used to be made on instinct alone.. A session on total wellbeing strategy widens the lens further.. Nicholas Thooi, Chief People Officer, BonusLink; Toshiharu Sakata, HR Director, ASEAN, SC Johnson; and Christina Chan, Head of People, GXBank, will explore what a genuinely holistic wellbeing strategy looks like in practice – one that addresses not just mental health, but financial resilience and the creeping tool of technostress in an

always-connected workplace.. The day’s interactive roundtables offer attendees the chance to go deep on six of the most debated topics in Malaysian HR today: managing Gen Z expectations, scaling AI fluency through L&D, green skills and the energy transition, skills architecture, ESG talent alignment, and navigating the multigenerational workforce.. These are not panel-style presentations – they are structured conversations designed to surface real challenges and shared solutions from the room itself.. Closing the conference is

a panel on building cultures of high accountability and radical candour – arguably one of the hardest things any organisation tries to do.. Tsu San Tham, Chief People Officer, IJM Corporation; Seow Choon Hui, Head of Group Strategic Human Capital Management, MBMR; Cyril Tan, Head of Organisation Effectiveness, U Mobile; and Shahrizan Aini, Chief Human Resources Officer, SD Guthrie, will tackle what it actually takes to design performance systems that drive genuine ownership, and equip

managers to have the conversations that most organisations avoid.. The final session of the day turns to AI and digital fluency, not as a technology question, but as a strategic workforce imperative.. Anuradha Katyal, Group Chief People Officer, Axiata Group; and Louisa Brady, Group Chief Human Resources Officer, Yinson Holdings, will discuss how CHROs can make the case for AI investment internally, build learning ecosystems that scale rapidly, and leverage government incentives to accelerate digital

skills development across the organisation.. Two workshops that go beyond the conference room Workshop 1 on 23 June – The Strategic HR Analyst: Turning HR Data into a Competitive Advantage – is designed for HR leaders who know data matters but want to move from awareness to fluency.. Participants will work through 20-25 real global case studies presented via dashboards and visualisations, and engage in a hands-on group exercise using actual company data to build

charts, convert raw figures into analytics, and practise deriving decisions from what the data is telling them.. The goal is not technical expertise – it is the confidence to challenge assumptions and drive strategy with evidence.. Workshop 2 on 25 June – The Agentic Organisation: AI Masterclass for CHROs – is facilitated by Amit Kurhekar, Fractional CDO at TransformTechX, who has led AI initiatives delivering over US$100 million in business impact across global enterprises.. The

masterclass takes attendees from understanding AI fundamentals through to developing a 90-day implementation roadmap they can activate in Q3 2026.. Sessions cover ROI analytics, workforce redesign for human-AI collaboration, and the five ethical governance pillars every CHRO must have in place before scaling AI across the organisation.. Why it matters The skills economy is not a future state; it is already reshaping how organisations in Malaysia attract, deploy, and develop talent.. The country’s Budget 2026

signals that national TVET priorities, new social compliance requirements, and the accelerating pace of AI adoption are all converging on the CHRO’s desk at once.. CHRO Malaysia 2026 is designed to support HR leaders not just to keep pace with these shifts, but to lead through them.. Register at https://chroseries.com/country/malaysia/.

CHRO Malaysia 2026, HR business strategy, workforce transformation, AI in HR, talent management, skills economy